Aliona Savchenko is a figure skating athlete competing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics for Germany.
Career Highlights
Two-time world champions, Three-time European champions (2007-2009)
2009-10 Music
Short Program: "Send in the Clowns" performed by Danny Wright
Free Skate: "Out of Africa" soundtrack by John Barry
Favored for gold until the return of China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy struggled during the fall season, even abandoning their free
Savchenko and Szolkowy easily defended their world title in Los Angeles, beating silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China by 17 points—the spread between second and seventh place was also 17 points. Savchenko and Robin also won their third European title with a nearly identical margin of victory.
Coach Ingo Steuer won the won the bronze medal in the 1998 Nagano Games with partner Mandy Woetzel. Four years later, Mandy tripped and fell chin-first onto the ice during their free skate, and Ingo carried her off the ice—a moment frequently replayed during the Lillehammer Games.
Just prior to the 2006 Olympics, Germany's National Olympic Committee barred coach Ingo Steuer from traveling to Torino with the German delegation based on documents linking him to the Stasi in the 1980s. "I did nothing that would have done any serious harm to anybody," Steuer told the German press. Steuer took his case to court and was allowed to coach Savchenko and Robin in Torino, but it was a major distraction for the young pair. "You should have seen them if we hadn't gone through it," Steuer told reporters in Torino. They've since faced additional legal and political battles surrounding the issue but believe they have passed the major hurdles.
"I think I don't realize yet what we had to overcome," Szolkowy told GoldenSkate in 2007. "My girlfriend sometimes didn't know what to do to cheer me up. Sometime I felt like I was going crazy. I'm glad that the three of us kept it together and we still ended up on the podium. We've won each time we went to court, but you never know, it could have been different."
In 2003, Steuer, searching for a partner for Szolkowy, learned on the internet that Savchenko was also looking for a new partner. She flew to Chemnitz, Germany for a four-week tryout and relocated to Germany soon thereafter. Savchenko, a native of Ukraine, was not expected to receive German citizenship prior to Torino, but Germany fast-tracked her application, and she received her passport about a month prior to the 2006 Games.
Szolkowy, whose father is a doctor in Tanzania, began skating when he was four and switched from singles to pairs when he was 16. He told Bild, a German newspaper, that his father had to return to Tanzania before Szolkowy was born, and the two didn't meet in person until March 2008.
Savchenko was born 15 miles outside of Kiev, Ukraine and received a pair of skates for her fourth birthday—she started skating on a lake—and switched to pairs when she was 13. Savchenko competed in the Salt Lake Games with Stanislav Morozov, who now skates with Tatyana Volosozhar and is coached by Steuer.
Career Highlights
Two-time world champions, Three-time European champions (2007-2009)
2009-10 Music
Short Program: "Send in the Clowns" performed by Danny Wright
Free Skate: "Out of Africa" soundtrack by John Barry
Favored for gold until the return of China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy struggled during the fall season, even abandoning their free
skate and starting from scratch after their first event. They finished third at both the Grand Prix Final and Europeans. When they're on, they can be spectacular—they are the first skaters to earn a perfect 10 in program components for "performance and execution" of the free skate at Skate Canada.
Savchenko and Szolkowy easily defended their world title in Los Angeles, beating silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China by 17 points—the spread between second and seventh place was also 17 points. Savchenko and Robin also won their third European title with a nearly identical margin of victory.
Coach Ingo Steuer won the won the bronze medal in the 1998 Nagano Games with partner Mandy Woetzel. Four years later, Mandy tripped and fell chin-first onto the ice during their free skate, and Ingo carried her off the ice—a moment frequently replayed during the Lillehammer Games.
Just prior to the 2006 Olympics, Germany's National Olympic Committee barred coach Ingo Steuer from traveling to Torino with the German delegation based on documents linking him to the Stasi in the 1980s. "I did nothing that would have done any serious harm to anybody," Steuer told the German press. Steuer took his case to court and was allowed to coach Savchenko and Robin in Torino, but it was a major distraction for the young pair. "You should have seen them if we hadn't gone through it," Steuer told reporters in Torino. They've since faced additional legal and political battles surrounding the issue but believe they have passed the major hurdles.
"I think I don't realize yet what we had to overcome," Szolkowy told GoldenSkate in 2007. "My girlfriend sometimes didn't know what to do to cheer me up. Sometime I felt like I was going crazy. I'm glad that the three of us kept it together and we still ended up on the podium. We've won each time we went to court, but you never know, it could have been different."
In 2003, Steuer, searching for a partner for Szolkowy, learned on the internet that Savchenko was also looking for a new partner. She flew to Chemnitz, Germany for a four-week tryout and relocated to Germany soon thereafter. Savchenko, a native of Ukraine, was not expected to receive German citizenship prior to Torino, but Germany fast-tracked her application, and she received her passport about a month prior to the 2006 Games.
Szolkowy, whose father is a doctor in Tanzania, began skating when he was four and switched from singles to pairs when he was 16. He told Bild, a German newspaper, that his father had to return to Tanzania before Szolkowy was born, and the two didn't meet in person until March 2008.
Savchenko was born 15 miles outside of Kiev, Ukraine and received a pair of skates for her fourth birthday—she started skating on a lake—and switched to pairs when she was 13. Savchenko competed in the Salt Lake Games with Stanislav Morozov, who now skates with Tatyana Volosozhar and is coached by Steuer.
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Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Robin Szolkowy and Aliona Savchenko (left) Aliona Savchenko Pictures
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