Ekaterina Kurakova

Ekaterina Andreevna Kurakova (Екатерина Андреевна Куракова, Jekatierina Andriejewna Kurakowa, born 24 June 2002), nicknamed Katia, is a Russian-Polish figure skater who currently competes for Poland.

Kurakova was born on 24 June 2002 in Moscow.

She has an older brother named Alexander.

Kurakova began learning to skate in 2006 at the age of four.

She was coached first by Natalia Dubinskaya at the Moskvich Olympic Reserve School and later by Inna Goncharenko at CSKA Moscow.

Representing Russia, she competed internationally in the advanced novice category for two seasons beginning in 2013–14 and then as a junior for two seasons.

According to Kurakova, due to the level of depth in Russian women's skating, Russian coaches tried encouraging her to quit figure skating.

Ultimately, in the summer of 2017, Kurakova wrote a letter to Marek Kaliszek, the chairman of the Polish Figure Skating Association, requesting that she represent Poland and her request was eventually accepted.

She soon began training in Toruń, coached by Sylwia Nowak-Trębacka.

After receiving financial support from an unpublicized sponsor, she decided to move to Toronto to train under Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Club, beginning in December 2018.

She is a three-time Warsaw Cup champion (2019, 2022, 2023), the 2019 Mentor Toruń Cup champion, a six-time Four Nationals champion (2019–2024), and a six-time Polish national champion (2019–2024).

In October 2019, Kurakova became a Polish citizen.

She was in a relationship with Polish ice dancer Filip Bojanowski.

Kurakova is able to speak Russian, Polish, and English fluently.

Later that month, she won the Four National Championships in Budapest, thus becoming the 2019 Polish national champion.

However, due to the recent change of her country of representation, she could not compete in any ISU events until after June 2019.

On 1 July 2019, Kurakova received her clearance certificate, allowing her to officially represent Poland in international figure skating competitions and ISU championships.

In her international senior debut at the Minto Summer Skate in Ontario, Canada, she placed first, scoring 182.77 points overall.

She then competed at two ISU Junior Grand Prix events, placing fifth in Riga and seventh in Gdańsk.

In November, she won gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, ahead of Bradie Tennell.

In December, she defended her national title at the Four National Championships in Ostrava.

Kurakova competed at her first European Championships in January, placing tenth.

She finished the season at the 2020 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she placed seventh.

Kurakova remarked afterward, "I'm so happy because we did hard work with Brian, and it was important for me to show what Brian made for me. I’m really grateful to my coaches and parents."

She was scheduled to make her senior World Championship debut in Montreal, but the event's cancellation prevented this due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, Kurakova could not return to Canada to train in Toronto.

She temporarily began training in Egna, Italy under Lorenzo Magri while receiving virtual coaching from Orser.

Kurakova was assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but withdrew on 7 October.

After winning the Four National Championships for the third consecutive year, Kurakova made her World Championship debut in March at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm.

She placed thirty-second in the short program after falling on her triple Lutz in her planned opening triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination.

She managed to tack on a double toe loop onto a triple loop later in the program, but her reduced technical content was not enough to advance her to the free skate.

Following the season, Kurakova decided to permanently relocate to Egna rather than relocate back to Toronto due to high costs and not wanting to be far away from friends and family, who reside in Poland and Russia, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to Magri, Angelina Turenko became another coach of Kurakova.

Kurakova began the season at the 2021 CS Lombardia Trophy, where she won the silver medal.

She next competed at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, seeking to qualify a berth for Poland at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

She placed sixth in the short program after a combination error, but a second-place free skate saw her rise to the silver medal position, securing the second of six available Olympic spots.

Following the Challenger series, Kurakova made her Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate America, where she placed ninth.

Returning to Poland to compete at the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup, she won the bronze medal, notably finishing first in the free skate.

At her second Grand Prix, the 2021 Rostelecom Cup, Kurakova finished in ninth place.

Kurakova claimed her fourth consecutive Polish national title in December at the 2022 Four Nationals Championships and was therefore assigned to Poland's berth in the women's event at the 2022 European Championships.