MILAN — If you’ve watched even a small amount of figure skating at the Winter Olympics, you’ve probably seen Benoît Richaud. He’s the tall, slender, bald man sitting next to seemingly every athlete after they compete, when their scores are read aloud.
One moment, he’s next to American Maxim Naumov. The next, he’s with France’s Adam Siao Him Fa. Then, Canadian Stephen Gogolev. Then, Mexican Donovan Carrillo. And all in different national team jackets.
But that’s just the start for Richaud, the choreographer for 16 competitors in Milan — 12 single skaters and four pairs — from 13 countries. No rule prohibits coaches from working with different skaters.
He says he has about 10 jackets he cycles through depending on who is competing. He’ll only need a handful of those Friday when five of his skaters take the ice in the men’s single final.
“I just come with all of (the jackets) and then I make quick changes,” Richaud told NBC News. “The people from the federation or team leaders, they help me and we make quick changes and that’s how it goes. Sometimes it’s quite slow and sometimes it's quite crazy when it’s one after the other one.”
Clockwise from top left: Richaud appears in the kiss and cry zone at the Milan Games with France's Adam Siao Him Fa, Tomas Guarino Sabate of Team Spain, Team Canada and Team Georgia. Getty Images
That will happen when he wears a Mexico top for Carrillo and then immediately switches to one for Japan’s Kao Miura. He’ll later have a mad dash to take off an outfit supporting Georgian skater Nika Egadze before putting on the red, white and blue for Naumov.
Richaud says it’s worth it to showcase his skater’s country.
“I know some coaches want to wear normal clothes. But I think the Olympic Games is a special moment where you also need to cherish the difference of people,” he said. “I think it’s something beautiful. Every different country has different cultures. When I go on the screen, I want to promote that.”
But while he may seem like the most popular man in the sport today, it wasn’t that long ago that he couldn’t find any clients.
A former competitive figure skater from Lyon, France, Richaud never placed higher than seventh in the World Junior Championships. He turned to coaching in 2013 and said he had just one 25-minute session his entire first week, and it “was like that for the first four weeks of work.”
Benoit Richaud performs alongside France's Terra Findlay in Helsinki in 2009. Yuri Kadobnov / AFP via Getty Images file
Richaud slowly started adding clients, but they were far from the Olympians he works with today.
“I didn’t start with high-level (skaters) because I was a nobody,” he said. “My first job was literally working with people who were 70 years old. I started with a grandmother. I was teaching old people how to skate.”
He eventually began working with Deniss Vasiļjevs, a top Latvian skater, at the junior level and through word of mouth and success, his popularity grew. Over the last decade, he’s become one of the world’s most in-demand choreographers.
Richaud credits his fast trajectory to a mindset he doesn’t believe others have.
“I’m not scared. I’m not scared at all,” he said. “It means that I do whatever I want, and I never try to please judges or people. If we want to do a crazy idea, we do it. I always find a way to make things happen.
“One of my big powers is that I do things very differently, and it’s all connected to fear. I want to push our sport forward and change the styles, change the way people think and see figure skating.”
Richaud coaches Bradie Tennell at the 2025 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Canada.International Skating Union via Getty Images
By “people,” Richaud means non-figure-skating fans like his father. He said he’s made it a point of emphasis to make his routines more exciting and draw in those closest to him.
“I lost my dad, and I always think about making him fall in love with skating,” he said. “Nobody cares about skating where I live, and I always think about those people.”
Richaud has five skaters going Friday night with medal aspirations, including Naumov. The 24-year-old from Connecticut lost his parents in a plane crash outside Washington, D.C., last year and nearly quit skating altogether.
Now he’s in the men’s singles final of the Olympics.
Richaud joins Maxim Naumov of Team USA in the 'kiss and cry' zone after competing in men's single skating at the Milan Games on Tuesday.Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
Richaud called Naumov’s perseverance “amazing.”
“He wanted to leave the sport, and now he’s making his dream come true, which was also the dream of his parents,” he said. “There’s something very unique about him. And knowing that he struggled so much, and to be able to do that, I think it’s just pure respect.”
Richaud will speak with Naumov immediately before and after his performance and provide emotional support in the ‘kiss and cry’ area when his score is announced.
Then he’ll run back into the bowels of the arena. He needs a new jacket.
