Ukrainian figure skater Alisa Agafonova: biography and sports career

- известная украинская фигуристка, выступающая за сборную Турции. Alisa Agafonova is a famous Ukrainian figure skater who plays for Turkey. Successfully performs at the world and continental championships, became a prize-winner of the Winter Universiade.

Biographical information

появилась на свет в январе 1991 года в одном из крупнейших украинских городов - Харькове. Alisa Agafonova was born in January 1991 in one of the largest Ukrainian cities - Kharkiv. In figure skating, the girl came at the age of six, when the children's trainers Vladimir Leonovich and Larisa Baratz paid attention to the preschool child.

After several years of hard training Agafonova began to show high results, and by the age of 10 she managed to take the third place in the junior championship of Ukraine.

Sports career

Already from a young age, Alisa Agafonova showed an excellent level of artistry on the ice. The famous choreographer Lyudmila Filippovna Kurinskova convinced the girl to try herself in ice dancing, and she agreed. Due to her bright appearance and charisma, Alice was able to reveal her talent in this kind of figure skating.

The first partner of the Ukrainian sportswoman was talented Dmitry Dun. This dance couple was considered the most promising in Ukraine. Alisa and Dmitry became champions of the country in their age group, participated in the junior world championships, as well as in the final part of the youth Grand Prix.

In the 2009/10 season the couple broke up due to a series of unsuccessful performances.

Alisa Agafonova - figure skater of the national team of Turkey

After the break with Dmitry Dun, the sportswoman was looking for herself a new partner. не очень популяризировано, поэтому Алиса уехала в США. Unfortunately, figure skating in Ukraine is not very popular, so Alisa went to the US. Here she finally found herself a new partner - the figure-skater Alpine Uchar.

Under the leadership of the famous Russian coach Natalia Dubova, the couple, who is in favor of Turkey, starts participating in various international competitions.

и Альпер Учар становятся серебряными призерами зимней Универсиады в Эрзуруме. In 2011, Alisa Agafonova and Alper Uchar become silver medalists at the Winter Universiade in Erzurum. Three years later, the pair was given the opportunity to introduce Turkey for the first time in figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Despite the fact that the duet Uchar-Agafonov took a modest 22nd place at the Games, practically all world experts spoke about them well.

и Альпер Учар стали вторыми. A year after the Olympics-2014 at the European Championships, the dancing couple took 12th place, and at the world championship - 16. The most successful was the performance at the Nestley Cup, where Alisa Agafonova and Alper Uchar became the second.

Season 2015/16, the dance pair began with a tournament in the German Nebelhorn, where, according to the results of the short program, they took the third position, but in the end they became the fifth. In October, the duet with excellent results wins at such prestigious tournaments as NRW Trophy and the Denkova-Stavitsky Cup.

Forced relocation to the USA

In late 2015, due to the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish conflict, the dancing couple Uchar-Agafonova was forced to leave the territory of the Russian Federation, where they trained with Alexander Zhulin. Their new home was Stanford in the US, where the duo works with new mentors - Azilik Krylova and Pasquale Camerlengo.

With the new program, the pair Alper Uchar - Alisa Agafonova again took 12th place at the continental championship in Bratislava, thus repeating her best result. Unfortunately, the performance at the World Cup was a failure - the dancing duo could not be selected in an arbitrary program.

In the current season, the pair began active preparations for the 2018 Olympics. They take part in the Grand Prix stages, showing very decent results. At the tournament in Estonian Tallinn dancers representing Turkey took the fourth place, and at the competitions "Ice Stars" in the Belarusian capital became silver medalists.