#benoit richaud

[raininyourblackeyes]

my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called clean deniss in both sp and fs 😳 you'll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

me: yeah whatever. i don't feel anything.

5 minutes later: dude i swear figure skating is the greatest sport ever created

my buddy benoit richaud, pacing: i'm going to create something drastic

[alwayshappyhoursomewhere]

Adam Siao Him Fa | Senses/Story of a March day by Cédric Tour, choreography by Benoît Richaud European Championships 2025 Gala

[edgecallskating]

Adam Siao Him Fa x B E N O Î T

[misschino]

Baldman in 3 pic

[roseandsalt]

[ellsey]

B e n o i t jumpscare for you all

[alacants]

i really love fics where there is clearly a fully-realized world underpinning the story but it isn't overexplained—the author relies on you to intuit the necessary background from the information presented in the foreground. i'm therefore about to overexplain the figure skating au to within an inch of its natural life. 

this is tagged role reversal and that was the basic premise—au where jannik is the one from a country with a recent record of success and carlos is from the middle of the fucking wilderness. tennistically skateistically speaking.

fs fans will know that the italian skating federation is right on the border of powerhouse status—it's not quiiiite big 3-4 (russia, canada, us, arguably japan/france) but it's real close. their greatest success hasn't necessarily been in the men's discipline but should a generational talent come along all the elements would be in place to immediately launch him into the stratosphere from the comfort of almost-home. jannik's nearly-lifelong training base—the icelab in bergamo— is only about 100 miles from sexten as the crow flies, just a bit farther than the distance between murcia and villena. the sacrifice is his mother driving him 3 hours there and back on saturdays, then later on boarding in bergamo during the week and going home on the weekends. a small metaphorical price to pay to train at an isu center of excellence from literal childhood.

(so why did it take jannik so long to break through? jump consistency—he lost his jumps after a massive growth spurt and, as the headcase references indicate, even after he got them back he stayed spooked for a long time. the real bergamo legacy is his pure and flawless skating skills, good enough that even the heavily foreshadowed simone-fixing-carlos montage won't be enough to catch up. and he'll still have those skills after his body can't hold up to the jumps any more, just as carlos will still have unmatched performance quality. in a way their late-career competitions are going to be much more interesting than their peak.)

meanwhile, spain. if you don't know much about figure skating i cannot emphasize the extent to which, on the figure skating map, spain is nothing and nowhere. …or was, until out of the blue they produced world champion and olympic bronze medalist javier fernandez. javi falls neatly in between the juanki and carlos generations, so i've split him in two and made juanki the freak pioneer, the one didn't quite beat the structural disadvantage, and carlos the freak protege, the one who will.

juanki… oh juanki. comment referring to him as the local narrative punching bag couldn't be more correct. imagine if irl juanki was exactly the same except born in a country where no one played tennis. this is what it's like to be figure skater juan carlos ferrero, a special talent in an esoteric sport with no resources whatsoever.

the only way juanki would have been able to achieve what he did in the late 90s/early 2000s is to have begun training abroad no later than his mid-teens. you can draw the obvious corollary wrt his family history. something he would have deeply conflicted feelings about, even today, manifesting in a total commitment to his life's mission: a real purpose-built training rink in his part of spain. a mission that is much, MUCH more quixotic than a tennis academy. the most he can dream of is to provide a good environment to learn the fundamentals, help young skaters start competing, bring in guest experts and host training camps and maybe, just maybe, someday, this will help a kid with promise make a real go of figure skating. and then he gets carlos.

right person, right place, right time. carlos is able to launch himself as a competitive junior skater while training in his home country, propelled by juanki's resistance to the idea that the only path to success must be for a child to leave their home and family + learned experience that it's possible to come from a humble skating background and still medal at the top. this is very good for carlos at first. this is less good for carlos later.

namely i think that when carlos first begins to advance there's an element of… idealism? pride? naivete? in how juanki understands his own career, that serves as a early blind spot. like, yes, world bronze, european champion… under the 6.0 system, courtesy of a certain amount of patronization. the judges are happy to reward this obvious talent who may not have the technical chops but has a real feel for the ice, a special quality to his performance… to a point. but that bronze was his ceiling. he was never going to be in the running for gold next. (which doesn't matter, since in 2004 he got the first of several injuries and by 2006 it was all over.) 

20 years later, this is not that different from the judging that lifted carlos to the euro gold. here is an obvious talent performing the skate of a lifetime and landing quads. when the faves flop—casper ruud that was your title for the taking!—you bet he's going to get rewarded. but you only get that shock and awe bump once. (also those quads were sooooo underrotated. his jump technique is Not Good.) afterwards, he's going to suffer from an expectation gap. seventh at the olympics is a much more realistic assessment of the tier he'll find himself in…. unless he makes a big change.

for non-fs fans… it's hard to explain all the factors that influence a supposedly objective score, but suffice to say there are many, many intangibles including but not limited to politicking and packaging. politicking = networking and advocacy on your behalf by your federation and/or coach. a federation like spain has zero power, so it would all come down to the coach. packaging = your combination of music/costume/choreo style, your image on the ice. does it look good and do you sell it well. a coach who hasn't been engaged at the elite senior level for 18 years is going to struggle because what worked in 2003 isn't necessarily going to work in 2022. and part of coaching is understanding what judges want and giving it to them. 

(you know juanki's still resisting the music-with-lyrics rule change so hard. he might understand it but he does NOT like it.)

juanki's a fast learner but he's all on his own out here—trying to coach carlos and teach regular lessons and keep the rink operational. he's doing everything he possibly can to revive all his old skating connections from 2003 and leverage them on carlos' behalf but that's only a drop in the bucket. he could drop all his other obligations and devote himself solely to leveling up as an elite senior coach for carlos, but it still might not be enough, fast enough. and it would kill the rink.

deep down he knows that he should have pushed carlos to make the switch immediately after that breakthrough season. he just resisted it for a long time. he doesn't want carlos to leave! he cares about him so much! how could he not, this magic gift from the fates, the consolation and the reward and the meaning to everything he's worked for over the last 17 years of his life! like. jesus. i am actually making myself feel bad thinking about this but it has to happen and juanki knows it has to happen. carlos fought him for MONTHS before accepting it, and it should go without saying that the major reason he did finally accept it was—in every sense of this word—the carrot. lmao.

(what finally pushed juanki over the line? well, it hurt to see carlos' scores that post-euro season, when he knew what they really could be. he loves carlos. he wants more than anything for carlos to be the skater he has the potential to be. and also oh idk maybe there's a new relationship in his life that's helping him face up to some of these emotional challenges. examines nails.)

juanki's still going to be listed as part of carlos' coaching team, carlos is still going to spend the off-season training in valencia, the odds are good that juanki's going to be the one putting the cry in kiss&cry when milan rolls around. i think the carlos experience does inspire him to commit to high-level coaching and he becomes a fantastic and highly-regarded junior coach, with young skaters from across europe choosing to train with him. the rink in valencia gets a major upgrade and it might not ever be an isu center of excellence but it's a beloved community institution and a source of local pride. HAPPY ENDING!!!!

…got sidetracked there. anyway, the point of this story is: what if jannik was the one who desperately wanted to connect with someone on his level, only he didn't know it. until it happened. 

[sunskate]

Zingas/Kolesnik programs 👀 very surprised by this FD choice- feels like a junior theme though some of this music is very pretty and hits some high moments that are practically made for a big straight line lift - and another MJ program 😔 though they’ll probably do really well with smooth criminal

[raininyourblackeyes]

Benoit literally does not look like a real person to me.

[alwayshappyhoursomewhere]

Adam Siao Him Fa | Senses/Story of a March day (snippet) music by Cédric Tour, choreography by Benoît Richaud [x]

[fsupdates]

Chaeyeon KIM 🇰🇷

SP: Tron : New Legacy OST by Daft Punks (choreo. Benoit Richaud)

FS: Whisperers of the Heart by Karl Hugo, arranged by Hugo Chouinard (choreo. Yeaji Shin)

Her FS music is an original piece specifically written for Chaeyeon by Karl Hugo!

Source / Olympics

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Cup of China medalists 🥰🥰🥰

From Benoit Richaud's Instagram

[roseandsalt]

benoit's head is looking extra shiny today

[austerlitzborodinoleipzig]

Kao MIURA's programs for the upcoming season

SP - Conquest of Spaces, by Woodkid, choreo by Benoit Richaud

FS - Umbrellas of Cherbourg, choreo by Shae-Lynn Bourne

[figureskatingfanblog]

Early 2024-25 Program Announcements

Men

Corey Circelli (ITA) - SP:  “Mon Dieu” by Édith Piaf; choreo by Guillaume Cizeron

Matteo Rizzo (ITA) will be keeping both his programs from last season.

Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) - SP: Dune soundtrack, choreo by Ivan Righini

Jaekun Lee (KOR) - SP: "Movement"; FS: "Archangel" (Crusaders of the Light/Oratio Sanctus); choreo by Misha Ge

Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) - SP: "La Bayadere;" choreo by Vadim Muntagirov

Sena Miyake (JPN) - SP: "LOVE"; choreo by Misha Ge

Rio Nakata (JPN) - SP: "Aroul/Uccen"

Koshiro Shimada (JPN) - SP: ""You're Just Too Good to Be True" by Shawn Mendes; FS: "Danse Macabre"

Sota Yamamoto (JPN) - SP: "Split;" "Postcards from Far Away" by Ezio Bosso; choreo by Benoit Richaud

Kyrylo Marsak (UKR) - SP: To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra; choreo by Monika Lindfors

Joseph Klein (USA) - SP: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Lorde; FS: "Scotland" by the Lumineers mixed with "Northern Attitude" by Noah Kahan & Hosier; choreo by Silvia Fontana; Joseph Klein

Women

Hetty Shi (CAN) - SP: I Will Wait For You (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg); choreo by Misha Ge

Nataly Langerbauer (EST) - SP: "13 Beaches" by Lana del Ray; FS: "No More Fight Left in Me" by Imany; choreo by Rostislav Sinicyn

Niina Petrokina (EST) - SP: “Soldier” by Fleurie & Tommee Profitt; FS: Dune soundtrack by Hans Zimmer; choreo by Mark Pillay

Yuna Aoki - FP: Popsical

Mai Mihara - SP: "Grief" by Tony Ann; choreo by Misha Ge

Rion Sumiyoshi (JPN) - SP: "Un homme qui me plaît" (from Love Is a Funny Thing)

Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) - SP: Dune: Part Two soundtrack by Hans Zimmer; FS: “Nature Boy” by AURORA/Alien: Convenant soundtrack; choreo by Shae-Lynn Bourne

Minsol Kwon (KOR) - SP: James Bond Medley; choreo by Misha Ge

Yelim Kim (KOR) will be keeping her programs from last season.

Yujae Kim (KOR) - FP: Swan Lake; choreo by Misha Ge

Yuseong Kim (KOR) - SP: "Clare de Lune" by Claude Debussy

Young You (KOR) - SP: "Mosaic" (Modern Arabic); choreo by Misha Ge

Starr Andrews (USA) - SP: "Fur Elise" by Faouzia; choreo by Adam Rippon; FS: Selections from the Euphoria soundtrack

Sonja Hilmer (USA) - FP: "You're The First, My Last, My Everything" by Barry White; "Now and Then" by The Beatles; "Electric Energy" by Ariana DeBose, Boy George, and Nile Rodgers from the Argylle soundtrack; choreo by Sonja Hillmer

Mia Kalin (USA) will be keeping her short from the 2023-24 season. FP: Romeo & Juliet

Wren Warne-Jacobson (USA) - SP: "What Was I Made For"(from Barbie) by Billie Eilish; choreo by Kate Charbonneau Shurts

Pairs

Sofiia Holichenko / Artem Darenskiy (UKR) - FP: "Сosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine

Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez (USA)- SP: "Never Enough" by Kelly Clarkson; choreo by Jim Peterson; FP: Dune soundtrack by Hans Zimmer; choreo by Christina Carreira; Anthony Ponomarenko

Anastasia Vapian-Law / Luke Digby (GBR) - FP: "Survivor;" "Gangsta's Paradise"

Ice Dance

Nadiia Bashynska / Peter Beaumont (CAN) - RD: Lady Marmalade/Le Freak

[gogogogolev]

Robert Brodie has done a write up from 2024 Skate Canada International. He leads off with news about Stephen.

#SCI24: Sharp dressed for some success Stephen Gogolev reminded everyone in Halifax of his bountiful talent in the men's short program. And he seems to have found a situation that suits him well. Stephen Gogolev is the mystery man of Canadian skating. Since winning the Junior Grand Prix Final in Vancouver in 2018, he’s long been seen as one of the future hopes of men’s skating in this country. But it’s been a roller-coaster ride in recent years for the Toronto native, with growth spurts, training base changes and, most notably, health issues standing in the way of unleashing his full potential. There have been flashes of his bounty of talents, to be sure — remember, for example, the outstanding long program he put together at 2023 nationals in Oshawa, Ontario? — but the words erratic and inconsistent might better describe the past few years or so of his still young career. But a lot has changed in the past several months, and maybe the 19-year-old (yes, he’s still that young) has finally found his comfort zone to thrive. Gogolev has been settled with Lee Barkell at the Granite Club since June (he previously divided his training between Toronto and California, where he worked with Rafael Arutyunyan) and added French choreographer Benoit Richaud to his coaching team. Add it all up, and we saw the very good side of Gogolev on Saturday in Halifax. With a clean skate that included a quad Salchow and triple Axel, he posted an 82.70 score that landed him in fifth place after the short program. Best of all, he exited the ice with a smile on his face — not the forlorn look of the 2024 Canadian Championships in Calgary, when a flareup of a previous back injury scuttled his short program and forced him to withdraw. While Barkell said there had been “some issues” in dealing with his back during the off-season, all is well for the moment and the decision was made to scale down his programs this week to protect his health (the short program will eventually have two quads. Gogolev has been landing quad loops in practice, and Barkell said either that or the quad toe will be added down the road in the combination. The long will be similarly watered down, with the plan to have three or four quads in it by season’s end). “It’s been kind of on and off,” Gogolev said of his back health. “We took it very carefully leading up to this competition.” Gogolev was all business, you could say, as he glided onto the ice in suit and tie (“It’s actually quite light. It’s really stretchy,” he said when asked what it’s like to skate in such attire). The music for the program — “Mugsy’s Move Medley,” by Eddie Nichols — had a lighter feel to it, especially compared to the dark tones of last season’s “The Sound of Silence,” by Disturbed. “This program is really fun. It’s the short program I’ve enjoyed the most doing in the past couple of years,” he said, adding he’s already halfway to his goal at Skate Canada. “Short and free, clean skates. So I got the first part of that done. Overall, I’m pretty happy and I just wanted to enjoy this experience.” The enthusiastic audience at Scotiabank Centre did its part to make that happen. “There was a lot more people than I expected and it was louder, which was nice to see,” he said. Both his programs this season are Richaud creations, and Gogolev decided he wanted to expand the Frenchman’s role this season. “I work with him as a choreographer and I really like his work ethic and his strategies, and I thought it would be a good idea to add him as a coach.” His score held up at the top of the leaderboard until well into the final group, and he’ll skate in the final flight in Saturday’s free skate. It’s no surprise that World champion Ilia (the Quad God) Malinin of the United States has a commanding lead (106.22), followed by a pair of Japanese, Shun Sato (96.52) and Sota Yamamoto (92.16).

It is concerning to hear that Stephen's back injury issues have not been resolved fully. It appears to be some kind of chronic issue now. If he is able to manage it without increasing his technical difficulty then that is best. He does not need to sacrifice his life long health for a few quads. We will have to put our trust in Lee Barkell regarding this matter.