[April Fool] Stéphane Lambiel moves to Latvia, opens school in Riga

[reut]

You don't say 'no' to offers like this, it's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I definitely wanted to take it. Yesterday I flew to Riga and we signed all the needed paperwork.
This situation will also benefit my Latvian students, Diana Nikitina and Deniss Vasiljevs, who both were recently feeling quite homesick. Also, Deniss graduates this summer and plans to continue his studies at the University of Latvia, at the Faculty of History and Philosophy.
The Skating School of Switzerland will continue to function. Both Anna (Bernauer-Dierking) and Robert (Dierking) will be running it, with the help from Salome (Brunner) and Peter (Grütter) when needed, and I plan to visit at least 2-3 times a month.

http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=articles&id=2018lambieltolatvia

Good luck to Stéphane in his new endeavour, especially with learning Latvian!

 

[seabm7]

Wait a minute, isn't this this April 1?

 

[nimi]

http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=articles&id=2018lambieltolatvia

Good luck to Stéphane in his new endeavour, especially with learning Latvian!

I knew this was an April 1st thing before I clicked the link, but still I couldn't help but click it (unlike with every other April 1st story I've come across on here and elsewhere).
Good job @reut!

 

[clairecloutier]

Hee-hee ... I didn't even click on the Ilinykh/Soloviev or Zagitova threads ... but I fell for this one.

 

[Stephanatic]

You had me all agog on this one! Good job! Like most really good April Fool's jokes, it's believably unbelievable - Stephane has done some wild & crazy things over the years.

(A bit OT and one day early: happy 33rd birthday to Stephane, still the best skater in the world according to Ari Zakarian, Elladj Balde & me!!)

 

[berthesghost]

This. Zag retires. Bradie changes coaches. I hate 4/1 pranks but ya gotta admit, each of these could have absolutely been true. In fact, don’t hold your breath that they won’t be someday soon.

 

[reut]

(A bit OT and one day early: happy 33rd birthday to Stephane, still the best skater in the world according to Ari Zakarian, Elladj Balde & me!!)

And according to me too. Happy birthday to him, he had an incredible year, may the next one be even better!

Like most really good April Fool's jokes, it's believably unbelievable - Stephane has done some wild & crazy things over the years.

Thanks for "really good", not all fans thought that way, some had very dramatic reactions. And, yeah, I agree, his "real" news sometimes sounded much crazier (and, by the way, I truly believe he deserved some sign of honor from Latvian skating association, they didn't have Latvian single skaters at Olympics for years).

 

[lala]

My first reaction was "WOW"!