Anna Shcherbakova

Anna Stanislavovna Shcherbakova (Анна Станиславовна Щербакова, born 28 March 2004) is a Russian figure skater.

She is the reigning Olympic champion (2022), a World champion (2021), a European Champion (2022), and a three-time Russian national champion (2019–2021).

She was the first woman figure skater to land a quad Lutz in senior competition and the first woman to land two quad Lutz jumps in a single program.

She was also the first woman figure skater to land a quad flip in combination with a triple jump, as well as the first to land two quad flip jumps in a single program.

She is the first Olympic champion in women’s single skating with quad jumps.

The quad Lutz and quad flip are among the three most difficult jumps in figure skating, only behind the quad axel.

Additionally, she never finished below second place in her senior career.

Shcherbakova was born in Moscow on 28 March 2004.

Her father is a physicist and programmer, and her mother, Yulia, is a geologist-crystallographer.

Her great-grandfather, Prokhor Shcherbakov, was a Soviet statesman.

She has an older sister, Inna, and a younger sister, Yana.

Shcherbakova's parents signed Inna and Anna up for skating lessons to keep them active.

As a child, Shcherbakova was also enrolled in drawing, swimming, and music classes and took tennis lessons.

Shcherbakova began skating at age three in 2007 with her first coach Oksana Bulycheva at the Khrustalnyi rink of the Olympic Reserve Sports School No. 37 (later renamed "Sambo 70") in Moscow.

Bulycheva would later describe Shcherbakova as a highly motivated skater who was advanced for her age.

She parted ways with Bulycheva in November 2013 at age nine and began training in the elite group at the same rink, led by Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov.

Her stability and natural artistry, along with her quad jumps, made her one of the most dominant figure skaters in international competition from her debut as a junior skater at the end of 2017-18 season through the 2022 Winter Olympics.

In mid-July 2017, when she was 13, Shcherbakova broke her leg while performing a triple loop at a training camp.

As a result of the accident she missed most of the 2017–18 season, including her planned Junior Grand Prix debut.

Then in February, she improved her total score by over 30 points at the 2017-18 Russian Cup Final to win the gold medal in the junior category.

Shcherbakova debuted internationally on the Junior Grand Prix circuit in August.

She was assigned to events in Slovakia and Canada.

Shcherbakova returned to competition in January 2018 at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships, finishing thirteenth with a total score of 179.19.

At the 2018 JGP Slovakia, she placed first in both the short program and free skate, winning the gold medal by a margin of over 18 points over the silver medalist and fellow Russian competitor Anna Tarusina.

At the time, her scores at the competition were the highest achieved in an international junior women's competition.

Her short program and combined total records were later surpassed by Alexandra Trusova, and the free program record was surpassed by Alena Kostornaia.

At the 2018 JGP Canada, Shcherbakova once again placed first in both the short program and free skate and won the gold medal by a margin of five points over the silver medalist, Anastasia Tarakanova.

With two gold medals on the Junior Grand Prix, she qualified for the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final.

In October, Shcherbakova competed at the 2nd stage of the 2018 Russian Cup and became the first woman skater to land a quad Lutz at a domestic event.

At the Junior Grand Prix Final in December, Shcherbakova placed sixth in the short program and fifth in the free skate, resulting in fifth place overall.

Later in December 2018, at the 2019 Russian Championships, she once again landed the quad Lutz and won the gold medal with a total score of 229.78.

At 14 years and seven months old, she became the third-youngest Russian women's singles champion in history.

Despite winning the Russian title, she was too young to compete in the European Championships or World Championships of that season, both of which required participants to have turned 15 before 1 July 2018.

At the junior level, Shcherbakova was the 2019 World Junior silver medalist, 2018 JGP Slovakia champion, 2018 JGP Canada champion, 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival champion, and 2019 Russian junior national bronze medalist.

Shcherbakova began figure skating when she was three years old, and she joined Eteri Tutberidze's group when she was nine.

She was one of the first women to add quad jumps to her programs.

Shcherbakova then competed at the 2019 Russian Junior National Championships.

After placing second in the short program and third in the free skate, she won the bronze medal.

She is also the European silver medalist (2020), the 2019 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, the 2019 Skate America champion, the 2019 Cup of China champion, the 2021 Internationaux de France champion, the 2021 Gran Premio d'Italia champion, the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy champion, the 2021 Budapest Trophy silver medalist, and the 2022 Russian national silver medalist.

In a 2020 interview, Shcherbakova shared that after joining Tutberidze's group, she stopped viewing skating as just a hobby and took her training more seriously.