The name of Maria Petrova is well known to all fans of figure skating. True, most often it sounds along with the name of Alexei Tikhonov - a partner on the ice and in life. But in this article we will focus on the personality of Maria, we will talk about the facts from her biography, personal and sports achievements.
The childhood of the future skater
Maria Petrova - figure skater of the Russian Federation. Born on November 29, 1977 in the city of Leningrad.
Her parents were involved in sports. Mom, Tatyana Valterovna, was professionally engaged in skiing. However, they decided to give seven-year-old Masha at the family council for figure skating. Then no one could have imagined that the daughter would become an outstanding athlete. The only desire of the parents was to improve the poor health of Masha. Sport has benefited the girl. And soon she was transferred to a group where she was seriously engaged with children.
When the young figure skater was 12 years old, her trainers were the Velikovs: Nikolai and Lyudmila.
Since then, the biography of Maria Petrova has been inextricably linked with figure skating.
At age 16, the athlete began performing at various major tournaments, such as the World and European Junior Championships. A no less famous skater Anton Sikharulidze skated with a girl. The duo quickly achieved great success: victory at the junior competitions, as well as a gold medal at the 1995 Russian championship, brought Petrova and Sikharulidze a place in the main national team. Unfortunately, the couple soon broke up. Many attribute this to Anton’s transfer to another coach.
Sports career
Maria Petrova was not left without a pair for a long time . In the spring of that year, the skater began performing in a duet with Alexei Tikhonov. This athlete was already quite famous. He trained under the guidance of A. Rennik and performed in the ice theater, which was headed by the famous Tatyana Tarasova.
A month later, they started talking about a pair of Tikhonov-Petrov as one of the most promising tandems of figure skating in the sky. But suddenly Alexey disappeared without explanation. Subsequently, he will say that it was a kind of eclipse. But a fact is a fact: again, Maria Petrova was left without a partner.
The skater began to perform in a duet with Timur Pulin. Being a good figure skater in singles, Timur was noticeably inferior in skill to his partner. It is not surprising that the joint results left much to be desired.
In the summer of 1998, Tikhonov returned to St. Petersburg without warning. He began to offer Mary to perform in a duet again. There was no trust in him, so Petrova refused for a long time. Mom convinced her to agree.
The couple began to train hard. Four months later, the athletes won their first victory at the Grand Prix stage. The next achievement is the “gold” of the European Championship in the Czech Republic.
The year 2000 was very successful for the skaters. For the second time they conquered the highest step of the pedestal of the Old World Championship, and then the world championship. Unfortunately, the couple did not get the main Olympic trophy. At the end of 2000, Petrova received an ankle injury, and therefore the duo missed almost the entire next season.
Participation in various shows
But even after completing her career, Maria Petrova did not stop performing. The skater regularly takes part in various ice shows. So, she skated in the “Ice Age” in a duet with Konstantin Tszyu.
At the end of 2015, Tikhonov and Petrova worked in the Carmen ice musical. Spouses played lovers. In one of the scenes they had to kiss. Maria said that a stage kiss and a kiss in life are very different. The first occurs after a lot of physical activity at the moment when breathing goes astray. Real professionals should not pay attention to it and play the stage so that the audience does not notice anything else. The musical “Carmen” was attended by other famous colleagues of the couple. The main role, for example, was played by Tatyana Navka.
Athlete’s personal life
Rarely enough can you hear that figure skating fans pronounce only one name - Maria Petrova. The personal life of the skater since 2000 is connected with her permanent partner in sports duet Alexei Tikhonov. That's when they started dating. The star couple began to live together three years later.
In 2010, the duo turned into a trio. Now it includes Alexei Tikhonov, Maria Petrova, and daughter Polina. The girl is still engaged in choreography, but perhaps later she will follow in the footsteps of her parents.
Medals and ranks
The assets of Maria Petrova include a full set of medals of various world championships, two victories, two silver medals and four “bronzes” of the Old World championships, a victory in the championship of the Russian Federation, as many as six silver awards of the same level and one “bronze”. The figure skater also won the Grand Prix stages eight times.
However, the athlete considers the birth of Polina to be her main achievement.
Alexey Tikhonov and Maria Petrova (and daughter, of course) are now a happy family. Parents have done a lot for the development of figure skating in Russia, let's hope that the daughter will become a worthy successor of traditions.