The Winter Olympics coach with 16 athletes from 13 countriesByJonty ColmanBBC Sport journalistPublished33 minutes agoEagle-eyed viewers of figure skating may have thought they were seeing double when French coach Benoit Richaud was pictured wearing the jackets of both Canada and Georgia within the space of 15 minutes on Sunday evening.Richaud, 38, is a coach and choreographer who is working with 16 different skaters at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, with those athletes coming from a total of 13 different countries.Coaching this combination of athletes from different countries in the same event led to Richaud being caught on camera wearing two different team jackets during the team event final in a short space of time.He was first pictured in the crowd sporting a jacket of the Georgia national team in support of Nika Egadze.Less than 15 minutes later, Richaud was again spotted in the crowd – only this time he was wearing a Canada team jacket to support Stephen Gogolev, another one of his athletes.”It’s an organisation. It’s going to be fast,” Richaud told BBC’s More Than the Score podcast.
“It’s actually very demanding emotionally because, you know, depending on [how it goes]. Let’s imagine everything is fine and beautiful and everyone skates good, very easy.
“If one skates bad, then the other one skates good, you have this peak of emotion that is very difficult to express because it’s something like when you are with your skater, you are fully with them.
“Thank God they are not one after the other one… then it’s very, very difficult.
“People laugh because I’m always wearing black. And now everyone is like, how it’s possible we see Benoit with different colours?”
There are a lot of logistics involved in switching between coaching and supporting athletes from different nations in quick succession – including the ability to change which jacket Richaud is wearing at quick notice.
“I usually put everything in the dressing room of the skater,” the French choreographer stated. “Usually, I’m not allowed but they let me put some stuff [in there]. They very friendly.
“If not, we always have like a team leader or the manager of the national team who keeps the jackets and they give it to me.”
Among Richaud’s skaters also include Spanish athlete Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate, who has become popular at the Olympics due to his performance in tribute to the Minions films.
