Should Olympic coaches share the nationality of their athletes?

The Olympics aren’t a test of coaching prowess. Fans should want to watch athletes maximizing their potential regardless of where their coach might hail.

Watching Marina Zoueva changing jackets during figure skating competition raised an eyebrow or two. Zoueva, one of the top figure skating coaches in the world at the moment, spent her night during the ice dancing competition shifting allegiances as her various charges took the ice.

It raises the question about whether coaches should be citizens of the countries they coach. What this ignores, however, is the fact that coaching is a full-time profession. So too is competing as a winter sports athlete. While many fans only follow the Olympics, the athletes competing at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang are only temporarily representing their national team.

For most of the year, athletes competing on various World Cup circuits are free agents. While a national flag might be displayed next to their names in the official standings, it is incumbent on the athlete to seek out their own coaching.

When an athlete strives to be the top competitor in their event in the world, it is only natural that they would seek out the best coaching possible. To assert that they should rely on unfamiliar coaches who happen to bear the same passport for the most important fortnight of their careers is ludicrous.

To be the best, you must seek out the best coaching.

Zoueva’s case was extreme, but it is natural for a top-level coach to represent several high-ranking athletes at a given time. This leads to some awkward situations on occasion, but ultimately it all comes down to whether the athletes are comfortable with the situation.

Coaching is not simply a matter of directing an athlete to do something and then sending them out to do it. The relationship between a coach and an athlete takes years to develop, and the synergy is a major factor in success or failure. Building that rapport and that comfort level are as critical as the nuts and bolts of executing in competition.

The athletes we get to watch fighting for Olympic gold in Pyeongchang train for years to get to this point. They do so of their own volition, many eking out an existence for much of the quadrennial between Olympic cycles. Except for those at the very pinnacle of their respective sports, winter pastimes rarely pay the types of salaries we are used to seeing among professional athletes.

The Olympics offer a chance for fans to take pride in their country’s representatives. But it is the individuals in the field of competition that matter most in this equation. Focusing on their coaches and demanding they be compatriots would only serve to dilute the spectacles on offer. (Coaches do receive medals, but they are not official Olympic medals.)

The world tunes into the Olympic Games, whether in the summer or the winter, to see transcendent physical displays. Whoever can best help them train to get to that point of transcendence is inconsequential when it comes time to perform.

Demanding a coach hold citizenship in a particular country would deprive athletes of the best coaching possible. Nationality has always been fluid, both generally and within the spirit of Olympic competition, and athletes aren’t always precious about who they represent either. The last thing we should worry about is how many jackets a skilled trainer like Zoueva decides to wear.

Next: Best Olympian from each state

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