Which skaters are still with their first coach?

So in the US, we really only have Bradie Tennel and Kristy Yamaguchi who have stayed with their original coaches.

katymay said:

I think it was more about the money. Frank demands a large chunk of all endorsement money, Michelle was an adult and I don't think she thought at that point his management was worth the money he was extracting from her earnings. Another one of Frank's more famous students once stated that he felt like he was being bled dry under Frank's coaching contract.

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If that was Michelle's reason, and I heard that story too, I think she was mistaken. Everyone needs a coach, and a father is no substitute. I do remember MK saying she wanted to manage her career herself, that was the official reason.

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katymay said:

So in the US, we really only have Bradie Tennel and Kristy Yamaguchi who have stayed with their original coaches.

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And Brian Boitano, whose coach was Linda Leaver always.

I think Stepanova and Bukin have been with their coaches their entire career.


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katymay said:

So in the US, we really only have Bradie Tennel and Kristy Yamaguchi who have stayed with their original coaches.

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Bradie Tennell, Kristi Yamaguchi, Brian Boitano. Also, Ryan Bradley and Nancy Kerrigan as I mentioned on page 2, post 27.

Ho! Purely by accident, while watching 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and occasionally looking up a skater, I found another one!

Elaine Zayak (U.S. champion 1981 and World Champion 1982) was coached jointly by Peter Burrows and Marylynn Gelderman throughout her amateur and professional career.


ETA: Ho! they keep on coming! Rosalynn Sumners, 3-time US champion, World Champion and '84 Olympic silver medalist, also had one coach for her entire career: Lorraine Borman, who was called the "Wizard of Roz" in her home town of Edmonds, Washington.


A big contrast to the third US lady at those Olympics, Tiffany Chin, who went back and forth from Frank Carroll to John Nicks and had several other coaches (and a reportedly difficult "skating mom" besides). I never realized how beautiful a skater Tiffany was.

An interesting p.s. At '84 Sarajevo, many people were saying about her, "you may be watching the '88 Olympic gold medalist." But alas, Tiffany was 16 in 1984, and in the next couple of years she went through a growth spurt and injury and lost all her jumps. She retired in fall of 1987.

This is an interesting thread. I think in this day and age with the technical facet of figure skating becoming more and more complex, having a coach from the first time a skater starts competing until hopefully they're Olympic competitors is probably unrealistic. As mentioned before, a Brian Orser is not going to take a child just beginning. A Kori Ade who was wonderful bringing Jason up is going to reach a plateau where she can't take the skater further and they need to move on to a jump coach or a presentation coach or whatever. It's either that or the skater has a team of coaches - which is financially challenging. Figure skating is not as "simplistic" (for lack of a better word) than it was when Kristi and Brian Boitano and others were starting to compete.

S/B both had singles coaches before zhuk. But since most people dont start as dancers I think it counts

gordana said:

Mikhail Kolyada has been his entire career with Valentina Chebotareva although received some offers of switching to a more famous coach.

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Oops, it has ended. Kolyada has switched to Mishin.

katymay said:

So in the US, we really only have Bradie Tennel and Kristy Yamaguchi who have stayed with their original coaches.

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Sarah Hughes, Elaine Zayak, Rosalynn Sumners