Today the couple Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin are one of the most beautiful professional pairs in figure skating. How did the guys find each other, what are their current successes?
Figure skater Elena Ilyinykh
A native of Kazakhstan, Elena was born in 1994. Her ice saga began at the age of four, when her grandmother brought little Lena to the health group. The group’s coach noticed the girl’s innate gift for figure skating and advised her to take this sport seriously. So Elena Ilinykh got into a special figure skating school with a professional coach Maleeva, then with Dubinsky. She showed remarkable abilities in single skating, dreaming of ice dancing.
Duet of Ilyins and Katsalapov
In 2005, they selected a partner Nikita Katsalapov for Elena. They worked together, perfecting sportsmanship, but after a couple of years Nikita found another partner, and Lena lost the opportunity to pursue a career.
Moving the family to America has opened up new opportunities for the skater. She went through an invaluable skating school with the great duo Shpilband and Zueva.
Returning to Russia, Elena Ilinykh again paired up with Katsalapov. The guys achieve dizzying successes, step by step moving towards participation in the Olympics. And finally, the most important victory - gold at the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 in free skating!
But after the Olympics, something happened. Not quite successful performance of the couple at the championship in the Middle Kingdom was the beginning of the end of their collaboration. Elena accidentally found out that Ruslan secretly picks up another partner. Such treacherous behavior of a partner cannot but unsettle, and the failure of the duet at the last performance is quite explainable.
The birth of a new duet
Nikita Katsalapov not only betrayed his partner with whom he skated for more than seven years, but also broke another pair - Zhiganshin and Sinitsina. He began to ride with Victoria Sinitsina. Again, Elena Ilinykh was left without a partner, Zhiganshin - without a partner. Then the guys tried to ride together. They say: "There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped." After several trainings, Elena and Ruslan realized that they fit together perfectly and would be able to achieve decent results. Their coaches E. Kustarova and S. Alekseev, no doubt, believed in the guys.
Successes and victories of “remodelers”
Great work has begun. Skaters spent a lot of time on ice and in the choreography room. The Spaniard Antonio Naharro posed them a short program, and Ilya Averbukh, an arbitrary one. The result of many days of training was the entrance to the championship of Russia, where the guys won a gold medal.
Ahead was the European and World Championships. It was necessary to refine the free dance, the performance of which left much to be desired. Thanks to hard work and persistent progress towards the goal, all the shortcomings were eliminated. The pair performed well at the championships, but did not reach the prize places. At the European Championships, Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin took an offensive fourth place, and only seventh at the World Championships.
The 2015-2016 season ended unexpectedly quickly for the guys. At the qualifying championship of Russia, they took 4th place, which did not allow them to participate in the European championship. But Elena and Ruslan are not a couple that can arrange a mediocre result. To increase their skill level, they decide to go on an internship in America to the famous coach Igor Shpilband. This person is subject to the miracle of turning ordinary skaters into champions, although Elena and Ruslan cannot be called ordinary.
Such internships are not free. There were sponsors willing to invest in this couple. This means that people believe in the great future of athletes, and this, of course, gives confidence and strength to the Ilyins and Zhiganshin. I would like to think that this three-month internship abroad will help to reveal to the couple its best sides and achieve victory.