Zhiganshin, Ruslan Nailievich

Ruslan Zhiganshin was born in Moscow in September 1992. He is the younger brother of Nelly Zhiganshina , who previously also performed in ice dancing for Germany . He began to practice figure skating at the age of four at the Young Pioneers Stadium, at first as a loner, then paired up with Valeria Zenkova . Since the end of 2004, he began to perform in tandem with Victoria Sinitsina in ice dancing.

Paired with Victoria Sinitsina

The couple trained under the direction of Svetlana Alekseeva . Since 2008, they have been members of the Russian national team. In 2010, they took second place in the final of the Junior Grand Prix , and the next year they won it. In 2012, they won the Junior World Championships in Minsk . Since the fall of 2012, the couple moved to an adult level of performances. At the Grand Prix stage in Moscow in 2012, they took third place. In December 2013, the couple became part of the Russian national team at the Winter Universiade in Italy . After the first day, they confidently occupied the second place ^[3] . However, the lag behind the third position was insignificant, they could not cope with the excitement on the second day of the competition and, after making a number of mistakes, they took the final third place ^[4] . A week later, the Russian championship took place, at which Ruslan Zhiganshin and Victoria Sinitsina in a difficult fight managed to win bronze medals ^{[5] [6]} . At its debut European championship, the couple stopped a step away from the podium ^[7] . In free dance, the couple improved their official result ^[8] . At the end of January, the couple was included in the Olympic team in Sochi. At the competitions at the Winter Olympics in 2014, they performed unsuccessfully, taking 16th place. However, the federation included a couple at the World Cup in Japan in March ^[9] . During the World Cup, sensational information appeared that a pair of Sinitsin and Zhiganshin were holding the last tournament. At this, the couple stops performing together. Victoria Sinitsina paired up with Nikita Katsalapov ^[10] . In this difficult situation, the Sinitsin / Zhiganshin pair took seventh place ^[11] .

Season 2014—2015

Under the circumstances, the Ilyins and Zhiganshin decided to try to ride together, just like their former partners. Skaters together began to prepare for the 2014-2015 season under the leadership of Svetlana Alekseeva and Elena Kustarova . Musical accompaniment of the short dance staged by the Spanish choreographer Antonio Najarro ^[23] was Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen . For free dance, Elena and Ruslan chose the song “Appassionata” Secret Garden and “Anthony and Cleopatra” Ferrante and Teicher. The pair made their debut at the Chinese Grand Prix in November and took fourth place ^[24] . A week later, at the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix, the skaters demonstrated excellent skating and took 2nd place, simultaneously improving their sports achievements a week ago ^[25] . At the same stage, for the first time, an intramural competition of former partners took place: Elena and Nikita, Victoria and Ruslan. At the end of the Grand Prix series, it turned out that the Ilyins and Zhiganshin in the first joint season were able to break into Barcelona in the final ^[26] . As Elena said, she “dreamed of showing Carmen in Barcelona” ^[27] . Among the best couples of the world, in the final of the Grand Prix series, the Ilyins and Zhiganshin took sixth place. According to the Kommersant newspaper, “ everyone likes the bright, short dance“ Carmen ”, but the arbitrary“ Appassionata “ Secret Garden does not make such a strong impression ” ^[28] .

After the short dance of 2015, the Ilyins / Zhiganshin took the lead in the Russian Championships with 70.35 points, thereby improving their personal record in the short dance (the record is officially registered only at international competitions). Following the results of the free dance, Elena and Ruslan scored 101.06 points (again improving their personal record), but lost to Monko / Halyavin , becoming the second in the free dance. In terms of the total number of points scored, the Ilyins and Zhiganshin took first place, becoming champions of Russia in their first joint season ^[29] .

At the 2015 European Championships in Stockholm, the successful Carmen rental was replete with sophisticated elements, in particular, twizzles and fourth-level supports. After a short dance, the couple was second with 69.94 points, slightly behind the French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron ^[30] . In an arbitrary dance, even more complicated in comparison with the Russian championship, a couple of Ilinykh / Zhiganshin faced failure: when entering support, Elena made a mistake, caught her skate on Ruslan's trousers, broke them on the hip, and the partner got a cut. Blots were allowed in twizzles and steps. Due to the torn element, the pair ended up in the eighth in the free program, but in the end it rolled back to fourth place, being left without medals and missing Alexander Stepanov and Ivan Bukin in third position ^{[5] [6]} .

According to her, the Ilyins arrived at the 2015 World Cup in Shanghai without a super goal to get on the podium, the couple set themselves the main task to roll both programs cleanly, to get good points, to show the judges that the new duet is able to progress ^[31] . After a short dance program, Carmen were fifth with 69.46 points, behind the leaders, the American couple Evan Bates / Madison Chock by 5 points ^[32] . In the free program, because of the loss of attention and concentration ^{[33], the} partners broke the twizzles ^[20] , which threw them to the seventh position with a score of 164, 84 points, with the Papadakis / Sizeron champions almost 20 points behind. Seventh place of the Ilyins / Zhiganshin, together with the unsuccessful performance of two other Russian duets, deprived the Russian team of one place at the next World Cup, where the country will be represented by only two pairs ^{[34] [35]} . Former world and European champion Ilya Averbukh recognized the outcome of the Ilinykh / Zhiganshin duet in Shanghai was successful, complained that they did not have enough strength, recommended that the couple look for their recognizable face, and advised neither Ilyins nor Katsalapov to think in any case that perform again in tandem ^{[36] [37] [38]} . 1988 Olympic champion in ice dancing, Natalya Bestemyanova, criticized the frivolous appearance of the Ilyins at the tournament, which makes it doubtful that the skater came to fight for high places. She also expressed the opinion that despite the fact that the Ilyins were “a talented, beautiful athlete, they had excellent inclinations ”, Elena did not succeed in pairing with Zhiganshin ^{[39] [40]} .

At the team world championship 2015 in Tokyo, they took fourth place among the dance couples, the entire Russian team was second ^[41] .

Season 2015—2016

The idea of ​​free dance of the new season, put forward by the choreographer Antonio Naharro, proposed by the Ilyins, is the love story of two creative personalities under the soundtrack from a film about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo . The first dance performance took place in September 2015 at the open box office of the Russian national team in Sochi ^[23] . The next official start came in Saransk at the Mordovian patterns tournament in October. All their previous achievements were improved here, and the couple confidently took first place ^[42] . In early November, the skaters performed at the Audi China Cup Grand Prix stage. As a result, they took third place ^[43] . During a performance at the Cup of Russia , in the short program, Ruslan Zhiganshin fell on twizzles. Thanks to the well-executed free program, the skaters became fifth in the final standings - behind the Sinitsin / Katsalapov pair by two positions and not reaching the Cup final in Barcelona ^[44] . In the national championship, during the short program, the partner fell, and after the first day of the competition they went in 4th place. However, then they successfully executed an arbitrary program, where they were the second. By the sum of the two programs, they became fourth, losing less than a point in the fight for third place. As a result, the European Championships 2016 in Bratislava were not included ^[12] .

Season 2016—2017

The couple planned to start a new pre-Olympic season in Germany in September at the Nebelhorn tournament . According to Elena Ilyin, blues and swing are planned in the short program, and an Indian theme was chosen for an arbitrary one ^[13] . However, Ruslan’s injury forced the skaters to withdraw from the tournament ^[14] . In mid-October, Russian dancers began the pre-Olympic season at the Chicago Grand Prix stage , where they took a place in the middle of the tournament table at the America's Cup ^[15] . In mid-November, skaters performed at the next stage of the Grand Prix in Paris , where they also finished in the middle of the tournament table at the Trophée de France tournament ^[16] . At the end of November, Russian dancers performed at the Tallinn Trophy , where they confidently won and surpassed all their past sports achievements ^[17] . At the end of December, at the national championship in Chelyabinsk, the skaters took fourth place, losing hundredth points for bronze medals ^[18] .

At the end of the season in mid-May, Ruslan decided to end his active sports career ^[19] .

With Elena Ilinykh

With Victoria Sinitsina

“J” - performed in the youth category. "WD" - the competition is not completed.

• E. Ilyinykh and R. Zhiganshin
• V. Sinitsina and R. Zhiganshin (English) on the official website of the International Union of Skaters .
• Victoria Sinitsina / Ruslan Zhiganshin at Icenetwork
• Ruslan Zhiganshin