Paganini, Alexia

Alexia Paganini was born November 15, 2001 in Greenwich , Connecticut , USA ^[3] . She is the second child of three children in the family. She has two brothers - Kevin and Mario, who play hockey ^[4] . Paganini has Swiss and American citizenship ^[5] . Her father, Celso Paganini, is from Brusio, ^[6] and her mother is from the Netherlands, and has lived for ten years in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Among the hobbies, Alexy singles out: swimming, snowboarding, skiing and cooking ^[7] .

The early years

Paganini began to skate in 2003. For several years, she studied at the Figure Skating Academy in Westchester under the direction of . Alexia represented the United States of America at two international competitions. In April 2016, Paganini won a gold medal among juniors at the Gardena Spring Trophy in Italy. In August 2016, she took sixth place at the junior stage of the Grand Prix in France, losing, among other things, to future Olympic champion Alina Zagitova ^[8] .

In January 2017, Paganini took fifth place in the U.S. Junior Championships. Later that year, she decided to play for Switzerland at the suggestion of her coach Igor Krokavets ^[9] . The Swiss Federation found out about her interest in April 2017 and soon got in touch with her ^[10] .

Season 2017/2018: Olympic Games

In August 2017, Paganini made her international debut and first played for the Swiss national team at the Slovenia Open tournament, where she took third place after a short program, but took advantage of the rivals' fall in the free program and won a gold medal. At the end of September, she went to Oberstdorf for the Nebelhorn Trophy , which was the qualifier for the 2018 Winter Olympics . Having made a blot on the cascade, Paganini took an intermediate sixth place in the short program, but coping with nerves became the third in the free program, which allowed her to win a bronze medal (with a margin of only 0.13 points over Natalie Weinzirl, the fourth figure skater from Germany ) ^[11] . Thanks to a successful performance at this tournament, Paganini brought for Switzerland a ticket to the main start of the four-year period ^[12] . In December, the Swiss Olympic Committee confirmed that it was Paganini who would represent Switzerland at the 2018 Olympic Games ^[13] .

In January, Paganini, having purely performed both programs, finished seventh at the European Championship 2018 , which was held on the ice of the Moscow Megasport arena ^[14] .

In February 2018, Paganini took part in the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang . Having taken nineteenth place in the short program, she qualified to participate in the free program. In total, two rentals finished in the final twenty-first place ^[15] .

At the 2018 World Cup , held in Milan , she became nineteenth in the short program, but having made two drops in an arbitrary, she showed the twentieth final result.

2018/2019 Season: Grand Prix Series Debut

Paganini began the post-Olympic season at the Autumn Classic tournament , which became the eighth. In October, she won gold at the Halloween Cup 2018. After a short program, second only to Yvette Tot , Alexia took advantage of two blunders of the Hungarian skater in the free program and confidently finished first.

In the fall of 2018, Paganini made her debut at the adult stages of the Grand Prix . At the Rostelecom Cup 2018, Alexia showed the third result in the short program and the fifth in the free. Taking fourth place, Paganini updated her personal records, with a score of 182.50 points in total, and 119.07 points for a free program. At the end of November, Paganini performed at the second stage of the Grand Prix of the season for herself, at the Internationaux de France in Grenoble, replacing Caroline Costner who had withdrawn from the tournament ^[16] . Alexia showed the tenth result. In December, Alexia Paganini became the champion of Switzerland for the second time in a row.

In January 2019, at the European Championships in Minsk, she successfully performed in the short program, taking third place, showing the best result in her career (65.64 points) and received a small bronze medal ^[17] . In the free program, it was not possible to update the personal record ^[18] , and Alexia became the sixth in the sum of two programs ^[19] .

Paganini completed the season of the 2019 World Cup in Japan . According to the results of the short program, she took thirty-third place, and was not qualified to participate in the free program ^[20] .

For Switzerland

For the USA

Detailed Results

At championships, ISUs are awarded small medals for a short and free program. Current personal records are shown in bold italics , the best results of the season are highlighted in bold .

• Alexia Paganini (English) on the official website of the International Union of Skaters .