Evgeny PLATOV

Yevgeny Platov started to skate when he was 7-years-old and at the junior level skated with Yelena Krykanova, with whom he won the World Junior ice dancing titles in 1984-86. As a senior, Platov at first skated with Larisa Fedorinova and they were sixth at the 1989 World Championships, but then Fedorinova retired from sports and Platov teamed up with Pasha Grishchuk, together becoming the world’s best ice dancers during the 90s. The pair made their international début in 1990, placing fifth at both the World and European Championships and next year they were fourth at the Worlds and fifth at the Europeans. Their first podium success came in 1992, when they won bronzes at both the World and European Championships, which they bettered to silvers in next year. Grishchuk and Platov were the Olympic champions in 1994 and 1998, World Champions in 1994-97 and European Champions in 1996-98, while taking silver at the 1994 European Championships. They also won the Soviet title in 1991 and Russian titles in 1993 and 1996.

Grishchuk and Platov retired from amateur competition after the 1998 Winter Olympics and later skated together in shows until summer of 1998, when Platov decided to skate with their former rival Maiya Usova, while Grishchuk skated with Sasha Zhulin. From 2002-04 Platov coached with Usova at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, Connecticut, where they helped coach the 2006 Olympic champion Shizuka Arakawa to her only world title in 2004. In 2005, Platov became the assistant coach to his former rival, Zhulin, helping to coach the ice dancing team of Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov to European and Olympic gold medals. Platov started coaching on his own in 2007, at first at the Princeton Sports Center in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey and since 2009 at the Igloo Ice Rink in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.