Elena Ilinykh

At some point, she had a brief partnership with Ivan Bukin, the son of 1988 Olympic ice dancing champion Andrei Bukin.

Elena Ruslanovna Ilinykh (Елена Руслановна Ильиных; born 25 April 1994) is a Russian former competitive ice dancer.

In 2005, Ilinykh/Katsalapov attended a training camp under Alexander Zhulin — who was preparing Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov for their Olympic gold-medal winning season — but split soon after.

From around 2006 to 2008, Ilinykh lived in Michigan with her grandmother and became fluent in English.

In spring 2008, Ilinykh returned to Moscow after Katsalapov expressed interest in reuniting with her.

He organized tryouts with her and other skaters at around the same time before making a final decision.

Ilinykh/Katsalapov rejoined Zhulin and began competing together in the 2008–09 season, placing fourth at the Russian Junior Championships.

Their international debut came in the 2009–10 season.

After winning gold medals at their Junior Grand Prix events in Budapest and Torun, they qualified to the JGP Final, where they took the silver medal behind Ksenia Monko / Kirill Khaliavin.

Her mother adopted a two-year-old boy in around 2010.

In 2010, Ilinykh said that they were too young at the time to understand partnership.

She left Russia and trained in Marina Zueva and Igor Shpilband's group in Canton, Michigan for two years without a partner.

Though second also at the Russian Junior Championships, Ilinykh/Katsalapov outscored Monko/Khaliavin for the gold at the 2010 World Junior Championships.

They were named Discovery of the Year at the 2010 Crystal Ice Awards held in October 2010 in Moscow.

For the 2010–11 season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov chose a ballet-themed free dance to Don Quixote: "[Zhulin] wanted us to do something classical Russian, and only very few people have done a real ballet program in dance."

Ilinykh's tutu was made at the Bolshoi.

They made their senior debut at the 2010 NHK Trophy where they finished fourth.

At their next event, 2010 Cup of Russia, they won the bronze medal, their first medal on the senior Grand Prix series.

At the 2011 Russian Nationals, they were second after the short dance behind Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev but placed fourth in the free dance to finish third overall behind Ekaterina Riazanova / Ilia Tkachenko.

However, their bronze medal was enough to earn them their first berth to the European Championships.

At the 2011 Europeans, Ilinykh/Katsalapov set new personal bests in the short dance (60.93), free dance (92.55) and combined total (153.48) to finish fourth in their debut at the event.

They were in a battle with Riazanova/Tkachenko for Russia's second of only two berths to the 2011 World Championships.

By finishing ahead of them, Ilinykh/Katsalapov won the right to make their senior Worlds debut.

They finished seventh at the event.

Following the end of the season, they ended their collaboration with Alexander Zhulin and Oleg Volkov to begin working with new coach Nikolai Morozov in May 2011.

During the off-season, they spent some time in the U.S. preparing for the 2011–12 season.

For the 2011–12 Grand Prix season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov were assigned to 2011 NHK Trophy and 2011 Trophée Eric Bompard.

At NHK Trophy, they placed first in the short dance but in the warm-up before the free dance Ilinykh crashed into the boards and injured her knee.

With former partner Nikita Katsalapov, she is a 2014 Olympic champion in the team event, a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in ice dancing, a three-time European medalist (silver in 2013 and 2014; bronze in 2012), and the 2010 World Junior champion.

Also along with former partner Nikita Katsalapov, she is the second-youngest Olympic Ice Dance medalist in history and the junior world record holder for the Original Dance.

Elena Ilinykh was born in Aktau (Shevchenko), Kazakhstan and raised in Moscow, Russia.

Her parents divorced when she was two years old.

With partner Ruslan Zhiganshin, she is the 2015 Russian national champion.

As of 2020, Ilinykh is engaged to ballet dancer Sergei Polunin.

On 16 January 2020, their son, Mir, was born in Miami, Florida, U.S. Mir means 'peace' or 'world' in Russian.

In April 2022, their second son, Dar, was born.

Ilinykh is a supporter of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and performed on Russian TV in support of the invasion.

As a child, Ilinykh trained in single skating, under Natalia Dubinskaya, until her mother decided she should try ice dancing.

She was paired with Nikita Katsalapov, who had trained in the same singles group.

Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh were the team's first coaches.