Why did Olympic choreographer Benoit Richoud go viral just for changing jackets

Maybe Benoit Richaud will do it Be one of the most visible people at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Not because he’s a star athlete, but because he’s coaching 16 skaters from 13 different countries. Every time someone is on the ice, they stand at the edge of the rink and change their team’s clothes.

Richard became somewhat famous with this move. Olympic viewers began following the French coach’s antics a few days into the Games when they noticed the same skinny bald man sitting next to several different skaters. He always wore the jacket of the team he sat with in “Kiss and Cry,” but his thoughtful, thoughtful expression remained the same. His presence soon spread everywhere.

But, as Ricaud told WIRED Italia, he could have been a bigger presence around the ice. He currently coaches 16 Olympians, but that’s just the number of players who have qualified. “I’m actually training more of them,” he says.

Having such a large roster of athletes to train is not the easiest thing in the world. Yet Richaud makes it look natural. It’s all about planning, he says. Much of his choreographic work must be performed after the World Championships, which are usually held in March. So, from April through July, he has a “big window” to create new choreography. From there, he starts working with the skaters he coaches, assessing where they are at and what they want to do.

Sometimes Richwood’s skaters travel to him, sometimes he travels to them. If he needs to update the choreography, he can do so online. “It’s very useful because today, with the phone and new technologies, we can do much more and much more quickly,” he says. “I get to see almost all of the skaters’ programs every day, and it helps me understand what I need to improve to make the program more effective.”

Training this many athletes comes with many challenges. The first is simply to remember the choreography and details of each skater’s program. The other is the emotional roller coaster ride of watching several performances and then waiting for the athletes’ results.

“It’s difficult,” says Rishaud. “Because you experience these waves of very strong emotions. I had very strong emotions at these Olympics. I had a skater who finished third and then ended up off the podium. And on the other hand, I had another skater, a Canadian, who came here for his first Olympics. He had never skated at the world championships, and he finished fifth, less than one point off the podium.”

It’s hard to imagine Richo not having a favorite player from coaching so many skaters, but he says he doesn’t. He says everyone gets 100%, and being sad for one and happy for the other “balances your feelings.”

“There are times when I cry and times when I feel so much joy inside that I find it difficult to control myself,” says Richaud. “You’re experiencing this emotional peak that we all go through, and I’m just experiencing it very quickly.”

Although he is among the most sought-after coaches in figure skating, the public did not know much about Richoud until these Olympics, when his constant clothing changes brought him into the public eye. While he says his newfound fame is unexpected, he is grateful for the attention it brings to the sport.

Snowboarding isn’t very popular on social media, says Richaud. By spreading it widely, he hopes to attract more attention to this sport, which he describes as “one of the most beautiful sports in the world.”

He’s still amazed that his jackets made him a social media sensation. “I saw the first one And I thought: “Ah, funny.” “Then two, then three, then four,” Ricaud says. “A lot of times they don’t mention me, but they come to me because people send them, literally from all over the world. It feels good and it’s fun, and I’m happy to skate.