Meet the Russian figure skaters of the 2022 Winter Olympics (PHOTOS+VIDEOS)

1. Kamila Valieva

Kamila Valieva, 15, from Kazan, started her training in figure skating at the age of three and a half. However, it was not her only hobby – she also did ballet and gymnastics. At the age of five, her mother asked her to choose one sport, so Kamila focused on skating and never looked back. 

At the age of 12, her parents took her to ‘Sambo-70’ sports school in Moscow, where she was noticed by Eteri Tutberidze (the coach of 2018 Olympic champion Alina Zagitova and world champion Evgenia Medvedeva), who brought the girl into her team.

A year later, in the 2019/20 season, Kamila won the ISU Junior Grand Prix and the world junior championships, becoming the second skater in history to perform a quadruple toe loop at competitions under the auspices of the International Skating Union (ISU) and set a world record for points among union members. 

On December 26, 2021, Kamila won the title of Russian Champion in figure skating among adults and became the first participant for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. 

In her free time, the girl enjoys drawing and taking care of her dog, Leva.

2. Alexandra Trusova

Alexandra is only 17 and the media is already calling her the ‘Quad Queen’. And for good reason – Trusova is the first woman in history to have landed a quadruple Lutz in (ISU JGP 2018) and a quadruple flip (ISU GP Final 2019) in competition. She is also the first woman to land a quadruple toe loop, as well as two quadruple jumps (toe loop and Salchow) in one program in competition (at the ISU World Junior Championships 2018). She has also performed three quadruple jumps (quad Lutz, quad toe, quad toe-triple toe) at the Russian test skates in September 2019 and four quadruple jumps (Lutz, Salchow, two toe loops) at the Japan Open in October 2019. In 2018 and 2019, Alexandra became the world junior champion twice.

Born in Ryazan, the skater has two younger brothers and her father is a master in martial arts. From the age of four, Sasha has been interested in skating.  At first, her parents gave her roller skates, but when they noticed their daughter almost skating on the ceiling, they decided to train her in figure skating. For five years, she skated in Ryazan and then went to Moscow to skate under Eteri Tutberidze.

In October 2021, Sasha injured her leg, but still managed to win the ‘Skate America 2021’ adult Grand-Prix event.

In her free time, Sasha studies English and takes care of her 4 dogs. She spends the rest of her time training and planning to win the Olympics.

“I have always, since I was a little girl, wanted to do something that no one else does. <...> If everyone after me learns to do fours, then I will do fives,” Trusova says.

3. Anna Shcherbakova

Parents of 17-year-old Shcherbakova have nothing to do with sports. Her grandfather is a physics professor, while her mother and father graduated from Moscow University. Her older sister, Inna, started figure skating and, at the same time, decided to send Anya to try the sport, as well.

“I liked it very much and I guess up to seven years I was skating just for fun, not thinking about anything,” Shcherbakova says.

At the first competition in 2012, at the Open Championship of the President of the Federation of Figure Skating in Moscow, Anna took 22nd place out of 29; a year later - she took second place. Then she went under the tutelage of coach Eteri Tutberidze and soon began winning her first medals at city competitions and championships.

In 2017, Anya broke her leg during training; recovery took six months, but, already in 2018, she managed to take gold in the Final of the Cup of Russia-2018 among juniors.

A year later, Shcherbakova moved up to the adult category, in which she also won gold at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm.

In her spare time, Shcherbakova makes rubber band toys, something she learned while recovering from a broken leg. She likes to read books by Soviet science-fiction writers, the Strugatsky brothers and, not so long ago, she decided to take her first parachute jump.