Maxim Shabalin
- Actor
Maxim Shabalin was born on January 25, 1982 in Samara, Russia. He
started skating when he was only four years old but, as he admits
himself, he kept training only to please his parents who insisted that
he kept on skating. As he likes to relate himself, he fought hard for a
free childhood, skipping training to run to play outdoors, or to go
back home to sleep. Only when he was eleven, and after almost giving up
the sport, his first coach, Oleg Ivanovic Sudakov, suggested to the boy
that he should try ice dancing. Finally Maxim found the right
motivation to go on with skating. During the following years he changed
several partners, but things never seemed to work out. When he was
sixteen he moved to Sofia where he teamed up with Margarita Toteva
representing Bulgaria. They skated together for a year and a half but
the team split when Margarita was forced to retire due to injury. Maxim
went back to Russia. There he teamed up with Elena Khaljavina. The team
was quite successful: in 2001 they placed third at Junior Worlds. The
following season they managed to win two Grand Prix events, placing
second at the Grand Prix final. They went on to become Junior National
Russian champions, and silver medalists at the Junior Worlds, after
Tanith Belbin and
Benjamin Agosto. Unfortunately their relationship
deteriorated, and once again Maxim was on the lookout for another
partner. The search led to Oksana Domnina
Initially they communicated only by letter, then Maxim came to
Odintsovo from Togliatti, where he was skating during the previous
season, "to give it a try". The decision to form the couple was made in
May 2002, when the guys started skating together under the guidance of
coach Alexei Gorshkov and choreographer Sergei Petukhov. This was the
beginning of a very successful career that saw them crowned as winners
of the 2007 Grand Prix Final and European Champions in 2008. In the
summer of 2008 the skaters decided to change their coaching team, a
decision that changed their life completely. Shortly after that, they
moved to the US to train with Natalia Linichuk and Gennadij Karponosov.
The change of coach proved to be a good decision as in 2009 they
finally became World Champions in Los Angeles.