The Olympic champion in figure skating, two-time European and world champion, Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation, a deputy of the State Duma and just the most talented person in the world - this is Anton Sikharulidze.
The biography of the Russian athlete who has done so much for his country is the story of his victories and achievements.
The beginning of a career and first successes
An outstanding Russian skater was born in 1976 in St. Petersburg. Anton skated at the age of four! He noticed them from his friend and asked his parents to buy the same for him. Of course, the parents could not refuse and gave his son his first skates: the blade was attached to the felt boots with leather straps. When Anton rode at the flooded stadium, coach Kositsyna noticed him and immediately realized that the boy had real talent. So the boy Anton Sikharulidze got into big sport.
The skater’s biography is the path to success and victory. However, this is due not only to the athlete himself, but also to his parents. They had to make a lot of efforts to get Anton to go to the end and not leave the sport.
At the age of fifteen, the skater was already making notable successes, and the coach decided that it was time to transfer him to pair skating. Anton Sikharulidze was paired with Marina Petrova. Since 1993, this couple became part of the Russian team. And the victories began. In 1994, Anton and Marina won their first gold at the World Junior Championships. Then in 1995 they repeated their success.
Elena the beautiful
A pair of Anton Sikharulidze and Marina Petrova predicted a bright future.
Coach
Tamara Moskvina already saw them as Olympic champions. But fate decreed otherwise.
During one of the stages of the Russian Cup in St. Petersburg, figure skater Anton Sikharulidze met with another successful athlete, Elena Berezhnaya. And fell in love. But Elena rode in a pair with Oleg Shlyakhov. And Oleg did not like the friendship of his partner with Sikharulidze. Shlyakhov was generally a quick-tempered and irritable person, jealous of all friends of the modest and closed Lena. Anton himself called Shlyakhov a monster, since he often shouted at Berezhnaya and even raised his hand at her if something did not work out on the ice.
Anton and Elena made friends, and the girl told Sikharulidze everything, especially about her problems with her partner. The skater persuaded Elena to leave Oleg and ride with him. Sikharulidze even told his trainer that he would only pair with Elena Berezhnaya and no one else. But Berezhnaya still succumbed to the persuasion and threats of Shlyakhov and left with him in Latvia, where she began to prepare for the European Championship.
The tragedy that changed everything
After the departure of Elena Berezhnaya to Latvia, Anton Sikharulidze again began training with Marina Petrova. The pair has already left juniors. Now they were preparing for the national championships and the European Championship. And everything was calm.
But in 1996, a tragedy occurred in Latvia. During the training, performing a rotation, Oleg Shlyakhov hit Elena Berezhnaya with a blade of a ridge on the head. He pierced the skater's temporal bone. The lining of the brain was injured and the speech nerve was affected. Berezhnaya was operated on twice, after which she had to learn again not only to walk, but also to speak. Doctors said that the girl would remain disabled for life. There was no talk of returning to the ice ...
Upon learning of the incident, Anton immediately rushed to Elena. He visited her every day, unlike the culprit of everything that happened Oleg Shlyakhov. Anton left his partner Marina, left the sport and stayed with Elena. Even attempts by coach Moskvina to return him back were unsuccessful. Sikharulidze said that he would return only from Berezhnaya.
The hard way to victory
To return Elena to normal life, Anton Sikharulidze took her to St. Petersburg. There, Berezhnaya was put into the best clinic and they found good doctors. Anton's parents accepted Elena as their own daughter and did not refuse her anything. For eight months, Berezhnaya lived with Sikharulidze. And Elena began to come back to life: she began to walk, talk and smile. And Anton dreamed how they would win their Olympic medal. And he infected Berezhnaya with this idea. So, despite the forecasts of doctors, they stood on the ice.
At first they just rode like everyone else. Then they began to try the simplest elements. Inspired by success, they moved on to the supports. And here Anton was frightened: if Lena hit her head, it could cost her her life. But Berezhnaya was not afraid of anything and was serious.
And a miracle happened! After a couple of months, they went to France for their first competition and won bronze. It is interesting that at that moment the doctors thought, who said that Berezhnaya would never be able to ride!
Hard training and an unshakable belief in victory allowed the skaters to achieve the highest results. In 1998, the couple became the silver medalist of the Nagano Olympics. Anton and Elena were twice recognized as world champions - in 1998 - 99 years. In 2001 they became the second. In their piggy bank there are also two gold medals of the European championships.
But the main victory was the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics . The whole American continent was rooting for the Canadian couple, but our Berezhnaya Elena and Anton Sikharulidze were the best. The photo of this couple on the podium, their gold medal and Olympic victory became a sensation and pride of the whole country and will go down in history forever.
After the Olympics
In 2002, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze moved from amateurs to professionals, where they performed until 2006. And on this major note, the couple decided to leave the sport.
Then Anton Sikharulidze decided to start a political career and joined the United Russia party. And a year later he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the city of St. Petersburg.
However, the famous skater, even after completing his professional career, did not leave ice. He appeared on the first channel in the project "Stars on Ice", where his partner was singer Natalya Ionova (Gluk'OZA). And in the "Ice Age" he rode with the ballerina Anastasia Volochkova.
Personal life
To the disappointment of the fans, Lena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze did not become a couple. After leaving sports, Elena married the skater Stephen Cousins from England, from whom she gave birth to a son and daughter. But with a former partner, they remained best friends. The skater is always aware of what Anton Sikharulidze is doing, who he is dating, and, accordingly, he knows everything about her. Anton was an honored guest at the wedding of Berezhnaya and Cousins. And also the godfather of her first-born Tristan.
Anton in the fall of 2011 married the daughter of the Russian billionaire Yana Lebedeva. But the couple lived together for only two years.
And in the spring of this year, Sikharulidze became a father. He had a son, George. True, nothing is known about the boy’s mother, except that she is not from show business and her name is Victoria.