Rafael Arutyunyan wasn't supposed to be a figure skater.
He was 7 years old, growing up in the Soviet Union, when a neighbor recommended to his mother that he try this new sport that had just come to town.
The Arutyunyans were game, but in the Soviet Union, it wasn't as easy as just signing up for lessons. Rafael had to go through examinations with hundreds of other children, and ultimately wasn't selected.
"The examiners, they didn't take me, because they said, 'Your parents are too short, too small,'" Arutyunyan said. "In those days, figure skating people were taller and their bodies were tall, good-looking, like actors. Now, it's completely changed. The smaller you are, it's good. But those days, they were more looking like dancers. So they didn't take me.
"My father somehow found some connections," he added with a laugh.
Arutyunyan has come a long, long way from nearly being shut out of figure skating. Fifty-eight years later, he's been named one of the 2022 Coaches of the Year by a committee of members from the Professional Skaters Association (PSA) and U.S. Figure Skating. He previously won the award in 2015 and 2016, and accepts it alongside his team members Vera Arutyunyan (his wife) and Nadezda "Nadia" Kanaeva, who also won it in 2016.
For Arutyunyan, it's immensely satisfying to be rewarded for the success he's earned this year, which includes guiding Nathan Chen and Mariah Bell to U.S. titles and Olympic team berths, Chen to an Olympic gold medal, Ilia Malinin to the U.S. silver medal and World Junior championship, and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier to the Olympics and a World championship.
Even more satisfying than winning the award alone is that he earned the award with his team. Back in 2015, when he first won, coaches were nominated individually, but he submitted himself alongside his staff.
He won the award individually in 2015, but with his team in 2016. Now, he says, most coaches include their teams as well.
"I was the first person who said that, and I just put my team with me, and I said, 'I'm not going to get that award by myself. I want to be with my team who was supporting me and supporting the skaters who won, and helped me to win,'" Arutyunyan said. "… nobody works alone. It's a team. It's a factory. That's very cool."
Arutyunyan himself has been a part of some legendary coaching teams.
He started coaching at 18 when he stopped skating competitively. Four years later, one of his students won Soviet Union junior nationals and placed sixth at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships. He's had one of his skaters competing internationally ever since.
That was in 1980.
"It's already 40-something years," he said with a laugh. "What's funny is, when I start to teach Nathan, I was already at 35 years of experience of teaching. I had already several students who were world champions. I think that's why I basically knew what I'm doing."
Arutyunyan worked his way up the coaching ranks in the USSR and Russia, coaching the Russian National Team from 1996-2000 alongside iconic coaches Tatiana Tarasova and Alexei Mishin. He appeared to have the brightest of futures still ahead of him in Russia, but he just couldn't get on board with the Soviet system.
"You have to integrate completely to system, but I just didn't like it," Arutyunyan said. "For me, I wanted to be free [in] what I do, to be free what I'm thinking about figure skating, to be free to make some decisions, to be successful."
But not
too successful.
"I came to U.S. several times, and sometimes I saw Frank Carroll was teaching a 6-year-old girl," he said. "Never could happen in Russia, something like that, because that level coaches, they never get this young [of] kids to teach. Because that level coaches, most of the time, for them, it's more high-level athletes come to them to have some special advice, what to do and where to train. And whenever I saw Frank was teaching that 6-year-old girl, basically, I liked it. That makes you more grounded, to not become such an iconic, special, star coach. I like to be normal, grounded coach, with normal roots. Stay on the ground. Don't fly like an angel or something iconic, something special."
Arutyunyan came to the U.S. in 2000, settling in California, and the rest, as they say, is history. He's coached Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Jeffrey Buttle, Mao Asada, Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon, and treasures his memories with all of them.
But if asked to pick a highlight from his illustrious career, look no further than this past February.
"Nathan was like that perfect timing, perfect result, no-doubt win at the Olympics. Nobody could get even close to him," Arutyunyan said. "Nathan, it was my project, starting when he was 11. I was not looking what they pay, how they pay, what they do. All I wanted them to stay with me and trust me until the end, which they did, and he won with no doubt. It was 11 years work."
Now that he's coached athletes to the highest peaks in the sport, there's not much for Arutyunyan left to accomplish. Instead of trying to keep one-upping himself, he'd like to pay his experience forward and mentor younger coaches looking for guidance.
"I want them to come to me, and I give them advice," Arutyunyan said. "Which way to go, west or east, to get to right shelter, to get to right place. Otherwise, you can get lost in the desert and then die because there's no water, no food, nothing. I know exactly which way to go to not get lost.
"I don't want to bury my experience with me. I want somebody to take it. We'll see. Maybe somebody will show up," he said with a laugh. "That's all I want. I'm a really happy man. I got everything. No! I got more than I wanted. Really, I wanted not that much. I wanted a little bit, but I got a little bit more. Not a little bit. Much more."
