Jean-François Ballester (1 September 1965 – 2 December 2018) was a French figure skating coach. He is best known for his work with Aliona Savchenko / Bruno Massot, who won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, 2018 World Championships and 2017–18 Grand Prix Final.

Jean-François Ballester
Jean-François Ballester at the 2017 Skate America
Personal information
Alternative names	Jeff Ballester
Country represented	France
Born	(1965-09-01)1 September 1965 Rouen, France
Died	2 December 2018(2018-12-02) (aged 53) La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Skating club	CP La Chaux-de-Fonds CP Biel-Bienne ACSEL Caen
Began skating	c. 1970

Personal life

Jean-François "Jeff"[1][2] Ballester was born on 1 September 1965,[3] in Rouen, France.[4] He died on 2 December 2018 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, following a heart attack at his home.[5][6]

His mother and sister have also worked as skating coaches.[7]

Career

Ballester started learning to skate as a five-year-old and was competing in junior pairs when he decided to retire at age 19.[7] He coached at ACSEL Caen (France) from 1994 to 2014.[7] He also worked in Switzerland, at CP La Chaux-de-Fonds and CP Biel/Bienne.[8]

Ballester coached:

• Bruno Massot, since Massot was seven years old.[7]
• Camille Foucher / Bruno Massot, from 2007 to 2009.[9]
• Daria Popova / Bruno Massot, from 2011 to 2014.[10]
• Aliona Savchenko / Bruno Massot (2018 Olympic, World, and Grand Prix Final champions), from 2014.[11][12][13]
• Alexandra Herbríková / Nicolas Roulet, from 2013 to 2017.[14]
• Ioulia Chtchetinina / Noah Scherer, from 2015 to 2017.[15]
• Ioulia Chtchetinina / Mikhail Akulov, from 2017.[16]
• Kevin Aymoz, until 2016.[17]
• Nicola Todeschini, from 2017.[18]
• Valtter Virtanen, from 2018.[19]
• Laurine Lecavelier, from 2018.[20]
• Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer, from the summer of 2018.[21]

References

На других языках

[ru] Балестр, Жан-Франсуа