Anastasia Tarakanova

Anastasia Anatolyevna Tarakanova (Анастасия Анатольевна Тараканова; born 14 April 2004) is a Russian retired figure skater.

Tarakanova was born on 14 April 2004 in Volgograd, Russia.

Her father is a swimmer and her mother is also an athlete.

Due to her allergies, she was advised by a doctor to skate or swim.

She tried both sports and won her first swimming competition as the youngest competitor, receiving her trophy from three-time Olympic gold medalist Yevgeny Sadovyi.

She eventually chose to focus on skating, considering it beautiful and enjoying the support of the audience.

She also enjoys painting for leisure.

Tarakanova began learning to skate in December 2007.

She learned her basics with Lyudmila Puchkova and a year before leaving Volgograd, she went to train with Irina Aksenova.

In 2011, Tarakanova moved to Moscow due to her father's work.

Her first coach in Moscow was Irina Klimova, who was a student of the famous Stanislav Zhuk.

She then switched to coach Maria Butyrskaya, World Figure Skating Champion.

Later, she moved from Krylatskoye to Novokosino and Snow Leopards was a nearby rink and she went to train under Svetlana Panova.

Tarakanova began competing her double axels early the season and placed third at Volkov Memorial.

Later that season, Tarakanova eventually gained all her triples and competed at Moscow Championships Elder Age with a sixth-place finish, earning her a spot at Russian Nationals Elder Age, where she finished 5th after Polina Tsurskaya, Alisa Fedichkina, Alina Solovyova and Stanislava Konstantinova.

She went on to win the Moscow Championships Younger Age.

Her highlight of the season was her win at Russian Nationals Younger age, where she earned 198.22 points, edging out silver medalist Anna Shcherbakova by 24.54 points and bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova by 24.71 points.

Tarakanova started off her season with a fifth place at Moscow Open Championship.

She then experimented her triple-triple combination at Volkov Memorial, where she placed second.

She earned herself 2 spots at the IV & V Stages of Cup of Russia and had two 4th-place finishes.

She then earned her ticket to the Russian Junior Nationals as the youngest competitor.

However, she had pops and falls in both the short program and free skate which left her placing sixteenth overall.

She competed at Russian Cup Finals placing ninth.

She also competed at both Moscow Championships Younger & Elder age, but only placed seventh and thirteenth respectively and missing out on both Russian Nationals Younger & Elder Age.

Tarakanova completed a triple Lutz-triple toe combination at the Moscow Open Championship and finished fifth at the competition.

She placed fourth and third respectively at the I & V stages of Cup of Russia and qualified for Russian Junior Nationals, where she placed fourteenth.

At the Russian Cup Final, she placed fourth.

She won gold at the Russian Nationals Younger Age, placing ahead of Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova with a score of 246.18 points.

She then went on to win the Russian Nationals Elder Age.

Tarakanova changed coaches ahead of the season, joining Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov, who also coach in Moscow.

She is the 2017 JGP Austria and 2018 JGP Slovenia champion, and the 2017–18 JGP Final bronze medalist.

She has won seven medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series.

Tarakanova's international debut came in early September 2017 at a 2017–18 ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) competition in Salzburg, Austria; ranked first in both segments, she won the gold medal ahead of Lim Eun-soo.

Her total score at the event, 196.68 points, was the fifth highest ever achieved by a ladies' single skater on the junior level.

She placed third at her second JGP assignment, in Zagreb, Croatia.

With these results she qualified for the 2017–18 JGP Final in Nagoya, Japan.

In January 2018 she competed at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships where she placed seventh after placing fourth in the short program and seventh in the free skate.

During the 2018-19 season, starting in July 2018, Tarakanova trained at Evgeni Plushenko's rink under coach Ksenia Ivanova.

At the JGP Final she won the bronze medal with a personal best score of 199.64 points after placing 3rd in the short program and 3rd in the free skate.

At this competition she placed behind her teammates and training partners Alexandra Trusova (gold) and Alena Kostornaia (silver).