Sara Hurtado

Sara Hurtado Martín (born 3 November 1992) is a Spanish retired ice dancer.

Initially rising to prominence on the international scene partnered with Adrián Díaz, the duo won six senior international medals and five Spanish national titles, and were the first dance team to represent Spain in ISU competition.

Sara Hurtado was born 3 November 1992 in Madrid.

She studied journalism at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria before moving to Canada.

Hurtado began skating in 2001.

Her mother signed her up for lessons when an ice rink opened nearby.

She competed in singles but became interested in switching to ice dancing in 2006, when Adrià Díaz asked her to attend a summer camp organized by the Spanish federation (FEDH) with French coach Romain Haguenauer.

Hurtado said, "We begged the Federation for two years, please, please, we want to do ice dance."

In early 2008, FEDH hired British coach John Dunn to teach ice dancing in Madrid.

Hurtado/Díaz began competing together internationally in the 2008–09 season.

Their first major international event was the 2009 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where they finished 32nd.

Hurtado/Díaz competed in two events on the Junior Grand Prix circuit and finished sixteenth at the 2010 World Junior Championships in The Hague, Netherlands.

Hurtado/Díaz competed on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, while also taking part in several senior internationals.

They finished fifteenth at the 2011 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, won a bronze medal at the Bavarian Open, and finished fourth at the Winter Universiade.

They placed ninth at the World Junior Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.

They then competed in Moscow, Russia, at their first senior World Championships; although the two qualified for the short dance out of the preliminary round, they were unable to reach the free dance portion of the event.

Hurtado/Díaz moved to London, England, in mid-2011 after Dunn accepted a coaching job in his native country.

In November, they competed at their first-ever Grand Prix event, the 2011 Trophée Éric Bompard, where they placed 8th (last).

In December 2011, they ended their relationship with Dunn and relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to train under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.

Ranked twelfth in the short dance and seventeenth in the free dance, Hurtado/Díaz finished sixteenth at the 2012 European Championships in Sheffield, England.

They qualified to the free dance at the 2012 World Championships in Nice, France, and finished nineteenth overall.

Hurtado/Díaz did not compete on the Grand Prix series.

They placed 15th at the 2013 European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, and nineteenth at the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.

At the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy, Hurtado/Díaz became the first ice dancers to qualify an Olympic entry for Spain.

They had no Grand Prix assignments.

They qualified for the Olympic Games, finishing thirteenth at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and achieving their best ISU Championship result when they placed fifth at the 2015 European Championships.

In January 2014, they finished 10th at the 2014 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, allowing Spain to send two ice dancing teams to the next Europeans.

One month later, Hurtado/Díaz competed at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia; they set personal best scores in both segments and finished in thirteenth place.

They ended their season with a sixteenth-place result at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama.

Returning to the Grand Prix series, Hurtado/Díaz placed eighth at the 2014 Skate Canada International and fourth at the 2014 Trophée Éric Bompard.

They then achieved career-best ISU Championship results, finishing fifth with a new personal best score at the 2015 European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, and then fourteenth at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, China.

Hurtado/Díaz were invited to two Grand Prix events – the 2015 Trophée Éric Bompard and the 2015 Rostelecom Cup.

However, on 16 October 2015, Hurtado announced on her personal Facebook page that she had decided to end the partnership.

In a later interview, Hurtado stated that their partnership had experienced problems for some time and that therapy had not helped resolve these issues.

Hurtado and Russia's Kirill Khaliavin began considering skating together in late December 2015 and had a tryout in March 2016 in Moscow.

In 2016, she enrolled at the British School of Art and Design in Moscow.

He was released to skate for Spain in September 2016.

They decided to be coached by Alexander Zhulin in Moscow.

Following the end of her partnership with Díaz, she formed a new partnership with Russian ice dancer Kirill Khaliavin, with whom she was the 2018 Rostelecom Cup silver medalist and 2017 and 2019 Spanish national champion.

The two placed twelfth at the 2018 Winter Olympics and were the first Spanish ice dancers to stand on a Grand Prix podium.