Life after triumph: what figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya is doing now

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Yulia Lipnitskaya is a Russian singles figure skater who won a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. What was the fate of this magnificent young athlete?

Biography. early years

The future Olympic champion was born on June 5, 1998. Her small homeland is Yekaterinburg. Yulia's mother is Daniela Leonidovna Lipnitskaya. The woman raised the child alone, and it was very difficult for her. Even before the girl was born, her father went into the army, and after service he chose not to return to his family.

Daniela Leonidovna noticed early that her daughter was talented. She tried to do everything in her power to provide the girl with a successful future. It is known that Yulia’s mother had to get several jobs. As a result, Daniela Leonidovna was able to pay for renting an apartment located not far from the Lokomotiv skating rink, where her daughter trained.

Lipnitskaya started figure skating at the age of 4. The first trainers were Marina Voitsekhovskaya and Elena Levkovets.

Moving to Moscow and working with Tutberidze

In 2009, Yulia and her mother moved to the capital. Daniela Leonidovna understood that in Yekaterinburg her daughter no longer had opportunities for professional growth. Lipnitskaya went to see Eteri Tutberidze. On the first day, she trained for about nine hours, but in the end she was accepted into the group.

From an early age, she was a girl who practiced stretching. Also, the renowned coach Tatyana Tarasova noted Yulia’s non-trivial ability to accelerate rotation within rotation.

Eteri began preparing the figure skater for the 2014 Olympics, and this preparation was grueling. According to the coach, by the age of 13 the athlete was emotionally exhausted due to training and a large number of competitions.

In 2012/2013, on top of everything else, Yulia suffered injuries. Perhaps the most serious of them is a concussion caused by hitting the ice. Health problems greatly undermined the athlete’s inner spirit.

In the pre-Olympic season, Yulia started thinking about whether she needed figure skating at all... It was so hard. But her mother and Tutberidze persuaded her to be patient a little. Lipnitskaya agreed because she understood that she had a good chance of winning Olympic gold.

Yulia Lipnitskaya at international competitions

It is known that the ISU allows athletes to participate in international junior competitions only from a certain age, which Yulia just reached in the 2011-12 season. The debut took place in Poland at the Junior Grand Prix, where the athlete immediately became a champion. She won both the stage in Italy and the final in Quebec.

It is surprising that Julia won both the free and short programs in the final. Her main rival there was Polina Shelepen, who was seventeen points behind Lipnitskaya.

In 2012, at the national championships, the figure skater was third in the short program, but won the free program. Thus, as a result, she became a silver medalist. In the same year she won the Russian junior championship. And again, her main rival was Shelepen, who was more than nine points behind Yulia and took second place.

In the same year, the girl, having arrived at the World Junior Championships, stood on the highest step of the podium, leaving Gracie Gold behind. It turned out that in all the international competitions in which Lipnitskaya took part, she only won first places.

Triumph at the 2014 Winter Olympics

All Lipnitskaya’s suffering paid off with interest at the Sochi Olympics.

15-year-old Yulia became an Olympic champion in team competitions. Moreover, it was she who made the greatest contribution to the victory: the girl brought our team 20 points. She skated her free program to music from the famous Hollywood film “Schindler’s List.”

Vladimir Putin watched Yulia’s performance from the stands. After the end of the performance, the president gave the athlete a standing ovation. Subsequently, he personally congratulated her and other Russian skaters.

Lipnitskaya won the team victory at the age of 15 years 249 days. She broke the record of American Tara Lipinski, who took first place at the Nagano Olympics, when she was 15 years 255 days old.

The girl was noted by Steven Spielberg himself, the director of Schindler's List. He sent the figure skater a letter, thanking Yulia for managing to “carry the image of a girl in a red coat through the entire performance.” The athlete also graced the covers of two versions of Time magazine – European and Asian.

Yulia Lipnitskaya. What does she do and where is she now?

More recently, she was considered a heroine of Russia...

Finest hour

Figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya, a student of Eteri Tutberidze, gained worldwide fame at the 2014 Olympics. In Sochi, Yulia made the greatest contribution to the team gold medal of Russian figure skaters (20 points for two first places in the short and free programs).

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was watching the performance from the audience podium, gave the young figure skater a standing ovation, and for performing a program on the theme of the film “Schindler’s List,” its director Steven Spielberg sent Lipnitskaya a letter of gratitude “for being able to carry the image of a girl in a red coat through the entire performance.” "

The overwhelming attention of the media and fans, pressure, a personal medal hung on Yulia’s neck in advance and excessive excitement did not allow the 15-year-old athlete to successfully perform in the individual tournament - Lipnitskaya made mistakes in the box office, ultimately taking only fifth place.

In 2014, Yulia Lipnitskaya’s popularity was colossal: she appeared on the cover of Time magazine, topped the list of global Twitter trends, and entered the top three “People of the Year” of transnational companies Google and Yandex.

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A post shared by Julia Lipnitskaya (@sunnylipnitskaya) on Jan 3, 2016 at 4:24am PST

After the resounding success in Sochi, there was no continuation of the high flight: Yulia began to have problems with weight control, as well as disagreements with the coach. Tension and misunderstanding grew, and in the fall of 2020, Lipnitskaya, after six years spent in Eteri Tutberidze’s group, left for Alexei Urmanov.

This did not solve the skater’s problems. The body matured, flaws in the technique became more and more noticeable, the “crown” jumps and spins ceased to work, the programs did not work, the skater was plagued by injuries, she failed skates over and over again and did not make it into the national team. At the end of 2020, Lipnitskaya openly admitted that she had anorexia and would have to undergo a three-month course of treatment.

After rehabilitation, in April 2020, Yulia informed the leadership of the FFKKR about her plans to end her career, and in September 2020 an official statement was made about this - Lipnitskaya left the sport.

The 2013-2014 season remained the brightest in Yulia’s career, bringing her the title of European champion and Olympic champion.

Where is Yulia Lipnitskaya now?

Yulia lives in Moscow. The athlete prefers not to talk about her life: “I’m not a public person. It has always been this way. Since childhood, I have been a very strong introvert. To speak to a stranger, I had to make an effort on myself. Now I communicate much easier with different people, I have become much more sociable. But I have already developed certain habits, stereotypes that I follow. And I don’t think that I need to get into every newspaper, every program where I’m called. I don’t welcome this and I won’t do it.”

What is Yulia Lipnitskaya doing now?

After finishing her career, Yulia said that she was interested in sports management, but she did not see herself as a coach: “Most of all I want to find something that will be interesting to do in life. Now I am at a crossroads, because there are many offers, different options, projects... But I cannot and do not want to come somewhere just to sit in the role of a wedding general. I want to participate myself, to do what would be most interesting to me.”

For some time, the figure skater commented on figure skating competitions, studied English with a tutor and was looking for something she liked.

In February 2020, the “Academy of Champions” was opened in Moscow, where the main coaches were Yulia Lipnitskaya, Sochi 2014 Olympic champion in ice dancing Elena Ilinykh and 2012 Youth Olympics medalist in pair skating Maxim Miroshkin.

The Ilinykh/Lipnitskaya partnership was unexpected only at first glance. Elena recalls the beginning of her friendship with Yulia: “I don’t remember the year, but I think it was the Russian Championship. And I didn’t imagine that we would become friends, but it seemed to me that in front of me... was an angel (smiles). At the same time, she looked like a very strong person with a big heart.

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?? Liiiizka:3

A post shared by Julia Lipnitskaya (@sunnylipnitskaya) on Dec 27, 2020 at 12:43am PST

Yes, she was still a child, and I was a little older. I remember watching the women's singles with my mom and other people and saying, “Listen, this is amazing!” Then I walked up and asked her to take a photo. She was so small.....and said: “Okay” (shrugs her shoulders, smiling to show Yulia’s sincere reaction) - and now we have this photo. I think I was 16 and she was 12. But she was amazing even then.

And I can’t say that we were best friends from that moment, even if we went to the same competitions, we didn’t have time to talk. So it’s not like we always went hand in hand - she worked, she had her own life, and I had mine. But we supported each other in any situation. I always felt her support. And, if she felt bad, she wrote to me, I answered, and we knew that even if we were far from each other, we were still close. I really don’t know how this friendship came into our lives - maybe life situations helped, maybe something else... but now we talk to each other a lot.”

Elena Ilyinykh in one of her interviews spoke about the implementation of the idea: “I have long had this idea: to have an Academy and travel with it throughout Russia with summer training camps, master classes, perhaps all over the world, I thought about it. On New Year's Eve 2020, I had to go to a children's show in St. Petersburg. And I went to this show with Maxim. And while we were sitting on the train going from Moscow to St. Petersburg, which was a five-hour trip, I told him my idea, and, as strange as it was, he had the same idea! We talked a lot about this, analyzed from different sides what we want to do, how to start. I called my lawyer to make sure everything was legally correct, because I didn’t want it to look like: “Okay, I’m an Olympic champion, I’ll go and take money.” No, I wanted it to be a good project.

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At the end of December at the VTB Dynamo Ice Arena we will meet you in the most magical ice show #CinderellaPluschenko ✨? Come find out if my glass slipper..or crystal skate?)..? ________________ We are waiting for you at our fairy tale together with @plushenkoofficial and @rudkovskayaofficial

A post shared by Julia Lipnitskaya (@sunnylipnitskaya) on Nov 28, 2020 at 5:13am PST

When we returned, we shared the idea with Yulia. Because, first of all, I love her. Secondly, because she has something to tell and show. I thought this would be a great team and we waited for their response. But since she left and didn't do any shows, we were afraid that she would say, "No." And we were so happy when she called the next day and said, “Okay. I'm ready! Let's go to work!

The main task of the “Academy of Champions” is to conduct training camps and master classes in figure skating for children and adults from beginners to professional athletes.

After the Olympics

The Sochi Olympics brought incredible popularity to the young athlete. The figure skater has become a real people's favorite. Journalists literally tore her apart. They wanted to see the girl at social events. Fans were also active. For example, one day someone left a puppy on the threshold of Yulia’s apartment.

It is not surprising that Lipnitskaya, who was simply not used to such attention to her person, developed psychological problems. According to the skater herself, at some point she stopped understanding how to continue living and what to do.

As a result, the post-Olympic season was extremely unsuccessful for Yulia. She didn't have a single clean performance. And it’s not just a matter of lost fame - from the stress she suffered, she gained weight, which is why the problems with technology that existed before got worse.

At the Russian Championship in December 2014, the girl only reached 9th place. Even then she started thinking about leaving big sport. In addition, conversations began among her circle about searching for a new coach. However, at that moment a scandal was avoided.

The first successes of Yulia Lipnitskaya in figure skating

Since at twelve the skater showed more than excellent results, her mother decided to move to Moscow. Thanks to this, Yulia had the opportunity to train with the best trainers in the country. Almost immediately it became clear that this decision was the right one. The girl’s new coach, Eteri Tutberidze, together with Sergei Dudakov, helped Lipnitskaya fully reveal the talent of the extraordinary figure skater. Igor Pashkevich also provided assistance in training.

In the 2009-10 season, Yulia was able to get to fifth position at the national junior championship. A year later, she no longer competed among juniors, but with “adults” at the Russian Championship, where she immediately became fourth.

The appearance of an investor, leaving Tutberidze and anorexia

After the Olympics, owner Peter Makarenko became interested in Yulia. He decided to invest money in Lipnitskaya in order to subsequently make money on her media exposure. As a result, the figure skater’s potential in terms of advertising contracts was never realized. The only serious success was the collaboration with adidas. According to information in the press, Yulia’s fee was about one hundred thousand euros per year. Other large companies were not eager to work with her.

Gradually, the relationship between Yulia and Eteri Tutberidze became worse and worse. In November 2020, the athlete changed her coach. Alexey Urmanov, who moved from St. Petersburg to Sochi, began working with her.

According to Eteri, Yulia left the sport because her mother wanted it. Those around Lipnitskaya held a different point of view. In an interview they say that she needs an attentive and technical coach. In addition, training away from Moscow was preferable for the athlete. Accommodation in Sochi was paid for by Makarenko.

Around the same time, Lipnitskaya was again forced to actively fight against extra pounds. It is widely believed that the weight gain was caused by hormonal problems. She had to make every effort to lose weight; she ate almost nothing.

As a result, by the end of 2020, doctors diagnosed the girl with a serious illness - anorexia. Soon she flew to Israel to undergo a three-month course of treatment. The same Makarenko paid for it.

At the beginning of September 2020, the Russian Figure Skating Federation officially confirmed that Yulia had completed her career.

Current activities

After leaving big sport, Yulia did not disappear from the media space. At the same time, her life is still closely connected with figure skating.

In February 2020, she and Olympic champion Elena Ilinykh opened the academy. Periodically, the educational institution organizes so-called training camps. In addition to the Ilins and Lipnitskaya, Maxim Miroshkin trains and conducts master classes for them.

An important event in the girl’s life was her admission to the Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism.

Julia successfully combines her correspondence studies with participation in ice shows. In the fall of 2020, it became known that she agreed to play the main role in Evgeni Plushenko’s new project. We are talking about Cinderella. By the way, in the performance you can also see another 2014 Olympic champion - Adelina Sotnikova, who acts as a fairy.

Olympics in Sochi

The fact that Yulia Lipnitskaya would represent her country at the Olympics in Sochi was quite expected. The girl managed to achieve results that some athletes can only dream of. Lipnitskaya was the main hope of the Russian figure skating team.

In the team figure skating competitions, which took place on February 6, 8 and 9 in Sochi, Yulia Lipnitskaya became the Olympic champion. She won and skated both programs perfectly. It was Lipnitskaya who won the most points, which helped the Russian figure skating team. The girl performed very difficult elements in her performance and received all possible bonuses. To date, Yulia Lipnitskaya is the country’s youngest Olympic champion.

In February 2014, it became known that Yulia Lipnitskaya was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation. This event became an excellent incentive for the athlete, when in the same month the girl took part in the short program competition in women's figure skating. Russia was represented by two figure skaters - 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya and 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova. After the short program, Yulia Lipnitskaya took fifth place, as she fell while performing a flip.

On February 20, 2014, the decisive skate took place - the free program. Yulia Lipnitskaya performed to the music of the legendary film “Schindler’s List”. The athlete performed perfect jumps and unique spins, but a few moments before the final the skater fell.

As a result, the 15-year-old athlete showed the fifth result in the sum of both programs. Adelina unconditionally won that Olympics, giving Russia the first gold in the modern history of women's singles skating.

Yulia Lipnitskaya and Adelina Sotnikova

Yulia Lipnitskaya, who managed to achieve incredible success, is a very young girl. Therefore, fans and fans of figure skating were sure that more than one Olympics awaited Lipnitskaya.

Personal life

It should be noted that Yulia has a strong character and a toughened fighter - these are the qualities that helped her in difficult moments, when she wanted to forget everything and end it.

The girl tries to carefully hide her personal life from prying eyes. She is beautiful, young and famous, rumors about her periodically appear in the press.

Since 2020, she has been credited with a romantic relationship with her colleague Vlad Tarasenko. This information has not yet received official confirmation.

A couple of years ago, Julia gained a lot of weight, and a video appeared on the Internet where she was captured in loose clothes. Because of this, talk began about the figure skater’s pregnancy, but this is just gossip.

Yulia is an active user of social networks. Her Instagram profile has more than 370 thousand subscribers. Among other things, the girl shares beautiful photographs taken in Iceland, Japan, Romania and other parts of the world.

Personal life of Yulia Lipnitskaya

Due to her young age and heavy workload, there was nothing to say about the personal life of the Russian figure skater for a long time. The situation changed with Lipnitskaya's move to Sochi, where she began training under the guidance of her new coach Alexei Urmanov.

The photo of the athlete on Instagram shows that she manages not only to work, but also to relax in the company of her colleague Vladislav Tarasenko when he visits this southern city.

In 2020, fans of the Russian figure skater were surprised by the big changes in her appearance: Lipnitskaya gained noticeable weight and began wearing loose-fitting clothes. Rumors spread about the athlete’s pregnancy, which she angrily denied.