Alexander Viktorovich Smirnov

Alexander Smirnov
Alexander Smirnov and Juko Kawaguti at the 2010 European Championships
Full name	Alexander Viktorovich Smirnov
nation	Russia
birthday	October 11, 1984
place of birth	Kalinin, Soviet Union
size	183 cm
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Juko Kawaguti
Former partner	Alexandra Danilowa, Ekaterina Wassiljewa
society	Jubilejni Sports Club
Trainer	Tamara Moskvina
choreographer	Tatiana Druzhinina
status	active
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × 0 × 2 × EM medals 1 × 2 × 1 ×
World figure skating championships bronze Los Angeles 2009 Couples bronze Turin 2010 Couples  European figure skating championships bronze Zagreb 2008 Couples silver Helsinki 2009 Couples gold Tallinn 2010 Couples silver Bern 2011 Couples
Personal best
Total points 213.15 EM 2010  Freestyle 139.23 EM 2010  Short program 74.16 Olympia 2010
Placements in the figure skating Grand Prix
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Grand Prix Final 0 0 1  Grand Prix competitions 5 5 3
last change: December 2nd, 2012

Alexander Wiktorowitsch Smirnow (Russian Александр Викторович Смирнов, born October 11, 1984 in Kalinin , Russian SFSR , Soviet Union ) is a Russian figure skater who starts in pair skating .

Career

Smirnov started figure skating in his hometown of Kalinin at the age of four. At the age of 17 he went to Saint Petersburg because the training opportunities were better there.

His first partner was Alexandra Danilova . The couple separated, however, and from 2005 he ran with Jekaterina Vasilyeva . Wassiljewa / Smirnow were Russian junior champions straight away and finished sixth at the 2006 Junior World Championship . However, this partnership broke up again after a year. With both partners he trained with Lyudmila Smirnowa and Nikolai Velikow

Smirnow and Kawaguti with trainer Tamara Moskwina, 2009

In the spring of 2006 he got a new partner in the Japanese Yūko Kawaguchi . The couple also trained for a short time with Nikolai Velikow and later with Tamara Moskwina , who had previously trained with Kawaguchi. You start for the Jubilejni Sports Club and train in the Jubileiny Sports Complex in Saint Petersburg. Due to an injury to Kawaguti, they missed both the Russian championships and the European championships. At the 2007 World Cup , they finished ninth, making them the best Russian couple ahead of the Russian champions of that year, Marija Muchortowa and Maxim Trankow .

The following season they finished third at Skate Canada and the Cup of Russia and took part in a Grand Prix final for the first time, where they finished fifth. In 2008 Kawaguchi and Smirnow were able to win the Russian championships for the first time. At the European Championships they finished fourth after the short program, but were able to overtake the Ukrainians in front of them in the freestyle and in the end won the bronze medal behind the defending champions Aljona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy and their compatriots Muchortowa / Trankow, who they won in the Russian championships had still beaten. At the World Cup , they surprisingly finished fourth.

At the beginning of the 2008/09 season they won Skate Canada and took second place in the Cup of Russia behind Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao , where they won the freestyle against the Chinese duo. Shortly before the Russian championships, which the couple later won, Smirnov's partner received Russian citizenship, so that they would now also be eligible to start at the Olympic Games , and she changed her name to Kawaguti . At the European Championships this season they came second and at the World Championships they won their first World Championship medal with bronze.

At the European Championships 2010 in Tallinn , Smirnow and Kawaguti were European champions for the first time, ahead of the three-time European champions Savchenko / Szolkowy. They finished their first Olympic Games a little later in Vancouver in fourth place. At the world championship they defended their bronze medal.

In the post-Olympic year they won the silver medal at the European Championships in 2011 behind their strongest competitors Savchenko and Szolkowy. They managed to just win the freestyle. At the World Cup in Moscow , after making mistakes, it was only enough to achieve a disappointing fourth place. They were almost 25 points behind their compatriots Tatiana Wolossoshar and Maxim Trankow , to whom they were already defeated at the Russian championships.

Kawaguti and Smirnow started the 2011/12 season with victories at the NHK Trophy and the Cup of China . At the Grand Prix final they won their first medal in this competition with bronze. They did not take part in the Russian championships so that Smirnov could heal a knee injury. On January 4th, however, his appendix and a hernia had to be removed in an emergency operation . For this reason, Kawaguti and Smirnow could not take part in the European Championship. At the World Championships , they finished seventh, mainly due to incorrect and unsuccessful lifts.

Alexander Smirnov, 2010

Results

Pair skating

(unless otherwise mentioned with Juko Kawaguti )

Championship / year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
winter Olympics					4th
World championships		9.	4th	3.	3.	4th	7th	6th
European championships			3.	2.	1.	2.		5.
Junior World Championships	6. *
Russian championships	6. *		1.	1.	1.	2.
-
Grand Prix competition / season	05/06	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13
Grand Prix Final			5.	5.	5.		3.	6th
Cup of Russia		3.	3.	2.	2.	1.	2.
Eric Bompard Trophy								1.
Cup of China							1.	2.
NHK Trophy					2.		1.
Skate Canada			3.	1.		Z

* with Jekaterina Wassiljewa / Z = withdrawn

Smirnov and Kawaguti at the 2008 European Championships

Web links

Commons : Alexander Smirnow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Kawaguti and Smirnow in the database of the International Skating Union (English)
• Alexander Wiktorowitsch Smirnow in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )