- Pairs figure skater with Natalia Mishkutenok
- Long-time close friend and friendly rival with the late Sergei Grinkov and Ekaterina Gordeeva
- Coached by renowned figure skating coach, Tamara Moskvina.
- Is the only pairs skater to win the Olympic gold medal twice with two different partners
- As of 1995, skated with Oksana Kazakova
- Winner of two Olympic gold medals (1992 and 1998) and one silver medal 1994
- There was one other pair skater (from the then Soviet Union) who won a total of three gold medals in all, with two different partners. Irina Rodnina won gold in 1972 at Sapporo with then partner, Alexei Ulanov. Ulanov went on to skate with someone else, Ludmila Smirnova, the Silver medalist in pairs at Sapporo. Rodnina chose Alexander Zaitsev, after looking at almost 100 potential partners. They went on to win at the 1973 World Championships, taking the gold medal, with Ulanov & Smirnova the silver. Rodnina and Zaitsev went on to win the Olympic Gold medal in pairs at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. They won a total of 6 world championships together, before Rodnina took time off to have a baby-Sasha-in 1979. They came back with virtually no challengers for the gold at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, after the heart-breaking withdrawal of defending World Champions from the U.S., Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. Gardner popped a muscle in his leg 2 days before the event forcing the withdrawal of the pair, literally moments before they were to take to the ice. Rodnina and Zaitzev went on to win the gold medal-his second, her third. Only Sonja Henie of Norway has won as many gold medals-1928,1932 and 1936. Both Henie and Rodnina won ten world championships-Rodnina winning four with Ulanov and six with Zaitsev.
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