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SAN JOSE, California. Rudy Galindo has reached a milestone this season. This is his 30th year as a figure skating coach, starting when he was 20 years old and working to help defray his own competitive skating expenses.

Galindo will take a new step next season. It will be the 25th anniversary of his absolutely unexpected and emotionally convincing triumph in the men's singles at the 1996 American Championships. And let's talk about the alignment of the stars: the nationals of 2021, like those of 1996, are in his hometown of San Jose.

These career benchmarks would seem reason enough for a party or more.

Except that one of the most charismatic skaters in U.S. history has declared that he is no longer a party animal.

When his former partner, 1992 Olympic champion in singles Kristi Yamaguchi, call to ask if he wants to join her in a San Jose Sharks hockey game on a Saturday night, he will answer, I'm in bed by then.

My life is pretty boring, said Galindo laughing. Friends ask me to go out and I say no. They call me a hermit or lonely.

No wonder, given the usual daily schedule outlined by Galindo. He is up at 4 am, coaching from 5 am to 9 am, then lunch, nap and visit to the gymnasium, coaching from 3 to 6 pm, dinner and other visit to the gymnasium to work the meal before 9 pm. lights up in his loft in downtown San Jose.

What do I do for fun? Nothing, he said during the break between his coaching sessions at the Solar4America arena.

I tell Rudy that he needs to enjoy his life, said Laura Galindo-Black, his sister and sole trainer. He became a man at home. Turning all these years, being an artist for thousands of people, it's the opposite now.

Friends like my colleague Jeff Crandell emphasize that Galindo always has a sense of humor that makes him a great companion.

Im happy with regular work and a job that I love so much. I just want to help these kids take it to the next level.

But the fun for Galindo, 50, is now his job, mostly with lower level or beginner skaters, including Yamaguchis' daughter, Emma Hedican.

The relationship between Yamaguchi and Galindo went through a long period of tension when she left pairs to focus on singles after winning senior national titles in pairs with him in 1989 and 1990, a decision that left her ; probably prevented them from participating in the 1992 Olympics. They have gone beyond that story over the years when they saw each other on the professional circuit.

Their lives had been intertwined for so long, including almost two years when Galindo lived with the Yamaguchi family, that ties were never irrevocably broken.

We are still definitely family, said Yamaguchi.

So when Emma showed interest in skating at the age of five, Yamaguchi turned to Galindo. He has been coaching him since 2011.

It is knowing his technique and his passion for teaching, said Yamaguchi. It just made sense. Obviously, I trust him too.

Hedican, 14, who won bronze in the open youth class at the 2019 Central Pacific Regional Championships, has other sporting interests, including club football, rather than a total commitment to skating. had to be part of his elite. And because of the distance, she trains with Galindo only twice a week.

She enjoys her lesson with Rudy, said Yamaguchi. She even said to me, I wish I had the chance to have more lessons with him. It’s when it lights up on the ice. It makes them happy and is very positive.

Galindo has also worked with the high end. He choreographed the 2014 Olympian Polina Edmunds programs from 2015 to 2018. This included his short heavenly winner program at Beethovens Moonlight Sonata at the 2016 American Championships, for which he won a nomination as Choreographer of the Year from the Professional Skaters Association.

He also choreographed Alysa Lius programs as an intermediary in 2016 and a novice in 2017. When his free skate novice exceeded 100 points at the Pacific Coast Sectionals, Galindo was amazed.

I thought, Shes going somewhere, said Galindo.

Since then, Lius' journey has taken her to consecutive senior national titles, the first making her the youngest American senior champion in history. This week, she took her to Estonia for her first Junior World Championships, in which she is a title contender, with the Russians Kamila Valieva favorite.

I think she will run Kamila for her money, said Galindo.

Galindo accompanied Liu to the 2017 chapters, but he rarely travels with skaters now. After 30 years as a competitor and itinerant skater, he prefers to stay at home. And, as he is the secondary coach of most of the skaters he works with, Galindo sees no reason for parents to bear the travel costs of two coaches.

Liu will be one of the performers when the San Francisco Skating Club pays tribute to Galindo at its annual fundraising gala on April 4. Kate Wang, whose programs Galindo choreographed this season, when she finished fifth in the junior category at the 2020 American Championships.

Rudy finds it as much fun to work with a beginner as with a champion, said Crandell, Wang's head coach.

Galindo defines himself as a full-service trainer, capable of helping with jumps, pirouettes, footwork and choreography. He is like many of these people near the base of the coaching pyramid, teaching the skills that skaters will later bring to great coaches who get credit for the medals these athletes win.

Sure, I like to build a champion, but for most coaches, it's once in a blue moon, said Galindo. Im happy with regular work and a job that I love so much. I just want to help these kids take it to the next level.

I know I am a good coach. As a secondary coach, you don't have to deal with all the problems, like when they get results that are not good. The blame falls on the head coach.

It is not surprising that Galindo prefers fewer problems in his life. By the time he was 27, despite impressive early success as a skater, he had suffered enough hardships for several lifetimes.

He had been a single skater for several seasons, winning the title of American novice, before embarking simultaneously on a couple career in 1985 with Yamaguchi, who was also a single skater. No American pair has ever had two such technically accomplished individuals: each won a world junior title as well as a national single title; paired, they won the world junior title, two American titles, twice finished fifth at the Senior World Championships and made triple jumps side by side.

The end of their partnership plunged her into a downward spiral that accelerated when she won the 1992 Olympic title (after the 1991 world title), justifying her choice to pursue only one skating discipline.

It's like in a marriage when you divorce and see the other person succeed, said Galindo. They move around and marry a millionaire, and you're still in the trailer park.

In his case, the reference for the trailer park was literal.

Depressed, strapped for cash, struggling with coaches and a dying brother from AIDS-related complications, living with his mother in the East San Jose trailer, still a closed gay athlete, Galindo turned to amphetamines and alcohol as he continued his skating career in singles. After an encouraging fifth at the 1993 national championships, his results continued to worsen: seventh in 1994 and eighth in 1995, after which he stopped training for several months.

One day, when he was riding his bike to work (he couldn't afford a car), he saw a billboard announcing the 1996 American Championships, coming to San Jose to the first time. Galindo realized that he wanted to compete in his hometown, where he felt that the crowd would cheer him on just because he was on the ice.

But I didn't just want that, he said. I wanted to train very hard so that they could encourage more than me by doing a waltz jump (Editor's note: half a revolution).

For several years, he had carried some 20 pounds of extra weight on his 5-foot-6-inch body, in part because of the extra volume and muscle he needed in pairs to safely lift and throw his partner. The weight made his triple jumps very difficult.

The need has become the mother of the Galindos weight loss program. Biking from the trailer to the rink to go to the gym at another rink where he coached, then at home, added up to 12 miles a day, and that helped take the pounds off.

I was so fit, he says.

His sister had relieved some of the financial pressure by coaching him for free and covering other expenses, by jokingly calling himself, Laura's Bank. Yet even with this stability and much better conditioning, no one could have predicted what would happen during the third week of January 1996 at the San Jose Arena.

He came to the competition without having made any significant competition since the previous season. Even at his best, Galindo had long thought that judges were reluctant to give him better marks because he wore exaggerated suits and tons of makeup, but he had never done well enough in singles with seniors to raise serious questions about anti-gay bias.

As a journalist Christine BrennanThe book by Inside Edge, published a few days before the 1996 nationals, Galindo had revealed himself to be gay and had openly discussed his image issues. He also admitted that his capricious behavior around Yamaguchi after the December 1989 death of AIDS-related cancer from their pair coach, Jim Hulick, had contributed to the end of their partnership.

Kristi didn't deserve it, Galindo told Brennan. Now I look back at what an asshole.

Her coach in singles after Hulick, Rick Inglesi, died of AIDS-related causes in 1995. His brother, George, died of AIDS-related causes in 1994. Their father, Jess, died of a heart attack in 1993.

It seemed like all that extra baggage would crush Galindo at the 1996 championships. The exact opposite was the case.

It was his greatest achievement, doing it on his own terms, said Galindo-Black. He was finally skating free and happy.

Yet the short program seemed to reinforce its old fears about the proper credit of judges. Todd Eldredge and Scott Davis, the 1-2 finalists in the general classification in 1995, beat Galindo in the short program, Eldredge rightly, Davis doubtful. The crowd vigorously booed the scores for Galindos.

For free skating, to the music of Swan Lake, Galindo, then 26 years old, had chosen a costume that could not have been more conservative: all black except for fine lines of white piping at the level of the neck and the cuff. That would add to the elegance of what he did on the ice, a flawless 4 1/2 minutes with eight clean triple jumps in a building that roared on each landing and stood like one to clap with 15 seconds remaining in his performance.

It was the most electric moment of the 35 American championships I have traveled.

When Galindo takes pictures from his memory bank of how he felt after skating, he thinks of the trailer park and the bike and the delighted look of his sisters' faces when he came out of the ice.

I was hoping it would be good enough to give me one of three places in the world team, said Galindo. Winning was far from my mind.

Two of the nine judges gave him a perfect 6.0 for the presentation. Two inexplicably placed him behind Eldredge. But seven chose Galindo, making him the oldest American men's champion since 1932 and the first openly gay national champion at the time.

Two months later, Galindo won a bronze medal at the world championships while Eldredge won gold. It suddenly seemed like Galindo would be going to the Olympics with the money to ease the journey to the 1998 Winter Games after getting a place on the lucrative Champions on Ice tour at one time (shortly after the Nancy / Tonya incident) when promoters and television networks threw money at figure skaters.

As he began to prepare for the 1997 season, a friend noted the financial risk he was taking at a time when the longevity of Galindos as a hot product was uncertain. Another concert with Champions on Ice might not happen if it weren't for another great season. He became a pro in September 1996.

I do not regret this decision, he said now. I'm happy with the way things have gone.

That includes his health. Galindo revealed in 2000 that he was HIV positive. Twenty years later, he only needs a medical exam every six months and takes one pill a day to control the virus.

My doctor told me that I will probably die from something else, he said.

Galindo also fell into what he admitted to be alcoholism. He said he had given up alcohol when doctors told him that the amount of wine he drank at home each day was a factor in ulcer in the ulcer ;stomach.

Clean and understated for eight years, he said.

His left hip creaked audibly when he crouched down since hip replacement surgery in 2003.

You love the cat with nine lives. How much do you think you used? I asked Galindo.

Four, he replied with a big laugh.

Galindo skated with champions from 1996 until the tour ended after his 2007 run. His three-song program from Village People, including gay hymns Macho Man and YMCA, became an iconic showstopper.

He did this for the last time at Caesars Palace Salute to the Golden Age of American Skating in 2010. Galindo has not performed in public since.

During the years that we filmed on Champions on Ice, I watched with admiration how he demolished the house night after night, Nancy Kerrigan said when presenting Galindo at the Caesars fair.

He had lived near Laura in Reno, Nevada, for most of the years that he toured or participated in professional events. There was no permanent ice rink in Reno, so he and Laura coached in South Lake Tahoe, California, until the 90-minute ride each way became untenable.

He returned to the Bay Area in 2010, first in Oakland, then in San Jose where he found a lot more coaching work there. He brought Galindo back to the arena, now run by a branch of the San Jose Sharks, where he trained in 1996. There was then an ice cap and four ice caps now, with two more in road.

I have known Rudy since he was little and we love having him here as a coach, said Candy goodson, skating director at Solar4America. He is super reliable and the quality of his work is magnificent.

Galindo also doesn't need an ego to remind people of his accomplishments, which include an induction into the American Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2013. His reward, as his sister said, is for having a small child whom he trains to give him a hug and say: Thank you.

I will be a coach until I die, he said. I will be here in a walker.

As if to foreshadow such a moment, Galindo has been a coach for the past two weeks while he was sitting behind the boards because he is on crutches after having seriously injured his knee during A misstep.

Why not sit still for a while?

What else would i do? he said. I just want to coach.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at the last 11 Olympic Winter Games, is a special contributor to NBCSports.com/figure-skating.

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