Yelena BECHKE

Yelena Bechke began skating pairs with Valery Korniyenko in 1984 and they won bronze at the 1986 European Championships. In 1987 she started to skate with Denis Petrov and they rose to prominence after winning a bronze at the 1989 World Championships, which would remain their only medal at those championships. They also won silvers at the 1991 and 1992 European Championships and another silver at the 1992 Winter Olympics. Their only Soviet title came in 1991, winning a bronze in 1990. After the 1992 Winter Olympics, the pair turned professional and married. Although Bechke and Petrov divorced in 1995, they continued to skate pairs until their retirement in 2000. As professionals, they won four silvers in a row from 1992-95 at the World Professional Championships, before winning the event in 1996, winning another silver in 1998. They also toured with the Stars on Ice show for seven years (1994-2000), and coached together in Virginia. Bechke later worked as a figure skating coach in North Carolina.