Alexei Yagudin facts for kids

In this article, the patronymic is Konstantinovich and the family name is Yagudin.

Quick facts for kids Alexei Yagudin
In 2022
Personal information
Full name	Alexei Konstantinovich Yagudin
Country represented	Russia
Born	(1980-03-18) 18 March 1980 (age 45) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Retired	2003

Alexei Konstantinovich Yagudin (born March 18, 1980) is a famous Russian former figure skater. He is known for his amazing skills on the ice. Alexei won the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He also became a World champion four times (in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2002).

Alexei Yagudin also won the European Championship three times (1998, 1999, 2002). He was a two-time Grand Prix Final champion. In 1996, he won the World Junior Championship. He is the only figure skater to achieve a "Golden Slam." This means he won all major championships in one season (2001–2002).

After he stopped competing, Yagudin became a professional skater. He has also worked as a TV host, an actor, and a figure skating commentator. In 2019, he opened his own skating center in Minsk, Belarus. In 2017, he was added to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Alexei Yagudin's Early Life
- The Start of a Big Rivalry
Alexei Yagudin's Senior Skating Career
Alexei Yagudin's Professional Career
Alexei Yagudin's Acting and Hosting Career
Alexei Yagudin's Personal Life
Honors and Awards
Programs
Competitive Highlights
- All Events
See also

Alexei Yagudin's Early Life

Alexei Yagudin was born on March 18, 1980, in Leningrad, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He started skating when he was four years old. His mother, Zoya, thought it would help him stay healthy.

Alexei quickly learned many difficult jumps. He could do all his double jumps before he turned ten. By age twelve, he had mastered five triple jumps. He even landed the triple Axel jump before he was thirteen.

His first coach was Alexander Mayorov. Later, he trained with the famous Russian coach Alexei Mishin. Yagudin trained with Mishin from 1992 to 1998. He started competing internationally in 1994.

The Start of a Big Rivalry

While training with Mishin, Alexei Yagudin began a famous rivalry. His main competitor was fellow Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko. This rivalry became even stronger after Yagudin left Mishin's group.

Alexei Yagudin's Senior Skating Career

In 1997, Yagudin competed in the World Championships for the first time. He won a bronze medal, which was a great start.

Winning European and World Titles

In 1998, Yagudin won the European Championships. He led a Russian sweep, with Plushenko and Alexander Abt also winning medals. Later that year, he competed at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. He finished in 5th place, even though he was sick.

A month after the Olympics, he won the 1998 World Championships. He was only 18 years old, making him one of the youngest male World Champions ever. After this win, Yagudin started training with Tatiana Tarasova. She coached him until he retired in 2003.

Yagudin performing "Overcome" in 2002

Dominating the 1998–99 Season

The 1998–99 season was very successful for Yagudin. He won eleven out of thirteen competitions. This included beating Kurt Browning at the World Professional Championships. He also won the Grand Prix Final.

At the 2000 European Championships, he won his second European title. He beat both Plushenko and former Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov. He then defended his world title at the 2000 World Championships in France.

Challenges and Injuries

The 1999–2000 season started with some difficulties for Yagudin. He had to withdraw from the Grand Prix Final because of a knee injury. He also lost to Plushenko at the Russian and European Championships. However, he still managed to win his third straight world title at the 2000 World Championships.

The 2000–01 season was tough due to injuries. He placed second to Plushenko in several major events. Before the 2001 World Championships, he hurt his foot. Despite this, he skated with great passion and won a silver medal.

The Golden Olympic Season (2001–02)

The 2001–02 season was Yagudin's best. He changed his training and became unstoppable. He won the Grand Prix Final and regained his European title.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Yagudin won the gold medal. Every judge voted for him in the men's event. He received four perfect 6.0 scores for his free skate. This was a record for a male skater at the Olympics.

After the Olympics, Yagudin won his fourth World title. He received six perfect 6.0s for his short program. He also got two more 6.0s for his free skating. He was the first singles skater to get six perfect marks for the short program.

Retirement from Competitive Skating

After his amazing Olympic season, Yagudin was diagnosed with a hip problem. Doctors told him to rest, but he chose to compete at 2002 Skate America. He won the short program but had to withdraw due to his injury.

Soon after, he announced his retirement from competitive skating. His final performance as a competitive skater was a farewell gala. He skated to a new program called Memorial and his short program Racing. Yagudin received the Order of Merit for the Fatherland award in 2003. He never won the Russian Championships, often placing second to Evgeni Plushenko.

Alexei Yagudin's Professional Career

After retiring from competitive skating in 2003, Yagudin became a professional skater. He toured with shows like Stars on Ice and Ice Symphony in Russia.

In 2004, he continued touring and also worked as a consultant coach for French skater Brian Joubert. He won two professional competitions with new programs. In 2005, he performed a difficult acrobatic routine seven meters in the air. He also took part in Russian TV shows like Stars on Ice, later called Ice Age.

In 2007, Yagudin had surgery to get a titanium hip joint. After this, he thought about returning to competitive skating. His former coaches agreed to help him. However, he got another injury later that year. He then decided that returning to competitive skating would be too hard.

He continues to perform in ice shows around the world. In 2010, he skated in shows in Korea and China. He often performs his popular Winter program. In 2017, he was honored by being inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. In 2019, he opened his own skating center in Minsk, Belarus.

Alexei Yagudin's Acting and Hosting Career

In Russia, Alexei Yagudin has a busy career off the ice. He works as a TV host, an actor, and a figure skating commentator.

In 2006, he joined the Russian TV show Stars on Ice. He was paired with a former gymnast, Oksana Pouchkina. He later continued on the show, which was renamed Ice Age. He even recorded a song with his partner, pop singer Victoria Dayneko.

In 2008, Yagudin started acting in plays. He played the main role in a play called The President's Vacation. His acting career continued with a main role in the TV series Hot Ice (2009). He also hosted a TV show called Good evening, Moscow! in 2009.

In 2010, he performed in an ice musical called City Lights. He also participated in more seasons of Ice Age with actress Valeria Lanskaya. In 2013, he acted in a play called Don't Trust Your Eyes. He has also appeared as a host on the TV series I Want to Know. Since 2019, he hosts his own show, Ice is melting with Alexei Yagudin, where he interviews athletes.

Alexei Yagudin's Personal Life

Alexei Yagudin moved to the United States in 1999 to train. He lived there for almost seven years before returning to Russia. In 2008, his car was stolen, and one of his World Championships gold medals was inside. Neither the car nor the medal was ever found.

In 2016, Yagudin married Olympic pair skating champion Tatiana Totmianina. They have two daughters. Their first daughter, Elizaveta ("Liza"), was born in 2009. Their second daughter, Michèle, was born in 2015. The couple hopes their daughters will focus on school and music instead of competitive skating. The Yagudin family lives in Moscow and France.

Honors and Awards

Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th class (2003) – for his great achievements in sports at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
National Sports Award "Glory," "Best Athlete of 2002".
2017 World Figure Skating Hall of Fame inductee.

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2002–2003	Racing by Safri Duo	The Man in the Iron Mask by Nick Glennie-Smith	Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf Memorial by Michael Nyman
2001–2002	Winter by Bond	The Man in the Iron Mask by Nick Glennie-Smith	Overcome (from Ancient Lands) by Ronan Hardiman The Man in the Iron Mask by Nick Glennie-Smith
2000–2001	The Revolutionary Etude by Frédéric Chopin	Gladiator by Hans Zimmer	Gladiator by Hans Zimmer Stand by Me by Ben E. King My Baby You by Marc Anthony We Are the Champions by Queen
1999–2000	Nutrocker by Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Broken Arrow by Hans Zimmer Tosca by Giacomo Puccini	Come Fly with Me by Barry Manilow September Morn by Neil Diamond
1998–1999	Circus (from The Revisionist's Tale) by Alfred Schnittke	Lawrence of Arabia by Maurice Jarre	Here Comes the Big Parade by Harry Connick, Jr. The Prince of Rose
1997–1998	Ziganotchka (Russian Gypsy Music)	Troika; or, Snowstorm by Georgy Sviridov	Play It Again, Satchmo by Louis Armstrong Mack the Knife (from The Threepenny Opera) by Kurt Weill
1996–1997	Ruslan and Lyudmila by Mikhail Glinka	Carmen by Georges Bizet	One Banana (African Music)
1995–1996	The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	Gaîté Parisienne by Jacques Offenbach
1994–1995	Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach	Hussar medley
1993–1994		Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo Performed by Paco de Lucía

Competitive Highlights

GP: Champions Series / Grand Prix

International
Event	93–94	94–95	95–96	96–97	97–98	98–99	99–00	00–01	01–02
Olympics					5th				1st
Worlds				3rd	1st	1st	1st	2nd	1st
Europeans			6th	5th	1st	1st	2nd	2nd	1st
GP Final				5th	4th	1st		2nd	1st
GP Cup of Russia				2nd	1st
GP Lalique					1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
GP Nations/Spark.				3rd		1st
GP Skate America				3rd		1st	1st	2nd
GP Skate Canada							1st	1st	1st
Goodwill Games	8th								3rd
Prague Skate		3rd
International: Junior
Junior Worlds	4th		1st
National
Russian Champ.	5th	5th	4th	3rd	2nd	2nd	2nd	2nd

All Events

Amateur Status, Senior-Level

2001–02 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
16–24 March 2002	2002 World Championships	Nagano, Japan	1	1	1	1
8–24 February 2002	2002 Winter Olympics	Salt Lake City, USA	–	1	1	1
14–20 January 2002	2002 European Championships	Lausanne, Switzerland	1	1	1	1
13–16 December 2001	2001–02 Grand Prix Final	Kitchener, Canada	2 (SP)	2 (FS1)	1 (FS2)	1
15–18 November 2001	2001 Trophée Lalique	Paris, France	–	1	1	1
1–4 November 2001	2001 Skate Canada International	Saskatoon, Canada	–	1	1	1
	Masters of Figure Skating	San Diego, USA				1
4–9 September 2001	2001 Goodwill Games	Brisbane, Australia	–	3	3	3
2000–01 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
17–25 March 2001	2001 World Championships	Vancouver, Canada	5	2	2	2
15–18 February 2001	2000–01 Grand Prix Final	Tokyo, Japan	1 (SP)	2 (FS)	2 (SF)	2
21–28 January 2001	2001 European Championships	Bratislava, Slovakia	1	2	2	2
26–29 December 2000	2000 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia	–	3	2	2
23–26 November 2000	2000 Trophée Lalique	Paris, France	–	1	1	1
2–5 November 2000	2000 Skate Canada International	Mississauga, Canada	–	1	1	1
26–29 October 2000	2000 Skate America	Colorado Springs, USA	–	1	2	2
	Masters of Figure Skating	Boise, USA				2
	Canadian Open	Hamilton, Canada				1
	Japan Open	Tokyo, Japan				1
	Hershey's Kisses Figure Skating Challenge	Detroit, USA				1
1999–2000 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
23 March – 3 April 2000	2000 World Championships	Nice, France	1	1	1	1
6–13 February 2000	2000 European Championships	Vienna, Austria	1	1	2	2
23–25 December 1999	2000 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia	–	2	2	2
18–20 November 1999	1999 Trophée Lalique	Paris, France	–	1	1	1
4–7 November 1999	1999 Skate Canada International	Saint John, Canada	–	1	1	1
27–31 October 1999	1999 Skate America	Colorado Springs, USA	–	1	1	1
	Masters of Figure Skating	Green Bay, USA				2
	Japan Open	Tokyo, Japan				1
	Grand Slam Super Teams of Skating	Kitchener, Canada				2
	Keri Lotion Classic	Orlando, USA				1
1998–99 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
20–28 March 1999	1999 World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	1	2	1	1
5–7 March 1999	1998–99 Grand Prix Final	Saint Petersburg, Russia	–	1	1	1
24–31 January 1999	1999 European Championships	Prague, Czech Republic	3	2	1	1
4–7 January 1999	1999 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia				2
20–22 November 1998	1998 Trophée Lalique	Paris, France	–	2	1	1
12–15 November 1998	1998 Sparkassen Cup on Ice	Gelsenkirchen, Germany	–	1	1	1
29 October – 1 November 1998	1998 Skate America	Detroit, USA	–	1	1	1
	Japan Open	Tokyo, Japan				2
	World Professional Championships	Washington D.C., USA				1
	World Team Challenge	Milwaukee, USA				1
	Challenge of Champions	Sunrise, USA				1
	Hershey's Kisses Challenge	Binghamton, USA				1
1997–98 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
29 March – 5 April 1998	1998 World Championships	Minneapolis, USA	2	1	2	1
7–22 February 1998	1998 Winter Olympics	Nagano, Japan	–	4	5	5
11–18 January 1997	1998 European Championships	Milan, Italy	–	1	1	1
18–20 December 1997	1997–98 Champions Series Final	Munich, Germany	–	6	4	4
11–14 December 1997	1998 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia	–	1	3	2
19–23 November 1997	1997 Cup of Russia	Saint Petersburg, Russia	–	1	1	1
13–16 November 1997	1997 Trophée Lalique	Paris, France	–	2	1	1
	Skate Israel	Metulla, Israel				1
3–5 October 1997	1997 Finlandia Trophy	Helsinki, Finland	–	1	1	1
1996–97 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
16–23 March 1997	1997 World Championships	Lausanne, Switzerland	6	5	3	3
28 February – 2 March 1997	1996–97 Champions Series Final	Hamilton, Canada	–	6	5	5
21–25 January 1997	1997 European Championships	Paris, France	–	5	4	5
26–29 December 1996	1997 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia				3
12–15 December 1996	1996 Cup of Russia	Saint Petersburg, Russia	–	2	2	2
21–23 November 1996	1996 Nations Cup	Gelsenkirchen, Germany	–	2	3	3
31 October – 3 November 1996	1996 Skate America	Springfield, USA	–	6	3	3

Amateur Status, Junior-Level

1995–96 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
22–28 January 1996	1996 European Championships	Sofia, Bulgaria	2	5	5	6
26–30 December 1995	1996 Russian Championships	Samara, Russia				4
26 November – 2 December 1995	1996 World Junior Championships	Brisbane, Australia	1	1	1	1
	Centennial on Ice	Saint Petersburg, Russia				2
	1995 Blue Swords	Chemnitz, Germany				1
1994–95 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
	1995 Russian Championships	Moscow, Russia				5
17–20 November 1994	1994 Nations Cup	Gelsenkirchen, Germany				8
	1994 Goodwill Games	Saint Petersburg, Russia	–	8	8	8
1993–94 season
Date	Event	Location	QR	SP	FS	Total
30 November – 5 December 1993	1994 World Junior Championships	Colorado Springs, USA				4
	1994 Russian Championships	Saint Petersburg, Russia				5

Professional Status

2006–07 season
Date	Event	Location	SP	FS	Total
	Ice Wars	Hoffman Estates, USA			1
29 April 2007	2007 Japan Open	Saitama, Japan	–	5 128.43	2T
2005–06 season
Date	Event	Location	SP	FS	Total
	Ice Wars	Peoria, USA			2
	World Team Challenge	London, Ontario, Canada			2
14 March 2006	2006 Japan Open	Saitama, Japan	–	6 112.70	3T
2004–05 season
Date	Event	Location	SP	FS	Total
	Ice Wars	Charlton, USA			1
	World Team Challenge	Winnipeg, Canada			1
2003–04 season
Date	Event	Location	SP	FS	Total
	World Team Challenge	Vancouver, Canada			3