Jean-François Ballester (1 September 1965 – 2 December 2018) was a French

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

coach. He is best known for his work with

Aliona Savchenko Aljona Savchenko (, ''Olena Valentynivna Savchenko''; German Romanization: ''Aljona Sawtschenko'', sometimes ''Aliona Savchenko''; born 19 January 1984) is a retired Ukrainian-born German pair skater. One of the most decorated pair skaters, she ...

Bruno Massot Bruno Massot (born 28 January 1989) is a French-German pair skating coach and former competitor. Competing with Aljona Savchenko for Germany, he is the 2018 Olympic Champion, the 2018 World Champion, a two-time European silver medalist, and t ...

, who won gold at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, 2018 World Championships and 2017–18 Grand Prix Final.

Personal life

Jean-François "Jeff" Ballester was born on 1 September 1965, in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, France. He died on 2 December 2018 in

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

, Switzerland, following a heart attack at his home. His mother and sister have also worked as skating coaches.

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. He coached at ACSEL Caen (France) from 1994 to 2014. He also worked in Switzerland, at CP

and CP

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

. Ballester coached: *

, since Massot was seven years old. * Camille Foucher / Bruno Massot, from 2007 to 2009. *

Daria Popova Daria Popova (born 28 July 1993) is a Russian former competitive pair skater. From 2011 to 2014, she competed with Bruno Massot, winning the 2014 Challenge Cup and the 2012 French national title. The pair finished in the top ten at the 2012 and ...

/ Bruno Massot, from 2011 to 2014. *

/ Bruno Massot (2018 Olympic, World, and Grand Prix Final champions), from 2014. *

Alexandra Herbríková Alexandra Herbríková (born 13 October 1992) is a pair skater who competes with Nicolas Roulet for Switzerland. They are the 2014 NRW Trophy silver medalists and three-time Swiss national champions. Career Herbríková began learning to skate ...

/ Nicolas Roulet, from 2013 to 2017. * Ioulia Chtchetinina / Noah Scherer, from 2015 to 2017. * Ioulia Chtchetinina / Mikhail Akulov, from 2017. * Kevin Aymoz, until 2016. * Nicola Todeschini, from 2017. *

Valtter Virtanen Valtter Virtanen (born 4 June 1987) is a Finnish figure skater. He is a three-time Nordic Figure Skating Championships, Nordic medalist (gold in 2022, silver in 2016, bronze in 2014) and a eight-time Finnish Figure Skating Championships, Finnish n ...

, from 2018. * Laurine Lecavelier, from 2018. *

Miriam Ziegler Miriam Ziegler (born 19 March 1994) is a retired Austrian pair skater. With her skating partner, Severin Kiefer, she is a seven-time Austrian national champion (2014–16, 2018, 2020–22) and represented Austria at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winte ...

Severin Kiefer Severin Kiefer (born 11 October 1990) is a retired Austrian figure skater. He is a ten-time Austrian national pairs champion (2011–13 with Stina Martini; 2014–2016, 2018, and 2020–22 with Miriam Ziegler) and a three-time national bronze ...

, from the summer of 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballester, Jean-Francois 1965 births 2018 deaths French figure skating coaches Sportspeople from Caen