Brian Joubert

Brian Joubert (born September 20, 1984) is a French figure skater. He is the 2007 World Champion, the 2004 and 2007 European champion, the five time French National champion, and the 2006 Grand Prix champion.

Joubert was born in Poitiers, France to Jean-Michel and Raymonde Joubert. He suffered a life-threatening illness at the age of 11 months, which led to the removal of one kidney. Because of this illness, Joubert chose figure skating over more violent sports that he favored. He began skating at the age of four with his two older sisters. The siblings started out with ice-dancing, but Joubert became fascinated with the jumping aspect of singles skating and switched disciplines.

Joubert has been considered somewhat of a heartthrob in his native country, France. This reputation has been contributed to by Joubert's short relationship with former Miss France, Lætitia Bléger.

Joubert is a sponsor for an association for children with Williams syndrome. In March 2006, Joubert published his biography, Brian Joubert: le feu de la glace, in French.


Coaching Changes
Joubert trained for 15 years with Veronique Guyon because of his desire to remain close to his family in Poitiers. Guyon resigned from her position in the summer of 2003 due to her desire to spend more time with her family. Joubert then started training for the 2003-04 season with Laurent Depouilly, and took on Alexei Yagudin as his 'advisor'. Joubert parted ways with Yagudin because of Yagudin's dislike of Nikolai Morozov, Joubert's choreographer.

Because of a lack of support from his current coach, Joubert fired Depouilly and returned to Guyon for a brief period of time. However, Guyon's demands that Joubert stop working with his mother and that she should get paid by receiving 10% of his prize money from the 2005-06 season caused their relationship to further deteriorate, and Joubert parted ways with Guyon on October 2003. Joubert switched to Andrei Berenzitsev, but as of September 2006, is coached by Jean-Christophe Simond.

Joubert has also received criticism over his association with Didier Gailhaguet, the former head of the French skating organization. However, Joubert credits Gailhaguet as having helped his career enormously.


Career Highlights and Trademarks
In his debut at the 2002 European Championships, Joubert won the bronze medal. In 2004, Joubert became the first Frenchman to become European Champion in 40 years. At his second Olympic Games, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, he finished sixth overall. He has also won the silver medal in the World Championships in 2004 and 2006.

For the 2006-2007 Grand Prix season, Joubert was assigned to compete in Trophée Eric Bompard and Cup of Russia, and placed first in both events. He went on to win the ISU Grand Prix Final in Saint Petersburg. Joubert reclaimed his European title at the 2007 European Figure Skating Championships.

Joubert is known for his strong jumping ability. He has a consistent quadruple salchow and a quadruple toe loop. At the 2006 Cup of Russia competition, Joubert joined an elite group of men's skaters by landing three quadruple jumps--two toe loops and a salchow--in his long program.

Joubert has been criticized for the lack of variety in his spins, but this area has shown a marked improvement because of Joubert's work with Swiss skater Lucinda Ruh starting at the 2005-2006 season.