Arutunian interview post-Skate America 2020

[concorde]

This is second hand information? I assume you were not there. Let me know if I am incorrect.

From the mouth of babes. In this case, the babe was my daughter who witnessed. She was shocked by what he said.

 

[concorde]

This is second hand information? I assume you were not there. Let me know if I am incorrect.

I also watched how he interacted with some of the adult volunteers working the event. Glad I was not one of them.

Lots (but not all) of coaches can be difficult to work with. That is a given when you are the parent of an ice skater. There is a difference between a coach being difficult and one being nasty.

 

[concorde]

Ilia was never "with" Raf, apart from working with him during the summer. I'm not sure we can read much into that since Ilia is still school age and his parents have built a life for themselves in Virginia. I could easily see Ilia transferring out to Irvine after the Beijing Olympics, when he is 17 and Nathan returns to Harvard/is done with competitive skating.

My impression is USFS sent Ilia out to Raf so that he could "fine tune" his JGP programs (kinda like what Frank Carrol used to do).

I suspect Ilia's parent will continue coaching Ilia until he graduates from high school (2023). I would not be surprised if Ilia goes to George Mason Univ. for college so that he can continue to skate at Reston - at least one top skater at that rink chose to do that.

 

[AxelAnnie]

Still no first hand accounts? I would love to know the context.... I am sure we never will.
Let's say Far has Asked darling daughter to stop talking to her friend and DD keeps whispering. Raf gets annoyed. And little mary goes home and says he was so mean to me.



Raf is there to work. And I bet he is not pleased when his students are not.

Oh and American children....the (and their parents} expect a ribbon for just showing up.

 

[concorde]

Still no first hand accounts? I would love to know the context.... I am sure we never will.
Let's say Far has Asked darling daughter to stop talking to her friend and DD keeps whispering. Raf gets annoyed. And little mary goes home and says he was so mean to me.



Raf is there to work. And I bet he is not pleased when his students are not.

Oh and American children....the (and their parents} expect a ribbon for just showing up.

Jump on it Camp 2017. Qualification was based on programs done at Regionals/Sectionals/Nationals - skaters were have a verified double axel or bigger at the Juvenile-Novice level. There were a couple of open slots so a handful of skaters that did not meet the criteria got in but the majority could do a double axel as well as at least one triple.

Daughter has standing near Raf at the time and a male skater attempted to do whatever jump was asked of him - it did not go well. Raf mutters (loud enough that my daughter could hear) about the boy being a crappy skater and should not have been there. That was in 2017 - the meanness of the comment has stuck with me over the years.

He may be a good coach for older/elite skaters but I would not want him coaching a young developing skater.

 

[Willin]

Tbh it sounds bad but I've heard plenty of that from many different parents, coaches, and skaters about other skaters. Not justifying it, I just thought it would be something a lot worse - because I've heard a lot worse.

 

[concorde]

Tbh it sounds bad but I've heard plenty of that from many different parents, coaches, and skaters about other skaters. Not justifying it, I just thought it would be something a lot worse - because I've heard a lot worse.

What surprised me was that it was said at a USFS sponsored event when he should have been censoring his comments.

If it had been said at his home rink, I would have shrugged and thought nothing more about it.