An unlikely star has emerged from the Winter Olympics as the busiest man at Milan-Cortina is not an athlete, but a figure skating coach and choreographer.
Benoit Richaud is a big name in his sport and is influence has been shown off to the world this month by the sheer volume of skaters he works with.
The 38-year-old has been spotted on the coverage from Italy on a regular basis, popping up with different teams and donning their jackets to show his ever-switching allegiance.
In total the Frenchman is working with 16 athletes from 13 different countries at this year’s Winter Olympics, surely making him the busiest man at the Games.
Sometimes the turnaround has been rapid for Richaud, notably on Tuesday he was alongside Georgia’s Nika Egadze on camera, then only minutes later he was wearing a Team Canada jacket and hugging Stephen Gogolev.
He is perfectly within his rights to do so, with Olympics.com stating: ‘Rules allow coaches to work with athletes from multiple nations, even if they are competing against each other.’
Richaud just needs to make sure he is wearing the right jacket at the right time, even if he has to bend a rule to do so.
‘It’s an organisation. It’s going to be fast,’ Richaud told the BBC’s More than the Score podcast.
‘I usually put everything in the dressing room of the skater. Usually, I’m not allowed but they let me put some stuff [in there]. They are 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.’
Richaud pointed out that there is more than just jacket logistics to worry about, with an emotional strain on working with so many competitors at the same time.
‘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,’ he said.
‘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?’
Clearly an extremely popular coach, Richaud explained his approach to figure skating as an art for all to enjoy.
‘Olympics, it’s the grail, the most important, so I want to come with something different,’ he told Olympics.com.
‘I would like to do something bigger for figure skating,” Richaud said. “I will try to bring something deeper and bigger to the audience of figure skating and non-figure skating fans, for everyone. I want to connect skating more to art.’
He added: ‘I will not be satisfied if my work as a choreographer will be only to do choreography.
‘We need to try to bring something higher than just the sports. It has to be almost philosophical. It has to be spiritual.
‘I always try to bring stories. I always try to make people feel an emotion. I always try to catch the attention of different people, not just fans.’