MILAN — He raised up the Quad King. He refined the jump that defined the Quad God.
From a sprawling ice facility in Irvine, Rafael Arutyunyan could just be the “Quad Maker.”
The 68-year-old figure skating coach is renowned as one of the best technicians in the world. He trained Olympic champion Nathan Chen starting when the “Quad King” was 10 years old. Four years after Chen became the first U.S. man to win singles Olympic gold since 2010, Arutyunyan could have a second consecutive pupil on top of the Olympic podium.
Ilia Malinin, who has worked with Arutyunyan part time since 2021, is the only person in the world to land a quad axel and is the overwhelming favorite for men’s gold at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.
The walls in Arutyunyan’s office at Irvine’s Great Park Ice, where he is the head coach of the high performance team, are plastered with photos of stars including Chen, Michelle Kwan, Adam Rippon and Ashley Wagner. They each came to his door with dreams of perfecting their performances, making it to the Olympics or, in some cases, revolutionizing the sport. They scribbled messages over their pictures saying: “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Rafael is more like the dream maker,” said Rippon, the 2016 U.S. champion and 2018 Olympic team bronze medalist. “… Rafael is able to take each of his students’ individual goals on a case-by-case basis, and he’s able to help the athletes go after whatever that goal is they’re trying to achieve.”
Malinin came with a lofty goal. Even his father Roman Skornikov — an Olympian for Uzbekistan who coaches his son with his wife, Tatiana Malinina — thought the idea of doing four-and-a-half revolutions in one jump was crazy.
Arytyunyan assured him Malinin could do the quad axel.
The coach of nearly 50 years just looked at the 5-foot-9 Malinin and could tell. It was his slender body type, natural athleticism and strong technique that made Arutyunyan know the jump many thought was impossible could be done. They discussed small technical tweaks to Malinin’s entry. A short two to three months later, Malinin, who trains primarily with his parents in his native Virginia, sent a video of him landing the quad axel in practice.
“The way he explains is really good. And he explains in like, metaphors and analogies that you’re surprised to hear,” said Malinin, who debuted the quad axel in 2022 when he was 17. “They work really well because it helps you get a different perspective on a technique or how he explains.”
Arutyunyan instructed Malinin to think of himself as a slingshot while approaching his jumps. Skaters know to gain power from deep edges that carve circles into the ice, but Artutyunyan describes it like a person riding a motorcycle: The rider tilts side to side just like a skater’s blade glides over the ice. Over time as he gets more familiar with a skater, Arutyunyan communicates through hand signals to show how their blades are interacting with the ice. Learning to manipulate the blade with Arutyunyan made Rippon feel as if he truly learned how to skate.
“He is a genius,” said Mariah Bell, a 2022 Olympian and U.S. champion.
With the exception of Chen, many of Arutyunyan’s students came to him later in their careers. It takes a special eye and tenacity for a coach to rewire decades of bad habits, Bell said.
Arutyunyan loves it.
“I am emergency room for skaters,” he said. “Many people comes to me as emergency and I start to fix it.”
Arutyunyan is equipped to solve the most dire skating situations because after nearly 50 years as a coach, he’s seen it all already. Arutyunyan, who began coaching in his native Armenia, was first trained in the Soviet style that relied on biomechanics and physiology to unlock efficient jumping techniques. European and American teachings focused more on compulsory figures, the basic patterns skaters would trace across the ice that give the sport its name.
Arutyunyan, who came to the United States in 2000 from Russia, blended both into a signature style that has top skaters traveling from all corners of the globe seeking his help.
“Why I think he’s one of the best coaches in the world,” Rippon said, “is that he’s never not learning.”
After a promising juniors career in which he was named junior national champion in 2015 and competed at the 2020 world junior championships, Andrew Torgashev knew he had competitive ability and presentation. But wanting to step up his senior career, Torgashev, 24, knew he needed to tame his wild technique. Performing his programs felt like “going to the casino,” Torgashev said.
“Red or black,” Torgashev said with a smile, “who knows what’s going to happen?”
Since relocating to California from Colorado in 2019, Torgashev, a Florida native whose parents were both elite international figure skaters, reworked every aspect of his skating with Arutyunyan. He was always skating on his toes when he should have been on his heels. They changed his three-turn — one of the first things skaters learn when skating on one foot — to find more power. They tinkered with his crossovers and his camel spin.
It took years. Much of it was disheartening.
“I felt like, ‘what’s the point of this? I’m losing jumps, he’s ruining me,’” Torgashev said. “But he always has a method to his madness.”
The method finally yielded results after two years. Injuries kept Torgashev out of competition for two seasons. But he finished second at the 2023 Eastern Sectional Championships and ahead of the 2023 U.S. championships, he was performing his programs more consistently than ever in practice.
After finishing on the podium at U.S. championships in three of the last four years, including two consecutive silver medals, Torgashev will make his Olympic debut in Milan.
“He’s forced me to be very resilient and independent and trust myself, trust what I’ve learned from him, and try to take that with me to competition,” Torgashev said. “I think it’s the best move I made in my life.”
Arutyunyan’s ability to take established, struggling skaters and put them into the podium conversation is how he believes he first started getting respect in the United States. When he emigrated from Russia, he was searching simply for freedom, he said.
He never thought it would turn into a hall of fame career.
Arutyunyan was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in January at the U.S. Championships. At the induction ceremony in St. Louis, Arutyunyan waved toward a packed crowd and bowed his head. He looked forward to the ceremony because it was a chance to see his students again. What thrilled him most was getting to rub elbows with other Hall of Famers such as Brian Boitano, Dorothy Hamill and Scott Hamilton. The Olympic and world champions were Arutyunyan’s idols, he said giddily.
After 50 years of helping skaters achieve their dreams, the man who was always behind the scenes got to live his.
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