Early career 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 turned senior following the 2000–2001 season.
Senior career 2001–2006 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, and finished 14th. 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. 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. 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. Billed by the French media as a top medal contender for the Olympics, He returned to the ice only a few days later He finished 3rd in the long program, but had built up enough of a lead in the short program to win overall, with a then-personal best score of 240.85. French daily evening newspaper
Le Monde and French nationwide daily sports newspaper ''
L'Équipe'' put him on the front page. Although he continued to suffer from fatigue for several weeks afterward, Joubert was able to win his sixth consecutive national title; at that point, he had won ten consecutive events over two seasons. At the
2008 European Championships in January 2008, Joubert earned the bronze medal despite a fall on the triple axel in the short program and mistakes in the long program. In March 2008, he competed at the
2008 World Championships, where he was sixth after the short program but rallied to win the silver medal behind Canadian
Jeffrey Buttle.
2008–2009 season . In the
2008–09 ISU Grand Prix season, Joubert finished 4th at the
Trophée Eric Bompard, then won the
Cup of Russia and qualified for the
Grand Prix Final. He withdrew from the Final before the long program due to a back injury, and withdrew from the
2009 French Championships prior to the event. He replaced his first long program with a new one, the first time he had made such a change in the middle of a season. and finished second in the long program, with a total score high enough to win his third European title. At the
2009 World Championships, he led after the short program, but had problems on some of his jumps in the long program and finished third overall. He then made a coaching change prior to the season ending event, At the end of the season, Joubert discussed his decision to use the older Matrix program: "I knew that this wasn't a program to win or to achieve great results but it is a program I feel comfortable with and I needed it in order to take off next season." On 14 October Joubert was removed from the entry list for Skate America. Some reports indicated that this was a sanction for his withdrawal from the Masters competition, although the French ice skating federation claims that Joubert was withdrawn from the event due to illness. Joubert later withdrew from the Rostelecom Cup due to a back injury. He returned to competition at the
2013 NRW Trophy, where he finished second. At the
2014 French Nationals, Joubert finished second in the short program and first in the long program, winning silver overall. Joubert was 8th at the
2014 European Championships, finishing as the top Frenchman at the event. He competed at the
2014 Winter Olympics, his fourth time at the Olympics. The oldest competitor in the men's event, Joubert was 7th in the short program and 14th in the free skate, finishing 13th overall. He announced his retirement from competitive skating immediately following the free skate, and stated his intention to become a coach.
Post-competitive career In mid-May 2014, Joubert began learning
pair skating in
Caen with
Daria Popova and coach Jean-François Ballester. For several days in June 2014, Joubert worked as a coach in
Kazakhstan together with
Denis Ten and
Alexei Yagudin. From 7 July to 13 July, he trained in Moscow in partnership with
Katarina Gerboldt and coach
Oleg Vasiliev. His mother said it was a test and denied that he intended to compete for Russia. Joubert previously experienced back problems and said his condition would factor in his decision whether to compete in pairs. In November 2014, he confirmed his competitive retirement. In autumn 2014, he participated in the
fifth season of
TF1's
Danse avec les Stars, finishing third. Joubert is studying for a coaching diploma and intends to pursue a career as a skating coach. As part of his degree requirement, he intended to begin coaching in summer 2013 in
Vaujany; however, due to travel problems he was unable to do so. Joubert coaches in
Poitiers. He has worked with the following skaters: •
Romain Ponsart, from autumn 2015 to November 2015 •
Adam Siao Him Fa, from autumn 2017 •
Lea Serna, from January 2019 •
Laurine Lecavelier - Joubert mentored her training for the 2019 European Championships following the death of her coach == Skating technique ==