Elizaveta Tuktamysheva

Elizaveta Sergeyevna Tuktamysheva (Елизавета Серге́евна Туктамышева; born 17 December 1996) is a Russian figure skater.

Elizaveta Sergeyevna Tuktamysheva (also romanized as Tuktamisheva) was born on 17 December 1996 in Glazov, Udmurtia, Russia.

Her mother teaches algebra and geometry and was her daughter's class teacher from the 5th to 9th grade.

In 2008, she placed tenth at the Russian Championships.

Mishin was criticized for allowing Tuktamysheva to participate in the senior Russian Championships (2008) at only 11 years old.

In 2009, Tuktamysheva won the silver medal at the Russian Championships after placing fourth in the short program and first in the free skating.

She placed second with a margin of 0.67 points behind champion Adelina Sotnikova, who is half a year older than Tuktamysheva.

Mishin said his student was Russia's "main hope for the gold medal at the Sochi Olympics".

Despite her medal, she was not sent to any ISU Championships, including Junior Worlds because she was not old enough according to ISU rules.

At the 2010 Russian Championships, Tuktamysheva was tenth after the short program but earned 124.57 points in the free skate and was able to win a bronze medal.

Her technical marks were higher than those of male competitors.

In March, she skated in the Kings on Ice ice show.

During the summer, she took part in training camps in Estonia, Italy, and Germany in preparation for the new season.

In the 2010–11 season, Tuktamysheva was old enough to compete in ISU Junior competitions.

She won her Junior Grand Prix events in Germany and Romania and qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final.

Her father - a former skier who later coached football - died in April 2011.

Elizaveta has a younger sister, Evgenia.

The family moved from Glazov to Saint Petersburg in August 2011.

Tuktamysheva has a Pomeranian dog named Kokosha.

Until the summer of 2011, she would spend an average of one to two weeks in Saint Petersburg and the rest of the month in Glazov.

On the junior level, she is the 2012 Youth Olympic champion, 2011 World Junior silver medalist, and 2010–11 JGP Final silver medalist.

She is the 2015 World champion, the 2021 World silver medalist, the 2015 European champion, the 2014–15 Grand Prix Final champion, a 14-time medalist on the Grand Prix series, and the 2013 Russian national champion.

At the 2015 World Championships, she became the first female skater to land four triple jumps in a short program (triple Axel, triple Lutz, and a triple toe-triple toe combination).

Tuktamysheva was called a figure skating prodigy by the Russian media because at the age of 12, she performed difficult jumps, such as the triple Axel in practice, but she did not attempt the triple Axel in competition until 2015.

At the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final, she landed the maximum eight triple jumps cleanly in the free skate allowed under the Zayak rule, becoming the third woman to do so after Japanese Rika Kihira and American Mirai Nagasu.

She, therefore, also became the first woman to land the maximum twelve triple jumps in one international competition, albeit with the triple Axel in her short program deemed under-rotated.

In the final event of the 2018–19 season, the 2019 World Team Trophy, she successfully landed all twelve jumps cleanly, becoming the first woman to accomplish this feat in an official international competition.

Tuktamysheva's career is notable for its consistency and longevity, especially in contrast with the young ages and high turnover of elite Russian women's skaters in her era.

Throughout 15 different seasons, she competed in 63 international events and 15 Russian Nationals, and never finished off the top 10.

In July 2020, Tuktamysheva received her diploma from the Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health in Saint Petersburg.

In April 2023, Tuktamysheva was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government due to her alleged support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine through her participation in a pro-war ice show,

with all her assets in Ukraine frozen and a 50-year ban on entering the country.

Tuktamysheva posted on her Instagram account "I don't want athlete performances to become a way of manipulation and persuasion".

She also replied to a comment on the post saying "I had no idea this was going to happen... no one knew, I'm sorry" in relation to the ice show being a propaganda event.

Tuktamysheva started skating at the age of four after meeting girls interested in the sport at a summer camp.

Her first coach was Svetlana Veretennikova in Glazov.

Alexei Mishin observed Tuktamysheva at a competition in Belgorod but did not invite her into his group, considering her technique too incomplete.

A year later, he saw her again and changed his mind due to her ability to jump high, but she had to rework the technique on all of her jumps.

Since her family could not afford to move to a big city, she remained in Glazov, continuing to train under Veretennikova, but regularly visited Mishin in Saint Petersburg, where she lived in a dormitory.

The train journey from Glazov to Saint Petersburg took 27 hours.