Brian Joubert

Brian Joubert (born 20 September 1984) is a French figure skating coach and former competitor.

His first major international competition was the 2000 World Junior Championships, where he placed 15th.

Joubert turned senior following the 2000–2001 season.

The following season, he placed 4th at both his junior Grand Prix assignments, and later finished 14th at senior nationals, and failed to qualify for the French team for 2001 Junior Worlds.

The president of the French Ice Sports Federation, Didier Gailhaguet, entered Joubert in the 2001 Top Jump competition, where he placed second.

Joubert made his international senior debut at the 2001 Skate America, where he placed 9th.

At French Nationals, he won the bronze medal, qualifying him for the 2002 European Championships.

At the Europeans, Joubert surprised many by winning the bronze medal, which earned him a spot on the 2002 Olympic team.

He rose one spot to 13th at the 2002 World Championships the following month.

Joubert improved upon his debut season in 2002–2003.

Following the withdrawal of Alexei Yagudin from 2002 Skate America due to a hip injury, Joubert won the event; it was his first international title.

Combined with a fifth-place finish at the 2002 Trophée Lalique, he qualified for his first Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, where he won the bronze medal.

Joubert also won the French national championships that season, the first of six consecutive titles.

On the domestic level, he is an eight-time (2003–2008, 2011, 2012) French National champion.

In total, he is a six-time World medalist, a ten-time European medalist, and competed in four Winter Olympics for France.

Joubert is one of the four male skaters who achieved a Grand Slam, winning all major international competitions throughout the same season, as well as the first man to land 100 quadruple jumps in international competitions.

Brian Joubert was born in Poitiers, Vienne to Raymonde and Jean-Michel Joubert.

He has two older sisters, Sarah and Alexandra.

He suffered a life-threatening illness at the age of 11 months, which led to the removal of one kidney.

Joubert has been considered a heartthrob in his native country, France.

He was the silver medalist at the 2003 Europeans and placed 6th at the 2003 Worlds.

In the 2003–2004 season, Joubert once again won a medal on the Grand Prix circuit.

This reputation has been contributed by media appearances after his first victory at the 2004 European Championships and silver medal at the World Championships and short relationship with former Miss France, Lætitia Bléger.

He later brought a lawsuit against Bléger for 40,000 Euros for insinuating that he was homosexual and that their relationship was arranged to hide this.

Bléger and two magazines that published her allegations were ordered by a French court to pay a total of 17,000 Euros, and to publish the court ruling in one of the two magazines.

At the 2004 European Championships, he became the first Frenchman to win the event in 40 years and the first non-Russian to win the event since 1996.

He won his first World medal, a silver, at that year's World Championships.

The 2004–2005 season started well for Joubert; he won two Grand Prix medals and was the silver medalist at the 2005 European Championships, but dropped to 6th at the World Championships.

Joubert fought back in 2005-2006, but had inconsistent results: he won two Grand Prix medals but did not qualify for the final, and won the bronze medal at the 2006 Europeans.

In March 2006, Joubert's biography, Brian Joubert: le Feu sur la Glace (Brian Joubert: the fire on ice), was published in French.

Billed by the French media as a top medal contender for the Olympics, Joubert finished a disappointing sixth at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

He is the 2007 World champion, a three-time (2004, 2007 & 2009) European champion, and the 2006–07 Grand Prix Final champion.

Joubert was later involved with Italian figure skater Valentina Marchei but the relationship ended by 2009.

Joubert keeps many pets, which can be seen in television reports about his home life.

He is also known as a motorcycle and car racing enthusiast.

A second book about him, entitled Brian Joubert sur papier glacé (Brian Joubert on glossy paper), was published in February 2010.

Brian Joubert began skating at the age of four, with his sisters.

Although he originally hoped to play hockey, Joubert became fascinated with the jumping aspect of figure skating.

Joubert took part in few international events as a junior.

Joubert was the youngest athlete to represent France at the Salt Lake City games and finished 14th.