The winners were announced tonight at the 53rd Annual PSA Edi Awards ceremony in Chicago. Great Park Ice's Head Coach of High Performance, Rafael Arutyunyan, earned his third PSA Coach of the Year honor (also 2015 and 2016) while this is the second time Vera Arutyunyan and Kanaeva have won the award (each also 2016). Additionally, pairs coaches Todd Sand, Jenni Meno-Sand and Christine Fowler-Binder from Great Park Ice and FivePoint Arena were also nominated for this year's Coach of the Year Award. The pairs coaching trio won the award in 2020.
Rafael Arutyunyan, Vera Arutyunyan and Kanaeva coach numerous skaters at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, Calif., including U.S. Olympians Nathan Chen, Mariah Bell, and Michal Brezina representing Czechia. Chen made history at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games as he became the seventh American Men's Olympic Champion all-time (eighth men's gold medal overall, first since 2010) in figure skating in addition to becoming the first Asian-American man to medal in the event. Todd Sand, Meno-Sand and Fowler-Binder trained 2022 World Champions and Olympic silver medalists Alexa Knierim and Brandon Fraizer. The skaters representing The Rinks and Great Park Ice at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games won a combined four medals, the most by a single skating program in the country.
About The Rinks
The Rinks Development Program launched in 2009, and now consists of eight local hockey and skating facilities throughout Southern California: six ice rinks (Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena, The Rinks - Anaheim ICE, The Rinks - Lakewood ICE, The Rinks - Westminster ICE, The Rinks - Yorba Linda ICE, The Rinks - Poway ICE), as well as two inline facilities (The Rinks - Corona Inline and The Rinks - Irvine Inline). The Rinks offer a variety of hockey and skating programs for participants of all ages and ability levels and are home to thousands of youth and adult hockey players as well as recreational skaters to competitive Olympic figure skaters. Visit
TheRinks.com
for program details, schedules or more information.
About Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena
An affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks, Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena is one of the nation's largest public ice facilities, located at the Orange County Great Park. The facility is a part of a public-private partnership with the Irvine Ice Foundation. The $100 million, 280,000-square-foot facility has four sheets of ice and serves sports-related activities that include youth and adult hockey programs, regional and national tournaments, figure skating, and public skating hours. FivePoint Arena has space to seat 2,500 spectators. The complex includes administrative offices, dressing rooms, training facilities, retail space, and concession space. Great Park Ice is an official practice facility of the Anaheim Ducks. For information, visit
GreatParkIce.com
.
About the Professional Skaters Association (PSA)
The Professional Skaters Association International is the largest figure skating coaches association in the world. The PSA is the official figure skating coaches' education, training, and accreditation program for U.S. Figure Skating and the Ice Sports Industry. It is the largest and most recognized of all figure skating coaches' organizations in the world.
