2022 Coaches of the Year

Rafael Arutyunyan, Vera Arutyunyan, and Nadia Kanaeva

By Kent McDill

The coaching team of Rafael Arutyunyan, Vera Arutyunyan, and Nadia Kanaeva is the recipient of the 2022 PSA/U.S. Figure Skating Coach of the Year award.

This award is presented to an active coach who, along with other criteria, serves as a role model, exemplifies the highest standards of ethical behavior, promotes integrity, has concern for the welfare of others, and has made a significant impact on athlete performances at the highest levels of competition in the senior division.

2022 Olympics: Rafael and gold medalist Nathan Chen.

Melanie Heaney

Rafael Arutyunyan, with more than 45 years of coaching experience, combined with his wife Vera and Kanaeva, work with skaters such as 2022 Olympic Champion (Nathan Chen), U.S. National champion (Mariah Bell), and 2022 World Champion pairs team (Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier).

This coaching team also won the 2016 PSA Coach of the Year award, and Rafael Arutyunyan was named Coach of the Year in 2015.

Rafael told the PSA that, having won the award twice previously, he was motivated to do so again.

Nadia, her son Timur, Rafael, and Vera at the 2022 EDI Awards Dinner

“After winning the first two times in a row, I thought it would be easy to win the award over and over again, but it wasn’t,” Arutyunyan said. “The qualifications to win this award are very high. Not winning over the last few years just made me work harder and harder, even after repeatedly producing a World Champion, Grand Prix event Champion, and creating U.S. National Champions. Honestly I was really trying my very best. I express my gratitude to the committee for motivating me to be so driven to produce the highest of all achievements. I hope everybody is treated the same way so that they are also motivated to keep up the high performance in order to produce more International Champions.”

“I am grateful to the figure skating community for recognizing our achievements, and as a wife I am so happy for my husband,” Vera Arutyunyan said.

Rafael says that he, Vera, and Nadia share all coaching duties, which is why he is so adamant about them being selected together for awards such as this one.

2022 Olympics: Rafael and Mariah Bell

Melanie Heaney

“Edges, jumps, spins, choreography, off ice elements, off ice jumps, strength, conditioning,” Rafael said. “All of us cover everything.”

Kanaeva joined the coaching team after completing her competitive skating at the turn of the century.

“The trust that Rafael and Vera has put in to me, I will always be grateful for,” Kanaeva said. “I feel very blessed to have been a part of Nathan’s growth that led to the Olympic gold medal”

2015 Coach of the Year Recipients

Like everything else in the world, figure skating coaching changed when the pandemic struck in 2020. It is the mark of a champion coach that when they say nothing shall stand in their way, they proved that by succeeding through the isolated and remote period of all of our lives.

However, it came at a time when the Arutyunyan team moved its base of operations to the Great Park Ice facility in Irvine, Calif., which opened in 2019.

2014 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Vicky Luy

“We were just getting settled in when we had to close,” Kanaeva said. “We learned how to benefit from online classes. This also helped keep our team united. After reopening, great care was provided by our figure skating coordinator Jacqui Palmore to keep the ice surfaces and all competitor areas sanitized for all competitors and coaches, especially when leaving for Beijing and the Olympics. We are very proud of all five Olympians from Great Park Ice making it to Beijing healthy.”

2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

“During all of the difficulties, we tried not to stop,” Vera Arutyunyan said. “All of those difficult years, we kept our skating training the same amount of time every day. Yes, there was no ice, but we spent a lot of time with off-ice training outside. This raised the physical abilities of our students a lot, and when the ice opened up, we simply stepped inside and used it.”

Great Park Ice and FivePoint Arena became home not only to the Arutyunyan coaching team, but also the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL as a practice facility. Other famed coaches working out of Great Park are Christine Fowler-Binder, Todd Sand, Jenni Meno-Sand, and Chris Knierim.

2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Vicki Luy

“The owners of Great Park, Henry and Susan Samueli, and vice president Art Trottier did everything they could for me,” Rafael Arutyunyan said. “They allowed the rink to be open for me to train my Olympic-bound skaters for two hours a day. Only training two hours per day allowed us to also rest and have more time to focus on off ice training. There was also no traffic to the rink!

“In light of the pandemic consequences, I also thank our High Performance Coordinator Jacqui Palmore for all she did in keeping me and my Olympians safe and healthy leading up to Beijing,” he said. “That was a very stressful period, and every session, every room, any surface that was touched by us was cleaned during every ice cut, allowing us to skate knowing all that could be done was being done gave us some comfort in the midst of all the stress associated with the pandemic.”

Nadia with son Timur accepted the EDI award on-stage at the 2022 PSA Summit in Chicago, IL.

From Rafael’s reaction to the coaching award, one might have reason to believe this is not his last such honor.

Vera Arutyunyan on-stage to accept her 2022 Coach of the Year EDI award.

“From the bottom of my heart, I am very thankful to the award committee for motivating me over a very hard long six years to consistently deliver repeated results such as U.S. National and World Champions!” he said.

Rafael takes in his team's accomplishment at the 2022 EDI Awards Dinner during the PSA Summit in Chicago.