Albena Denkowa

Albena Denkowa
nation	Bulgaria
birthday	3rd December 1974
place of birth	Sofia
size	165 cm
Career
discipline	Ice dance
Partner	Maxim Stawiski
Former partner	Hristo Nikolow
Trainer	Natalja Linitschuk, Gennady Karponosov, Alexander Gorschkowa
choreographer	Sergei Petuchow, Natalja Linitschuk
status	resigned
End of career	2007
Medal table
World Cup medals 2 × 1 × 1 × EM medals 0 × 2 × 1 ×
World figure skating championships bronze Washington 2003 Ice dance silver Dortmund 2004 Ice dance gold Calgary 2006 Ice dance gold Tokyo 2007 Ice dance  European figure skating championships silver Malmo 2003 Ice dance silver Budapest 2004 Ice dance bronze Warsaw 2007 Ice dance
Personal best
Total points 210.44 2003 Lalique Trophy  Freestyle 108.03 2003 Lalique Trophy  Original dance 62.79 World Cup 2005  Compulsory dance 41.05 Skate Canada 2004
Placements in the figure skating Grand Prix
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Grand Prix Final 1 1 2  Grand Prix competitions 8th 3 3

Albena Denkowa ( Bulgarian Албена Денкова; born December 3, 1974 in Sofia ) is a former Bulgarian figure skater who started in ice dancing .

Figure skating career

Denkowa was initially a gymnast and switched to figure skating at the age of 8. Her first ice dance partner was Hristo Nikolow . From 1996 she ran together with Maxim Stawiski , who accepted Bulgarian citizenship.

Stawiski and Denkowa at the 2007 European Championships in Warsaw

In 1997 Denkowa and Stawiski made their debut at world and European championships . From the year 2000 they divided their training time between Sofia and Odintsovo . In Odintsovo they worked with Alexander Gorschkow and the choreographer Sergei Petuchow . Pneumonia in Stawiski's case prevented participation in the 2000 European Championship . At the World Cup a little later, Denkowa was slit open the leg by Peter Chernyshev's skate and severed two tendons and a muscle. After Denkova asked if Chernyshev's insurance could cover the damage, they were unloaded from the Skate America Grand Prix competition . In 2001 both had to fight the flu before the European Championships , and Denkowa's leg swelled again because of the injury he had suffered the previous year. Nevertheless, with eighth place, they achieved their best result at an international championship to date. They won their first medals in 2003 when they were runner- up in Europe in Malmö and third in the World Cup in Washington . It was the first medals for Bulgaria at world and European championships in figure skating. In 2004 Stawiski and Denkowa again won the silver medal at the European Championships in Budapest and were runner-up in Dortmund . They had previously won all of their Grand Prix competitions with victories at Skate Canada , the NHK Trophy and the Trophée Lalique , and had finished second in the Grand Prix final .

After finishing fifth at the 2005 World Cup , Stawiski and Denkowa ended their collaboration with Gorshkov and went to Delaware to train with Natalja Linitschuk and Gennady Karponosov . In 2006 they became world champions in Calgary . In 2007 they won the bronze medal at the European Championships and defended their world championship title in Tokyo . Before that, after winning at Skate America and the Eric Bompard Trophy , they had won the Grand Prix final for the first time . After the season, they retired on charges against Stawiski in a car accident he caused that resulted in the death of a man and a woman in a coma. They did not succeed in winning a medal at the Olympic Games . They finished 18th in 1998 , seventh in 2002 and fifth in 2006 .

Denkowa and Stawiski worked as choreographers for Brian Joubert in 2009 . The couple have a figure skating school in Sofia .

Personal

Denkowa and Stawiski have been engaged since 2007. In 2011 their son was born.

Denkova studied economics at the University of Sofia. Her younger sister Ina Demirewa , who is married to the Russian figure skater Andrei Lutai , also tried her hand at ice dancing.

Results

Ice dance

(with Maxim Stawiski )

Championship / year	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
winter Olympics		18th				7th				5.
World championships	19th	17th	11.	Z	10.	5.	3.	2.	5.	1.	1.
European championships	17th	16.	9.	Z	8th.	6th	2.	2.	Z		3.
Bulgarian championships	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
-
Grand Prix competition / season	96/97	97/98	98/99	99/00	00/01	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	06/07
Grand Prix Final							3.	2.	3.		1.
Skate America											1.
Skate Canada			5.			4th	2.	1.
Cup of Russia					5.		3.
NHK Trophy				6th		3.		1.	1.	2.
Eric Bompard Trophy						4th		1.	2.		1.
Bofrost Cup			6th	3.			1.		1.

Z = withdrawn

Stawiski and Denkowa at the 2004 World Cup in Dortmund

Web links

Commons : Albena Denkowa  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Maxim Stawiski / Albena Denkowa in the database of the International Skating Union (English)
• Albena Denkowa in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official website of the ice dancing couple

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.goldenskate.com/2001/12/bulgarian-dancers-triumph-over-injuries-to-reach-top-ten/
2. ↑ http://www.goldenskate.com/2001/12/bulgarian-dancers-triumph-over-injuries-to-reach-top-ten/
3. ↑ http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2006denkova
4. ↑ http://sofiaecho.com/2007/10/18/658797_bulgarias-maxim-staviiski-ends-his-career
5. ↑ http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2009denkovastaviski
6. ↑ http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=78343
7. ↑ Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski and Baby make Three ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )