Alexander Vladimirovich Denisjew

Alexander Denisjew
Full name	Alexander Vladimirovich Denisjew
nation	Russia
birthday	29th July 1991 (age 29)
place of birth	Krasnoyarsk , Soviet Union
Career
discipline	Two-seater
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 2 × 0 × 1 × EM medals 2 × 1 × 1 × U-23 World Cup medals 1 × 0 × 0 × JWM medals 0 × 0 × 1 × JEM medals 1 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games silver 2014 Sochi Team relay  Luge World Championships bronze 2017 Igls Team relay gold 2020 Sochi Two-seater gold 2020 Sochi Two-seater sprint  European Luge Championships silver 2015 Sochi Team relay bronze 2016 Altenberg Team relay gold 2018 Sigulda Team relay gold 2020 Lillehammer Two-seater Luge U-23 World Championship gold 2012 Altenberg Two-seater  Junior Luge World Championships bronze 2009 Nagano team  European Junior Luge Championships gold 2011 Lasa Two-seater
Placements in the Luge World Cup
Debut in the World Cup January 2012  World Cup victories 8 (including 4 in the team and 1 in the sprint)  Overall World Cup ES 4. ( 2019/20 )  Challenge Cup ES 5. 2016/17
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Single seater 3 0 1  Sprint single seater 1 0 0  Team relay 4th 1 1
last change: end of season 2019/2020

Alexander Vladimirovich Denissjew ( Russian Александр Владимирович Денисьев * 29. July 1991 in Krasnoyarsk , Soviet Union ) is a Russian luger in the two-seater class.

Junior career

Denisjew (left) and Antonov (2019)

Alexander Denissjew has been riding a two-seater toboggan with his partner Wladislaw Antonow since he was a teenager . Denissjew acts as the pilot, Antonov as the man behind ("backpack"). Their first international championship played the doubles as part of the Junior World Championships 2008 in Lake Placid . When Toni Eggert and Marcel Oster won , they finished eleventh in the double race and fifth in the team race together with Georgiy Talypov and Ksenia Tsyplakova. A year later , Denissjew / Antonow were twelfth of the double race at the Junior World Championships in Nagano , but won the bronze medal alongside Georgiy Talypov and Tatjana Iwanowa in the team competition with the Russian team behind Germany and the USA, which was last held in individual races.

In 2010 they finished in Igls in a German double victory repeated the previous year by Nico Walther and Nico Grünneker ahead of Daniel Rothamel and Chris Rohmeiß and fifth with Ksenia Tsyplakova and Evgeniy Voskresenskiy in the team race, which was held as a relay race for the first time. In 2011 in Oberhof they were sixth again best Russian doubles in the Junior World Championships, but had to give way to Andrei Bogdanow and Andrei Medwedew for the relay race , who would also compete with Denisjew / Antonow for priority in the Russian team in the following years. The biggest success to date was the European Junior Championships 2011 in Laas , in which Denissjew / Antonow in the two-seater race ahead of Nico Grüßner and Toni Förtsch as well as Bogdanow / Medwedew and Robin Geueke with David Gamm .

First successes and first Olympic Games

Denissjew / Antonow have been part of the Russian World Cup team since the 2011/12 season . They made their debut in St. Moritz and finished 12th in the next race, which they contested as part of the 2012 World Championships in Altenberg . They won the title in the U-23 ranking of the World Cup. In the further course of the season they qualified as 13th in Sigulda for the first time for the Russian World Cup relay, with which they were sixth. The end of the season was the race on the home track in Paramonowo . Here Denisjew / Antonow took a rather disappointing 17th place, in the 2012 European Championships , which were held at the same time , they placed 14th. The overall ranking they finished 24th.

In the 2012/13 season , Denisjew / Antonow only came to international missions after the turn of the year. At the first race of the season in Winterberg , the doubles achieved a single-digit position for the first time with seventh place and also qualified internally for the 2013 World Championships in Whistler . In Canada, Denisjew and his partner finished in 12th place, in the separate U-23 classification they came in ungrateful fourth place and missed a medal by just 0.003 seconds compared to their domestic Russian rivals Bogdanow / Medvedev. The season finale, at the same time the dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games in Sochi the following year , she finished eighth. In the overall standings, they again took 24th place.

The Olympic season began with mixed results for Denisjew / Antonov. A seventh place in Lillehammer was followed by a 16th place in Igls, an eighth place in Winterberg, a 12th place in Königssee as well as 20th place in Oberhof and seven in Altenberg. In Sigulda they were able to improve their best placement in a World Cup race to sixth place and thus made it to the award ceremony for the first time. It was also the 2014 European Championships , and in this context they also came in sixth. They finished eleventh in the overall World Cup ranking. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Denissjew / Antonow were one of the Russian doubles among the extended circle of favorites, which they were able to confirm with fifth place. They were sixth and seventh in the individual races. This made them the best Russian doubles and they were allowed to compete in the relay race together with Tatjana Iwanowa and Albert Demtschenko . Here they won the silver medal behind the German team and in front of the representation of Latvia in the competition that was held for the first time at the Olympic Games. Based on the findings from the McLaren Report , Ivanova and Demtschenko were withdrawn from medals due to doping offenses in December 2017, which was also associated with the loss of medals for Denisjew / Antonov. After a successful appeal before the International Court of Sport (CAS), the decision was overturned in January 2018.

Establishment among the world's best

Even if Denissjew / Antonow started the 2014/15 season with a 15th place in Igls, they were among the world's best when they won a medal at the Olympic Games. They qualified for the first time for a sprint race in the World Cup, in which they came ninth. After a tenth place in Königssee, they achieved a podium finish for the first time in Oberhof behind the German doubles Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt as well as Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken as third place. With Tatyana Ivanova and Semyon Pavlitschenko they also came third with the Russian relay. After a sixth place in the double race in Winterberg, Jekaterina Baturina and Stepan Fjodorow followed on the side again as third place to reach the podium. The races in Lillehammer went even better , in which Denissjew / Antonow were again third behind Wendl / Arlt and Eggert / Benecken in the double race, but only had to admit defeat to the German team with Ivanova and Pavlitschenko in the relay race. The end of the season was the races in Sochi, which were both World Cup races and the 2015 European Championships . In the double race they came in fifth place in both ratings, in the relay race they were second to Germany on the side of Ivanova and Pavlitschenko and thus also won the European Championship silver medal. In the overall ranking of the World Cup, the two Russians took 12th place.

Denissjew (right) and Antonov at the World Cup race in Oberhof in January 2016

The 2015/16 season began for Denisjew / Antonow with a 14th place in Igls. In the races in North America, a 13th place followed in Lake Placid. The Park City races went better with ranks five in the double race and six in the sprint race. In Calgary with 15th place in the double race just managed to qualify for the sprint race, in which Denisjew drove to ninth place with Antonov. After the turn of the year they first drove in Sigulda, then in Oberhof in doubles and sprints in tenth place. They also finished tenth in the sprint race at the 2016 World Championships at Königssee, but only 23rd in the double race. Only after the World Championships did they get back on track in Altenberg and came seventh in the double race and fourth in relay with Ivanova and Roman Repilow . It was also the 2016 European Championships , during which Denissjew / Antonow finished in double sixth and fourth in relay. At the season finale in Winterberg they missed another podium finish with the doubles as fourth, which they managed, however, with Ivanova and Fyodorow as second place in the relay race behind the representation of Canada. They finished 12th in the overall World Cup ranking and sixth in the Sprint World Cup ranking.

Denissjew (right) with the Russian team relay in Oberhof

In the 2016/17 season , Denisjew / Antonow stabilized their results. After finishing ninth in doubles and sixth in sprint races at the start of the season in Winterberg, they finished eleventh on the North American tour in Lake Placid and eighth in the doubles race in Park City. At the beginning of January they finished 12th in the double race at Königssee, and it was also the 2017 European Championships , in which they finished ninth. The 2017 World Championships followed in Igls at the end of January . Denissjew / Antonow were able to increase continuously. After finishing ninth in the sprint race, they finished sixth in the double race and thus qualified for the Russian team relay. With this they won the bronze medal on the side of Iwanowa and Repilow. After the World Cup, further races in the World Cup followed. In Oberhof they were only 12th in the doubles race after winning a Nations Cup for the first time, but were still the best Russian doubles and thus started in the relay race, where they finished second with Ivanova and Repilow. At the Olympic dress rehearsal in Pyeongchang , they won the Nations Cup, but fell in the first round of the World Cup. Nevertheless, they were allowed to compete in the relay race, where they drove to fifth place with Ivanova and Pavlitschenko. The last race in Altenberg was also unsatisfactory from a sporting point of view, Denisjew and Antonow were only 23rd in the overall ranking of the Nations Cup, the poor results in the last races of the season prevented a first top ten placement in the overall ranking of the World Cup and they were 14th.

Finished in ninth place in the race in December 2017 in Altenberg

The 2017/18 Olympic season got off to a promising start for Denisiev and Antonov. In Igls they were fifth in the double race as well as in the sprint race and third in the sprint race with Baturina and Pavlitschenko. After winning the Nations Cup race in Winterberg, the doubles were only 14th in the main race in the World Cup, but qualified for the sprint race, in which they finished seventh. In Altenberg they were ninth in the double race, then 17th in the singles in Calgary and sixth in the relay and 21st in Lake Placid. The results only got better after the turn of the year and the return to the railways in Europe. At Königssee, as well as afterwards in Oberhof, Denissjew / Antonow finished eighth, in the sprint race they came fourth and fifth. Even with ranks six and four in the double races and sprint from Lillehammer, there was an increasing form. At the final World Cup station in Sigulda - the races were also the 2018 European Championships - these results were confirmed with seventh place in doubles and fifth in sprint. At the side of Ivanova and Pavlitschenko, Denisjew and Antonow also won the relay race in front of the representations from Germany and Latvia and became European champions. In the overall ranking of the World Cup, they achieved a single-digit position for the first time in eighth place. Accordingly, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang were less successful . The Russians finished eleventh in both races, and they were eleventh in the addition of the two ranks. Nevertheless, they were again the best Russian doubles and were nominated for the team relay alongside Jekaterina Baturina and Roman Repilow . The relay, which was also only allowed to compete as an Olympic athlete from Russia , was weakened due to various doping offenses and the resulting non-invitations from Russian athletes and only came in seventh.

Development to victory drivers

At the finish at the two-seater race of the 2019 World Championships, Denisjew on the left

The post-Olympic season 2018/19 began only after the turn of the year at Königssee with a rather weak 15th place. The race in Sigulda went even better with a ninth place. The 2019 World Championships followed in Winterberg . Denissjew and Antonow started with a ninth place in the sprint and were 12th in the double race. In Altenberg, a third place in the Nations Cup race was followed by an eighth place in the main race. The following races in Oberhof were also the 2019 European Championships . In the World Cup they finished sixth in the double race and fifth in the European Championship. So they were once again the best Russians and started with Ivanova and Pavlitschenko in the relay race, in which they were fifth in both ratings. The season finale on the home track in Sochi was a triumph. Denissjew / Antonow won all three races, first the doubles, then the sprint and finally the relay race with Viktorija Demtschenko and Semyon Pavlitschenko. The victory in the double race was since the victory at the season opening of the 1987/88 in Sarajevo by the time nor the Soviet Union starting Yevgeny Belousov and Alexander Belyakov , the first victory in this racing class for Russian athletes for 30 seasons. Since they had missed the first half of the season, they were only 14th in the overall World Cup with 357 points, despite the sometimes outstanding results.

At the World Cup race in Igls in November 2019, Denisjew in front

The season opener of the 2019/20 season in Igls began with a tenth place. In the same area, it continued with an eleventh place in doubles and a ninth place in the sprint of Lake Placid. An upward trend began in Whistler, leading from eighth place in the two-seater race to fourth place in the sprint race. The development continued in Europe after the turn of the year. At the races in Altenberg they came third behind Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller and the Germans Eggert / Benecken. They also won the relay race with Ivanova and Pavlitschenko. The following World Cup also served as the 2020 European Championships . Denissjew and Antonov won the double race here and thus not only their second World Cup race, but also the title of the double-seater European champions. They were less successful with the season that was fifth. In Sigulda they were first sixth, but then failed to place better in the overall World Cup as 13th of the sprint race, where they were now fighting for a podium place in the overall standings after the loss of Steu / Koller due to an injury. In the overall sprint races, they were seventh after the last of this season's race in Sigulda. In Oberhof they were ninth in the doubles and fourth in the relay. The highlight of the season was the 2020 World Championships in Sochi. On their home track, Denissjew / Antonow first won the title in the two-seater sprint ahead of Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner . In the two-seater race they only had to admit defeat to the outstanding Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken and won the silver medal. After the surprise double world champion in the women, Yekaterina Katnikova , who was still inexperienced in relay races , had problems with the touch pad, the favored team from Russia only finished eleventh in the relay race. Things went better as the season progressed in the World Cup. After Denisjew and Antonow were able to win their third World Cup race in Winterberg, they also won the relay race with Ivanova and Pavlitschenko. At the season finale they were 13th at Königssee and thus missed third place in the overall World Cup against Andris Šics and Juris Šics and came fourth in this ranking.

successes

International championships

Junior World Championships

• Nagano 2009 : 3rd team

Junior European Championships

• Laas 2011 : 1st two-seater

U-23 World Championships

• Altenberg 2012 : 1st two-seater

European championships

• Sochi 2015 : 2nd team relay
• Altenberg 2016 : 3rd team relay
• Sigulda 2018 : 1st team relay
• Lillehammer 2020 : 1st doubles

World championships

• Igls 2017 : 3rd team relay
• Sochi 2020 : 1st two-seater
• Sochi 2020: 1st two-seater sprint

Olympic games

• Olympic Winter Games 2014 : 2nd team relay

Overall World Cup

season	space	Points
2011/12	24.	103
2012/13	24.	088
2013/14	11.	262
2014/15	12.	346
2015/16	12.	436
2016/17	14th	343
2017/18	08th.	507
2018/19	14th	357
2019/20	04th	630

World Cup victories

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	January 27, 2018	Sigulda	Season
2.	February 23, 2019	Sochi	Double
3.	February 24, 2019	Sochi	sprint
4th	February 24, 2019	Sochi	Season
5.	January 12, 2020	Altenberg	Season
6th	January 18, 2020	Lillehammer	Double
7th	February 23, 2020	Winterberg	Double
8th.	February 23, 2020	Winterberg	Season

Web links

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

• Alexander Wladimirowitsch Denisjew in the database of the International Luge Federation

Individual evidence

1. ^ IOC sanctions 11 Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings. April 20, 2020, accessed June 1, 2020 . 
2. ↑ [1]