Marina KLIMOVA

Marina Klimova and Sergey Ponomarenko were the world’s best ice dance couple in the early 1990s. They rose to prominence in 1984 when they won bronzes at both the European Championships and Olympic Games. Soon they rose to be the world’s second ranked ice dancing couple behind Nataliya Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin, winning silver medals behind them at the World Championships from 1985-87, at the European Championships from 1985-88 and at the 1988 Olympic Games. When Bestemyanova and Bukin retired from the competitive skating after the 1988 Olympics, Klimova and Ponomarenko rose to be the world’s top ice dance couple, winning the World Championships in 1989-90 and 1992, European Championships in 1989-1992 and the 1992 Olympic Games. In addition they won silver at the 1991 World Championships behind the French couple Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay. Klimova and Ponomarenko also won the Soviet Championships in 1985-86 and 1989-90. After the 1992 Olympics, Klimova and Ponomarenko turned professional and won silvers at the 1995 and 1996 World Professional Championships, before retiring from competitive skating in 1997. They married in 1984 and after their retirement worked as children’s coaches in San Jose, California.