Alisa Agafonova is a famous Ukrainian figure skater, who plays for the Turkish national team. Successfully performs at world and continental championships, became the winner of the winter Universiade.
Biographical data
Alisa Agafonova was born in January 1991 in one of the largest Ukrainian cities - Kharkov. The girl came to figure skating at the age of six, when children's trainers Vladimir Leonovich and Larisa Barats drew attention to the preschool girl.
After several years of hard training, Agafonova began to show good results, and by the age of 10 she managed to take third place in the junior championship of Ukraine.
Sports career
Already from a young age, Alisa Agafonova showed an excellent level of artistry on ice. The famous choreographer Lyudmila Filippovna Kurinskova convinced the girl to try herself in ice dancing, and she agreed. Thanks to her bright appearance and charisma, Alice was able to reveal her full talent in this type of figure skating.
The first partner of the Ukrainian athlete was the talented Dmitry Dun. This dance couple was considered the most promising in Ukraine. Alice and Dmitry became the country's champions in their age group, participated in the junior world championships, as well as in the final part of the youth Grand Prix.
In the 2009/10 season, the couple broke up due to a series of unsuccessful performances.
Alisa Agafonova - Turkish national figure skater
After breaking up with Dmitry Dun, the athlete was looking for a new partner. Unfortunately, figure skating in Ukraine is not very popularized, so Alice left for the USA. Here she finally found a new partner - a lone skater Alper Uchar.
Under the leadership of the famous Russian coach Natalya Dubova, the couple playing for Turkey begins to take part in various international competitions.
In 2011, Alisa Agafonova and Alper Uchar become silver medalists of the Winter Universiade in Erzurum. Three years later, the couple got the opportunity to represent Turkey for the first time in figure skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Despite the fact that the Uchar-Agafonov duet took a modest 22nd place at the Games, almost all world experts spoke well of them.
A year after the 2014 Olympics, the dance couple took 12th place in the European Championships and 16th in the world championships. The most successful performance was at the Nestley Cup, where Alisa Agafonova and Alper Uchar became second.
The dance couple started the 2015/16 season with a tournament in the German Nebelhorn, where they took third place in the short program, but ended up in fifth. In October, a duet with excellent results wins such prestigious tournaments as the NRW Trophy and the Denkova-Stavitsky Cup.
Forced relocation to the USA
At the end of 2015, due to the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish conflict, the dance couple Uchar-Agafonov was forced to leave the territory of the Russian Federation, where they trained with Alexander Zhulin. The new place of their residence was Stanford in the United States, where the duo works with new mentors - Agelika Krylova and Pasquale Camerlengo.
With the new program, the pair Alper Uchar - Alisa Agafonova again took 12th place in the continental championship in Bratislava, thereby repeating their best result. Unfortunately, the performance at the World Cup was a failure - the dance duet could not qualify for the free program.
This season, the couple began active preparations for the 2018 Olympics. They take part in the stages of the Grand Prix, showing very decent results. At the tournament in Estonian Tallinn, dancers representing Turkey took fourth place, and at the competition "Ice Stars" in the Belarusian capital became silver medalists.