The Winter Olympics coach with 16 athletes from 13 countries

Eagle-eyed viewers of figure skating may have thought they were seeing double when French coach Benoit Richaud was pictured wearing the jackets of both Canada and Georgia within the space of 15 minutes on Sunday evening.

Richaud, 38, is a coach and choreographer who is working with 16 different skaters at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, with those athletes coming from a total of 13 different countries.

Coaching this combination of athletes from different countries in the same event led to Richaud being caught on camera wearing two different team jackets during the team event final in a short space of time.

He was first pictured in the crowd sporting a jacket of the Georgia national team in support of Nika Egadze.

Less than 15 minutes later, Richaud was again spotted in the crowd – only this time he was wearing a Canada team jacket to support Stephen Gogolev, another one of his athletes.

“It’s an organisation. It’s going to be fast,” Richaud told BBC’s More Than the Score podcast.

“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.

“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?”

There are a lot of logistics involved in switching between coaching and supporting athletes from different nations in quick succession – including the ability to change which jacket Richaud is wearing at quick notice.

“I usually put everything in the dressing room of the skater,” the French choreographer said. “Usually, I’m not allowed but they let me put some stuff [in there]. They 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’s popularity as a coach is no surprise when you look at his track record to date.

As a skater, he won the Junior French Championships while skating in partnership with Elodie Brouiller in 2005-06.

Three years later, Richaud also finished third at senior level at this competition in partnership with Canada’s Terry Findlay.

But it is as a coach and choreographer where Richaud has found more success.

At the 2024 ISU Skating Awards, he was named Best Figure Skater Choreographer, an award he was also shortlisted for in 2025.

While all athletes are representing their own countries, in figure skating they tend to be coached individually rather than per nation.

Richaud is a prime example of this, with his 16 athletes coming from 13 different countries.

Rules allow coaches to work with athletes from multiple different nations, even if they are competing against each other.