captain zebra of the philosopher

get ready because here goes:

stéphane lambiel (34) of martigny, switzerland, key coach and handsome figure skating legend 🇨🇭

“I feel really comfortable with Stephane Lambiel as a coach…he is very kind.”

shoma uno with stephane lambiel in the kiss & cry || 2019 COR

+ bonus: 

Thanks to the team of Absolute Skating, we are able to re-watch the fan meeting with Stéphane in Minsk via Facebook live. Of course we recommend watching the entire video. However, here are some highlights:

- During their stay in Minsk, Stéphane was trying to maintain a positive atmosphere for Deniss and Emmi. They went to the city center, had some food (“As you know, Deniss is really into food”) and re-visited places they’ve discovered when they were in Minsk for “Ice Star”. He didn’t like to be in the center of attention as a coach.

- His personal highlight of the week at the Europeans was Emmi’s emergency 2A+Eu+3S combination because he was proud that she managed to quickly switch to Plan B after a mistake. He also enjoyed watching Papadakis/Cizeron (“They’re like very expensive silk”) and Tarasova/Morozov (one of his current favourite pairs, the other pair being Sui/Han).

- On meeting old rivals turned coaches: He sees them as friends and their work motivates him to improve and become a better coach. He expresses a lot of respect.

- On whether Matilda wants to continue skating: They’re currently waiting for the Swedish federation to name their criteria for Worlds. And even if she won’t be send to Worlds (or won’t be competing in bigger ISU events in general), he’d happily support and coach her as long as she wishes to compete. “She’s still scared of succeeding.”

- On Koshiro: His senior debut is the goal for the upcoming season but they want to evaluate the second half of the current season first. It’s also necessary to speak with the Japanese federation about their impression of Koshiro and their plans for him.

- He also talked about his philosophy as a coach. How well he handles working with multiple students, the main problems that are coming with it and how the training in the Skating School is organised. It’s very interesting to hear how he adapts to different learning styles.

- He revealed that he will be with his students at Junior and Senior Worlds. So far, he’s had his schedule planned until Senior Worlds.

- Of course he’s going to be in the cast of “Art on Ice 2019”. His two programs are almost finished. He’ll be skating to “Goodbye my lover” by James Blunt and a song by the band C2C.

- He’s keeping himself in shape with daily off-ice exercises.

- A must-see is Stéphane’s story of how he tried to fix Deniss’ Short Program costume for “Ice Star”. A transcript won’t do justice!