MILAN — The funniest thing to Benoit Richaud about going viral for wearing nearly a dozen different countries’ jackets is that the Olympic figure skater choreographer was best known before the Milan Cortina Games for never wearing color at all.
Black is actually Richaud’s thing, and hardcore figure skating fans are more apt to recognize the popular 38-year-old coach in exactly what he wore to the Milano Ice Skating Arena for Monday’s pairs final: black pants, a black cashmere sweater, black boots and a black jacket. To the rest of the world, though, Richaud — who is working with 16 athletes from 13 countries — is best known as the jacket guy. The ever-changing jacket guy, donning all kinds of national color combinations in support of his skaters.
One minute, Richaud is watching France’s Adam Siao Him Fa skate. Next, he’s shrugging off the French colors and putting on Georgia’s to prepare for Nika Egadze to take the ice. Richaud coached three of the final four pairs on Monday night, which included another immediate swap as Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava went back to back with Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (the Georgians won silver and the Germans won bronze).
By now, Richaud has the jacket schedules down perfectly. If he has time, he will go back and change in the skaters lounge. If he has two skaters in a row, he’ll ask a team leader to grab the next jacket and slip it on as soon as he leaves the “kiss and cry” area.
The busiest man at the Olympic Games! 👨💼🧑💼
French coach Benoit Richaud was seen wearing the jackets of multiple nations with different athletes during the figure skating… because he is working with 16 skaters from 13 different countries! 😅🌎 pic.twitter.com/HE2hPgsGg5
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) February 11, 2026
The workload can be exhausting, but — so far — Richaud’s outfit changes have gone off without a hitch.
They’ve also attracted a lot more attention than he thought. As early as last week, for the start of the team skating event, viewers on NBC started posting on social media to ask: Who was the bald guy in so many kiss-and-cry shots? And why was he constantly wearing a different jacket?
“In the skating (world) everyone knows me,” said Richaud, who had already finished up a lengthy interview in French when we talked and has been bombarded all week with media requests. “But I wasn’t prepared for this.”
The idea to break from his all-black uniform and don more than a dozen jackets was simple: it’s the Olympics. Richaud wanted to support his skaters in the biggest event of their lives and to showcase the culture that makes each of them and their respective countries unique.
“We should celebrate our differences,” said Richaud, who had seven individual male skaters, and has collaborated on everything from a “Minions” program, to a science fiction program to a stirring tribute to Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, part of U.S. skater Max Naumov’s program, which honors his parents who were killed last year in a plane crash.
Juggling 16 skaters often means juggling many emotions, going from a skater who just had the best performance of their life to one who failed on the big stage within minutes of each other.
Earlier in the Games, Richaud was consoling one of his skaters, who was so upset he could barely talk and was just crying on Richaud’s shoulder. He then walked back out to the ice and saw Canadian Stephen Gogolev, with whom he also works, still leading the free skate.
“You have all these things you keep deep inside you,” he said. “A few years ago I wasn’t used to this many conflicting emotions. I’d have a big moment and then go take a shower and start to cry without any reason. I realized it was a way to kind of make that emotion go away. It’s a process. I’m more used to it now, having this many skaters and these feelings.”
The Olympic jackets have helped in that regard. A sort of shedding of skin. Richaud has had more skaters at other international competitions, but the stakes have never been this high. When he slips on a new jacket, Richaud looks at his skater and can refocus.
“As soon as they step on the ice, I know they’re going to make something magical and boom, I’m in their world already,” Richaud said. “Having them in front of me makes me reconnect to what they are going to do and switch emotions quickly.”
“There’s a lot of video of me changing jackets, but I also move with my skaters, too. You want to give your everything for them.”
Richaud isn’t sleeping much. He’s too busy. When figure skating wraps up Thursday night, he’s flying the next morning to Paris to pick up his 7-year-old son, Gaspard, and take him to the United States. The plan is to lie on the beach in Miami and, well, there’s no plan beyond that. As someone who choreographs for a living, Richaud wants to move freely and without a schedule for a while.
The jackets won’t make the trip. Richaud plans to give most of them away: to his son, to other kids he knows, to friends of the skaters he coaches. He has his memories and, besides, they will bring other people joy.
Richaud hopes the virality of his presence in Milan reminds people that behind every athlete are teams of people in their corner, who worked and sacrificed, too. A former skater, Richaud started coaching in 2013, working with people in their 70s. Through word of mouth over the next decade, Richaud’s reputation grew to the point he started working with Latvian skater Deniss Vasiljevs.
Now, business is booming, though Richaud only works with skaters he likes. He says otherwise it would inhibit the artistic process, and nothing is more important to him than feeling and connecting with every program.
“I started with nothing, just ideas and a vision to change the sport,” Richaud said. “People work with me because they know I’m not scared. I don’t work to please federations or judges. I want someone who isn’t aware of figure skating who’s watching, I want them to love it.”
That is success. So is pulling for every skater he has to reach their full capability.
“I root for the best,” Richaud said of his very conflicting interests, which are still well within the sport’s rules. “I love all of them so much, and the one who performs the best will be the one on the podium. And that’s why I love this sport.”