Alexey Tikhonov is an idol for many figure skating fans . This outstanding Russian skater made a brilliant sports career, won many podiums and won many medals and awards. His professional successes, achievements and personal life will be discussed in this article.
Childhood and youth of the future skater
Alexey Tikhonov was born on 11.11.1971 in the small town of Kuybyshev. The boy hit the ice in early childhood. He was only 5 years old when his parents put him on skates. Then it was difficult to assume that in a completely unsportsmanlike complexion the boy would become a world famous athlete after some time.
Until the age of 14, Alexei Tikhonov mastered the technique of a single skater under the guidance of coach Vera Birbraer. In 1987, the athlete moved from his hometown to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and began to train as a greenhouse with Julia and Ardo Rennik.
Pair Figure Skating Achievements
The first partner on ice for Alexei was Irina Sayfutdinova. In 1989, the couple took part in the World Figure Skating Championships in the junior group and won bronze medals. Unfortunately, a year later the Tikhonov-Sayfutdinov duo broke up.
Skater Alexei Tikhonov moves to the Russian capital. Here, under the guidance of coach V. Zakharov, he begins to ride in tandem with the skater Ekaterina Murogova. Their duet lasted for almost two years, until E. Zakharova married and completed her performance in professional sports.
A suitable partner for the skater could not be found. Therefore, in 1992, Alexei Tikhonov moved to Japan, where he began to perform in tandem with the former skater-loner Y. Kawasaki. The duo twice won the golden podium of the Japanese championships.
In 1994, while on vacation in Russia, Tikhonov became interested in the proposal of T. A. Tarasova to work at her All-Star Ice Theater. In this regard, Alexei Tikhonov decides to leave professional sports. He performed at the Tarasova Theater until 1998. Then the project ceased to exist. The skater had an irresistible desire to return to sport.
Duet Tikhonov-Petrova
In 1996, Alexei Tikhonov suggested riding in a pair of Maria Petrova. This sports duo finally took shape in 1998. Their debut performance at the European Championships immediately became gold-bearing. Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov became the winners of this prestigious tournament. Then they repeated their success many times, conquering sports Olympus at competitions at various levels.
Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov were participants in two Olympics. Unfortunately, there is no Olympic “gold” in the box of their awards. In 2002, at the XIX Winter Olympics, they took sixth place. The main games of the four-year period in 2006 were also unsuccessful for the duo. Petrova and Tikhonov became fifth.
In 2007, the skaters announced their decision to leave the “sport of the highest achievements”. But they did not say goodbye to figure skating and to each other. Their working relationships in sports have grown into personal ones. Not everything was smooth on the path to family happiness, but Maria and Alexey overcame crisis situations in the history of their relationship and are still together.
The subsequent proposals to take part in various television ice shows made it possible for the couple to survive as a sports duet.
Ilya Averbukh invited skaters to the project “Stars on Ice”. Then came the "Ice Age". Alexey Tikhonov and Maria Petrova took part in these interesting ice experiments with pleasure, and fans of the skaters could enjoy their skating again.
Tikhonov and Petrova took part in “Ice Age-2”, as well as in the ice performance-musical “Lights of the Big City”. And Alexey Tikhonov tried himself as a theater actor. He played the main role in the famous play "Abnormal" based on the play by N. Ptushkina. His partner on stage was E. Strizhenova. In 2008, the famous skater starred in the series "Hot Ice".
02/01/2010 a remarkable event happened in the life of Alexei and Maria: they had a daughter. The girl was called Polina. Raising a daughter is not complete without the help of grandmothers, because skaters often go on tour or participate in filming.
While Polina is not involved in sports, like her parents. Maria and Alexei gave their daughter to the choreography club, she is happy to attend the ballet class. World champions believe that Polina can still wait a while with figure skating.
Titles and titles of the skater
The talented Russian skater A. Tikhonov is the "Honored Master of Sports". Together with M. Petrova in 2000 they became world champions. They are two-time European champions, as well as winners of the 2006 championship of the Russian Federation.