Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

Oleksandra ("Sasha") Nazarova and Maksym ("Max") Nikitin made the journey separately from their homes, first to Poland under extremely difficult circumstances, and then to Montpellier. They left their families (and their costumes) behind and spent days on the road. Sasha even left her skates but Max was able to bring them. After their return from the Olympics there had been no time for practice. They put together a special Rhythm Dance in three days, using "1944" by Jamala and "Red Viburnum" - very meaningful representations of their history and culture and performed it in their Olympic gear. They chose not to perform their free dance - partly due to lack of training but also as they felt it was inappropriate under the circumstances.

Their Rhythm Dance at Worlds begins at 2:58:05 on this video of the competition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTJSF-H ... R&index=14
The singer, Jamala, posted the video of their performance on Instagram and called them her winners: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbkQgtjr5kE/

An interview with US TV just after the event: https://youtu.be/b-blVEA5oGU

This video, with English subtitles, was posted on Instagram by their sport federation: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbm2X-DlH6B/

Sasha, Max and their fellow Ukrainian skater Ivan Shmuratko took turns "coaching" each other from the boards and sitting together in the Kiss 'n Cry.








There was incredible support for all of them by everyone at Worlds (fans, skaters, officials). I hope that somehow they will be able to continue skating in a safe locale - they are brave representatives of a very brave and determined country.

IFS Magazine has an article about them with some more details including links to the music used in their RD: https://www.ifsmagazine.com/nazarova-an ... ous-dance/

Thanks. They are an inspiration to the whole world!

An extensive interview (in English) for a Japanese figure skating magazine: https://europeonice.com/2022/04/01/naza ... rld-stage/

More bad news for the Ukrainian ice dancers - their home rink has been bombed

You can read Max's comments to the right of the first image below - first in Ukrainian and then in Englis.

Good grief, that's horrible! I'm glad as mentioned in another post, that the ISU will help the Ukrainian skaters financially.

Nazarova & Nikitin have announced their retirement from competition - in their posts on Instagram they said:

... We have decided to end our sports career. But we do not want to finish with figure skating! We really want to continue to work and please you, but not as athletes!

Their emotional RD at Worlds will be remembered for a long time.

I wish them well in whatever lies ahead in these troubled times for Ukraine.

An excellent reminder of the importance of not forgetting about Ukraine as we move into a new skating season:

https://europeonice.com/2022/08/22/as-n ... t-ukraine/