Aleksei URMANOV

Aleksey Urmanov began skating at the age of four and his first successes came at the 1990 World Junior Championships, where he won the silver medal. Urmanov débuted as a senior in 1991, competing at both the World and European Championships that year. And although the 17-year-old skater is credited with being the first skater to perform a quadruple jump at the European Championships that year, Urmanov finished sixth in the Europeans and eighth in the Worlds. In 1992, Urmanov won his first major international tournament medal, a bronze at the European Championships, but then finished fifth at the 1992 Winter Olympics and again eighth at the 1992 Worlds. In 1993, Urmanov won his only World Championships medal, a bronze, but the highlight of his career was at the 1994 Olympic Games, where he won a surprising gold medal ahead of main favorites Brian Boitano, Viktor Petrenko and Kurt Browning, who all performed disastrously in the short program. Before the Olympics, Urmanov had won another bronze at the 1994 European Championships and after the Olympics, he won silver at the 1995, gold at the 1997 and bronze at the 1999 European Championships. After his Olympic success, his placements at the World Championships were fourth in 1994 and 1995 and fifth in 1996 and 1999 World Championships. Urmanov never got a chance to defend his Olympic title as he missed the entire 1998 season due injury. Urmanov turned professional in 1999 and won the 1999 World Professional Championships, but he skated professionally only one year, retiring from sports in 2000. After his retirement from sports, Urmanov worked as a children’s coach in his native St. Petersburg. In 2006, he participated on the Russian version of the TV show Dancing on Ice, skating pairs with Russian actress Tatyana Dogileva.