Rafael Arutyunyan


Rafael Arutyunyan is an Armenian-American figure skating coach. He has coached in Armenia, Russia and the United States.

Personal life

Arutyunyan was born on July 5, 1957, in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, and studied in Yerevan, Armenian SSR at the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture. Arutyunyan's mother brought him to an ice rink after watching figure skating on television; he was skating regularly in Tbilisi by the age of seven. He is married to a skating coach, Vera, and moved to the United States in 2000. They have a son – a pianist born in the mid-1980s, and a daughter, who is an artist. On July 23, 2019, Arutyunyan and his wife became U.S. citizens.

Coaching career

He coached young skaters in Yerevan from 1976. In the 1980–1981 season, one of his students, Saak Mkhitarian, became the Soviet junior champion and placed 6th at the World Junior Championships. Soviet officials then invited Arutyunyan to Moscow, where he worked on his teaching certification and became an assistant to Tatiana Tarasova.
Around 2000 or 2001, Arutyunyan joined the Ice Castle International Training Center, in Lake Arrowhead, California. In August 2013, he relocated to the East West Ice Palace in Artesia, California. He collaborates with his wife, Vera Arutyunyan, and Nadezda Kanaeva. He moved to Lakewood ICE in Lakewood, California on June 25, 2016. In 2019, he took on the role of Head Coach for Higher Performance Team at Great Park Ice & Fivepoint Arena in Irvine, California.
His current students include:
His former students include: