Fabrice Blondel: "We have three chances to win a medal at the Olympics" | Golden Skate

Fabrice Blondel: "We have three chances to win a medal at the Olympics"

Tutto

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I've just come across this interview and thought it worth posting.

www.skate-info-glace.com

Fabrice Blondel : "We have three chances to win a medal at the Olympics."

A l’issue du World Team Trophy, nous avons rencontré Fabrice Blondel, manager de l’équipe de France pour faire un bilan de la saison et évoquer les perspectives de l’année olympique.
www.skate-info-glace.com www.skate-info-glace.com

As Adam fan I rushed to read about him first and found this bit both hilarious and sad in a way:

''Right now, our goal is really for him to rest, one to two weeks of enforced rest''

Poor Adam! :)
 
And I rushed to the part about Kévin, :biggrin: it sounds like the Fed may understand how he works better and like he is pleasing the fed:

Kévin needs to feel good in his personal life, to have overall balance, in order to perform well. His mental coach works a lot on that, and we’ve seen that this arrangement suits him. Indeed, he spends almost half the week training alone, but if that works for him, it works for us too. He’s 27, he knows what he’s doing.
 
el henry said:
And I rushed to the part about Kévin, :biggrin: it sounds like the Fed may understand how he works better and like he is pleasing the fed:

Kévin needs to feel good in his personal life, to have overall balance, in order to perform well. His mental coach works a lot on that, and we’ve seen that this arrangement suits him. Indeed, he spends almost half the week training alone, but if that works for him, it works for us too. He’s 27, he knows what he’s doing.
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Hmm, sometimes I wonder if Silvia is a part of the problem, they are both so emotional, perhaps a calmer personality would suit him better as a coach. Though to watch Silvia at the boards is always fascinating.
 
Tutto said:
Hmm, sometimes I wonder if Silvia is a part of the problem, they are both so emotional, perhaps a calmer personality would suit him better as a coach. Though to watch Silvia at the boards is always fascinating.
Click to expand...
I've seen a video of Silvia crying during Kevin's performance. This was a stellar performance, but the crying coach was weird. If she conveys her emotions to him, this may be a problem.
 
Karoltyna said:
I've seen a video of Silvia crying during Kevin's performance. This was a stellar performance, but the crying coach was weird. If she conveys her emotions to him, this may be a problem.
Click to expand...
I think that this season has been better for Kevin, because he trains half the week in Grenoble with Bonnard and half alone in Lausanne. He just works remotely with Silvia. He goes to Florida to work on his new programs for a week in the summer.
I do think having Francoise always at the boards is helping a lot, too.
 
Karoltyna said:
I've seen a video of Silvia crying during Kevin's performance. This was a stellar performance, but the crying coach was weird. If she conveys her emotions to him, this may be a problem.
Click to expand...

Silvia and Kevin are as tight as can be. She's been with him for 8 seasons and has repeatedly stated he is like a son to her. They're the perfect fit, in my opinion. Birds of a feather flock together. What would be a problem for Kevin is if she didn't convey her emotions since that's exactly what Kevin does. She allows Kevin to be Kevin. As for her crying? She does it all the time, year after year, right along with him. She is his biggest cheerleader. Frankly, I think he's lucky to have a coach he enjoys working with for so many seasons.

I love this moment in the K&C with Silvia, Kevin, and Fabrice.
Even Mark and Belinda are joining in, on air, commentating.

Timestamped. Hit play.

 
Arigato said:
Silvia and Kevin are as tight as can be. She's been with him for 8 seasons and has repeatedly stated he is like a son to her. They're the perfect fit, in my opinion. Birds of a feather flock together. What would be a problem for Kevin is if she didn't convey her emotions since that's exactly what Kevin does. She allows Kevin to be Kevin. As for her crying? She does it all the time, year after year, right along with him. She is his biggest cheerleader. Frankly, I think he's lucky to have a coach he enjoys working with for so many seasons.

I love this moment in the K&C with Silvia, Kevin, and Fabrice.
Even Mark and Belinda are joining in, on air, commentating.

Timestamped. Hit play.

Click to expand...

Part of what makes Kevin so emotionally engaging is that he does not hold his emotions back.

Yes, it can interfere with his competitive mindset because he ends up skating either brilliantly or disastrously. However, I think the fact that he doesn't neutralize his emotions is what makes him special. Silvia is a key part of this. As you said, if she were stoic, he might become more stoic - so the quality of his skating might be still strong but the emotional commitment and projection could become diminished. Kevin is one of those skaters who probably wants to look back at his career and feel like he truly did leave it all out on the ice, even if it didn't always yield the best results competitively. I love that he's a dark horse in every competition, and whether he's skating poorly or lights out, he always commits to his performance and that requires a team who is willing to let him let himself go (and part of that means themselves being more emotionally extra than you'd otherwise see).

Sure he won't be a World Champion like Joubert - but I'll still take Kevin's skating and emotional commitment to his skating ANY day.
 
I have negative feelings about Silvia, stemming from the SafeSport investigation that surrounded Morgan Cipres.

I confess it sometimes bleeds over into my perceptions of Kevin. I think it explains why I've never been a great admirer of his, despite my rational brain knowing that has nothing to do with the way he skates. But she made her choices, and he's made his, and I suppose it's water under the bridge.

I'm generally concerned with his previous mental health issues, but he's really not the style of skater I typically enjoy. Still, I wonder what he could achieve with another coach.
 
Well, let's see. Since I posted the 2023 Worlds video, Kevin got a Free Skate score of 187.41 with one quad. One. Quad. Ilia got a score of 188.06 with 5 quads. Five. Quads. Anyone reading this, no, you are not hallucinating. One quad vs. five. And the score is nearly the same.

I don't think Kevin needs a new coach. The number and how he got it speaks for itself.

Keeping with the French, it amazes me people whine about Benoit Richaud as much as they do, suggesting Adam use a different choreographer, simply because they don't like him. Wait for it . . . they find him "pretentious" since he uses fonts like this:

I N T O T H E D E P T H S


I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. It's not logical to suggest skaters change members of their team simply because one does not like them, knowing full well they play an integral role in the skater's success.
 
B E N O Î T indeed looks pretentious with the capital fonts. :)

He is also a great choreographer for Adam. He fits his sensibility perfectly. (I love some of his work with Bradie Tennell as well). Not every choreographer and skater will mesh, but they do(y)

I don't think Silvia has always been the best fit, as a solo coach , for Kévin. When he started training in Florida, his coaching team was John and Silvia, and they balanced each other out. Excited and not excited. Now that John is no longer coaching (I am not commenting on that, not the purpose of this thread), I think it is good that his previous coach Françoise has taken more of a role. Obviously due in part to Kévin's geographic circumstances, but also returning to the old balance.

I do not think that Kévin will ever leave Silvia altogether. He has a bond with her and it works for him.
 
Arigato said:
Well, let's see. Since I posted the 2023 Worlds video, Kevin got a Free Skate score of 187.41 with one quad. One. Quad. Ilia got a score of 188.06 with 5 quads... One quad vs. five. And the score is nearly the same.

...The number and how he got it speaks for itself.
Click to expand...
Can you explain a little more about the point you are making here?

According to the protocols, Malinin attempted 6 quads, was successful on three (including the Axel), made a slew of mistakes and basically skated like crap. Aymoz was essentially clean with one quad and outpointed Ilia by ten points in PCS.

That's figure skating. Many different ways to rack up points.

At the same event, Shoma Uno attempted 5 quads, got two qs and a <, and won the segment with 196.51. Junhwan Cha did two quads, was basically clean and got second with 196.39. Cha won (narrowly) in TES, Uno in PCS.

Isn't that a textbook example of how the IJS is intended to work?
 
Last edited:
el henry said:
B E N O Î T indeed looks pretentious with the capital fonts. :)
Click to expand...

Wait a minute, how did you do that? I tried many times to post that way but when I hit preview, the software would take all the spaces away that I had in between the letters.
 
Arigato said:
Wait a minute, how did you do that? I tried many times to post that way but when I hit preview, the software would take all the spaces away that I had in between the letters.
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B E N O I T

sorry for the offtopic, I needed to try - it used to work every time but I doubted reading your post

BTW problem with B E N O I T is that it's hit or miss and nothing in between. It works for Adam (and while writing it I'm forgetting the hooded gangsta disaster). It works for Nina Pinzarrone and for Chaeyeon Kim (Throne program was very good), but both Bradie's programs were misses for me. Plus he tends to overdo the panthomime, Adam can get away with it because of his qualitits, but not everyone can.
 
Karoltyna said:
B E N O I T

sorry for the offtopic, I needed to try - it used to work every time but I doubted reading your post

BTW problem with B E N O I T is that it's hit or miss and nothing in between. It works for Adam (and while writing it I'm forgetting the hooded gangsta disaster). It works for Nina Pinzarrone and for Chaeyeon Kim (Throne program was very good), but both Bradie's programs were misses for me. Plus he tends to overdo the panthomime, Adam can get away with it because of his qualitits, but not everyone can.
Click to expand...

I realized what happened. If I type it out myself it works. If I copy and paste the text as I had done in my prior post, for some reason the spacing disappeared.
 
Mathman said:
Can you explain a little more about the point you are making here?

According to the protocols, Malinin attempted 6 quads, was successful on three (including the Axel), made a slew of mistakes and basically skated like crap. Aymoz was essentially clean with one quad and outpointed Ilia by ten points in PCS.

That's figure skating. Many different ways to rack up points.

At the same event, Shoma Uno attempted 5 quads, got two qs and a <, and won the segment with 196.51. Junhwan Cha did two quads, was basically clean and got second with 196.39. Cha won (narrowly) in TES, Uno in PCS.

Isn't that a textbook example of how the IJS is intended to work?
Click to expand...

What I'm getting from the discussion is that if Ilia skates his worst, and Kevin skates his best, Ilia still wins.

Seems an odd thing for a Kevin supporter to celebrate, but whatever.
 
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