Alina Zagitova

At 22 years old, Alina Zagitova has this physical status:

Alina Ilnazovna Zagitova (born 18 May 2002) is a Russian figure skater who represents Russia.

She is the 2018 Olympic champion, the 2019 World champion, the 2018 European champion, 2017–18 Grand Prix Final champion, and the 2018 Russian national champion.

Zagitova also won a silver medal in the team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, representing the Olympic Athletes from Russia team.Earlier in her career, she won gold at the 2017 World Junior Championships and at the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final. At the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final, she became the first junior lady to achieve a total score above the 200 mark.

Zagitova has broken the world record once under the old system and four times under the new system. Zagitova is the first Russian female figure skater who has managed to win Gold at the Olympic Games, World Figure Skating Championships, European Figure Skating Championships and Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.

She is the youngest and second ladies' singles skater, after Yuna Kim, to win gold in all major ISU championship titles including the Junior Grand Prix Series and Final, World Junior Championships, Grand Prix Series and Final, European Championships, World Championships, and Winter Olympic Games.

Early and personal life

Zagitova was born on 18 May 2002 in Izhevsk, Udmurtia. She is the daughter of Leysan Zagitova and Ilnaz Zagitov (ru), an ice hockey coach from Tatarstan, both of them are Volga Tatars. She has a sister, Sabina, who is five years younger than her. She was nameless for a year until her parents decided to name her "Alina" after watching Russian rhythmic gymnast (and fellow Tatar) Alina Kabaeva. She moved to Moscow at age 13 alongside her grandmother, and continues to live with her. Throughout childhood, her hobby was drawing. In an interview with Margarita Mamun, Zagitova indicated that she is apparently a lover of pet animals keeping two exotic chinchillas at her home in Moscow, along with a dog and a cat. She also owns an Akita Inu dog named Masaru, given to her by a Japanese breeder as a gift after the Pyeongchang Olympics. Zagitova identifies as a Muslim.

In June 2020, Zagitova passed the Unified State Exam (USE) and later in August it was announced that she'd entered the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) to pursue a degree in journalism.

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Career

Zagitova began skating lessons as a teenager with Damira Pichugina in Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, where her father, a hockey coach for the Neftyanik club, was a four-year-old. Natalia Antipina began training with the family as they returned to Izhevsk in 2008. She moved to Moscow in 2015 to be mentored by Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov.

After placing 12th in the short program and eighth in the free skate, Zagitova came in ninth at the 2016 Russian Junior Championships, ranking ninth overall and eighth in the free skate.

Zagitova's international debut came in late August 2016 at a 2016–17 ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) tournament in Saint-Gervais-Bains, France; she ranked first in both segments ahead of Kaori Sakamoto. Her overall score at the championship, 194.37 points, was her second best showing by a ladies' single skater on the junior level, behind only Polina Tsurskaya. At her JGP event in Slovenia, Zagitova received the bronze medal, behind Japanese skaters Rika Kihira and Marin Honda. The results qualified her to the 2016-17 JGP Final, held in Marseille in December.

Zagitova also ranked first in both categories and set new junior girls' records in both categories. She was given the gold medal by 207.43 points, 13 points above her coworker and silver medalist Anastasia Gubanova (194.07). She became the first junior lady skater to achieve a total score over the 200 mark in history.

In late December, Zagitova ranked third in the short and second categories of the free at the 2017 Russian Championships, winning the silver medal alongside her training partner, Evgenia Medvedeva. Zagitova received the gold medal at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Istanbul in February 2017.

After the short program at 70.58 points, Zagitova came first in the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei. She also finished first and earned a gold medal in the free program. She set two new world records for junior ladies' free skating, as well as 208.60 points for total figures.

With a score of 218.46, Zagitova started the 2017-18 season by winning the CS Lombardya Trophy for the third time but first in the free. Zagitova was selected to two events, Cup of China and Internationaux de France, in the 2017-18 Grand Prix Season. She was fourth after the short program, but she returned to win the free skate and earned the gold medal overall with a total ranking score of 213.88. After a slump on her triple lutz and several under-rotation deductions, Zagitova finished fifth in the short program at Internationaux de France. However, she came in first in the free skate with a new personal record of 151.34 and took gold. Her success helped her qualify for the 2017–18 Grand Prix Final.

Zagitova set a personal record in the short program, 76.27, and came in second place behind Kaetlyn Osmond in second place in the free skate. Despite two minor mistakes, Zagitova finished first in the free skate and set a new personal record of 223.30, becoming the 2017-18 Grand Prix Final champion. In the absence of her coworker Evgenia Medvedeva, she won the Russian National title, ranking first in both segments for a total score of 233.59 points later that month.

Zagitova finished first at the 2018 Europeans in Moscow, defeating Medvedeva who had been unbeaten for more than two years. Zagitova was selected to the Russian Olympic team the following day (along with Medvedeva and Maria Sotskova).

The ten points Zagitova earned for the first place in the ladies' free skating at the Olympics were enough to lift Olympic Athletes from Russia to a silver medal in the event. She scored 158.08, a new personal record and tying the record for the highest-ever technical score in ladies's team figure skating.

Zagitova skated a clean short program and posted a world record of 82.92, beating Medvedeva's previous record of 81.61. Her final score of 239.07 was a new personal record. Zagitova gained the gold medal in the event at the age of 15 years and 281 days, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions in the sport.

During the 2018 Olympics, The New York Times announced that Zagitova had the most technically challenging program in the history of women's Olympic gold medalists by placing at a base value of 46.1, which was about 25% higher than those of Kristi Yamanski and Tara Lipinski in the 1990s, and more than double that of Dorothy Hamill during the 1970 Olympics. Lipinski had been the first woman to wear a triple loop–triple loop combination in her Olympic program in 1998. By comparison, Zagitova came out the more difficult triple lutz–triple loop combo at the 2018 Olympics.

Zagitova was the only female athlete to complete all of her (eleven) jumps in the second half of the competition in free skating at the 2018 Olympics. This capitalized on the ISU's scoring system, which gives a 10% discount to jumps that were performed on "tired legs." Regardless of where it appeared in the competition, her trio lutz-triple loop was more difficult and higher scoring than those that were similar in terms of scoring. Some commentators sluggishly criticized this scheme, claiming that it contributed to an unbalanced approach, pointing out that the ISU had introduced a 10% bonus in the second half to encourage skaters to spread out their leaps. The ISU introduced a rule after the 2017-18 season — nicknamed by skating enthusiasts "the Zagitova rule" — stating that a skater must perform jumps in both halves of a program, with only allowing three jumping passes to be rewarded with the 10% bonus.

In Milan, Zagitova participated at the 2018 World Championships. She came in second place in the short program, but she came third in the free skate, where she placed seventh. She came in fifth overall, her first defeat in the 2017-1918 season.

The ISU's records were reset at the start of the 2018-19 season, with all world records from before July 2018 becoming historic records. In Oberstdorf, Germany, Zagitova began the season at the 2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. She placed in first place in both the short program and free skate events, winning the gold with a score of 238.43 points. Since the ISU records had been reset, her free skate and mixed scores from this tournament established new world records and remained as such all season. Rika Kihira of Japan was the program's short program record holder.

Zagitova attended her first Grand Prix event of the season, the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki, in early November. She was ranked first in both the short program and the free skate, winning the gold medal by a margin of about 18 points over her compatriot Stanislava Konstantinova. In mid-November, she competed in the 2018 Rostelecom Cup, her second grand prix event of the season. She finished first in both programs and took the gold medal by a margin of about 25 points over her compatriot Sofia Samodurova.

She qualified for the 2018-19 Grand Prix Final, which was predicted to be a close match between Zagitova and Rika Kihira, who had earlier been banned due to visa issues, after Zagitova had to withdraw due to visa problems. Zagitova claimed the silver medal behind Kihira, despite both skaters making mistakes in the free skate – Zagitova "popped" an attempted triple toe loop in her first pairing. "You always want to be first," she said later, "but this is not going to happen every time."

Zagitova finished first in the short program at the 2019 Russian Championships, claiming she was "satisfied with [her] short program today, but there is still room to grow." She did not have a fruitful free skate, breaking twice and having trouble with her choreographic sequence. She finished fifth overall in the free skate and fifth overall; however, she was still eligible for the team because the top three skaters were junior competitors and therefore ineligible for the team; Zagitova finished second out of the senior competitions. Following the sport, she did not speak to the public. For the first time in domestic competition, Zagitova also lost against a senior eligible skater for the first time in domestic competition, placing below Konstantinova.

Despite an under-rotation on her triple loop, Zagitova placed first in the short program at the 2019 European Championships. She did poorly in the free skate, falling once and under-rotating or downgrading the majority of her jumping passes, resulting in her placing fourth overall and second in the free skate, behind Samodurova and less than four points behind Finnish skater Viveca Lindfors. "I'm proud to be in the top three, and the silver medal is also excellent," she said later, but she wanted to do better for myself personally.

Following the European Championships, Zagitova was selected to represent Russia in the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, alongside Samodurova and former training partner Evgenia Medvedeva. Zagitova had a clean skate in the short program, with high GOEs on the jumping elements, as well as her signature triple loop configuration. She had a season-best score of 82.08, more than five points ahead of Kaori Sakamoto, who placed second in second place, and more than 11 points ahead of Rika Kihira, Zagitova's closest competitor for the gold medal. "I'm happy" in the press conference after, she said, "I'm delighted" considering today's agenda. She ran a clean free program for the first time in history after the Nebelhorn Trophy in September 2018, earning a score of 155.42, the highest of the day. After the competition, she was almost thirteen points ahead of the rest of the field, winning her first World title in a dominant manner. Elizabet Tursynbayeva, Zagitova's current training mate, was given the silver medal, while Medvedeva received the bronze medal. In a note published on the official Kremlin website, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Zagitova on her victory shortly after the competition.

Zagitova began the 2019-2021 season at the Japan Open, finishing second, behind her team and training mate Alexandra Trusova, who was instrumental in Team Europe's victory.

Zagitova finished second in the short program, behind training mate Alena Kostornaia, after receiving an edge call on her triple lutz and under-rotating the triple loop in combination with it. She botched an opening triple lutz jump and under-rotated three others, finishing third in the free skate behind Kostornaia and Mariah Bell. She received the silver medal overall, and described the result as having "room to expand." She took fourth place in the NHK Trophy with an invalid single loop in her combination jump with triple flip after struggling to attach the intended triple loop to her Lutz. She did a good job in the free for her third place finish overall, behind Kostornaia and Kihira. Both three of the podium finishers qualified for the Grand Prix Final.

Zagitova skated cleanly and finished second in the short program, behind only Kostornaya, aided by triple Axel mistakes by both Kihira and Trusova. She was less successful in the free skate, crashing on a double Axel and taking several other jumps that were considered underdeveloped or downgraded, finishing fourth in this segment and overall.

Following the Grand Prix Final, Zagitova stopped her season, claiming that she no longer had motivation to compete. She was disqualified from the 2020 Russian Championships and, as a result, did not qualify for berths on the 2020 European Championships. She did not intend to participate in the 2020 World Championships before it was cancelled. However, she remained the reigning world champion despite the fact that the 2020 World Championships were postponed until the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships. As of October 2020, Zagitova's break from competitive figure skating ended until 2021, the earliest. "Olympic champion Alina Zagitova and two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva have not been included in Russia's national team for the 2021-2022 season, putting their hopes of competing in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in jeopardy," the Russian press announced on May 14th.

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