Their Story

The eight-year-old skating partnership of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze has been one of remarkable success and heartbreaking failure. They have overcome many obstacles during such a short period of time to become one of the best pair teams in recent history. Their story begins nearly a decade ago...

After skating together for two years, 15-year-old Elena Berezhnaya and her partner Oleg Shliakhov became the first pair to compete in the World Championships for Latvia in 1993. They finished 14th at the 1993 Worlds and showed more promise when they placed eighth at the Lillehammer Olympics and seventh at the World Championships the following year. The team was quickly becoming well-known in the skating community for their speed, power, and impressive tricks.

Anton Sikharulidze's partner was Maria Petrova at the time. The youthful and charming pair reminded many of a young Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champions, and they were well on their way to fulfilling such high expectations when they won their first World Junior title in late 1993. Blades On Ice magazine reported that "every move seemed effortless" and their technical arsenal included side-by-side triple toe loops, double axels, a throw triple salchow, and a triple twist - elements that not all senior pairs could execute. With these elements, it seemed that Petrova and Sikharulidze were on their way to greatness.

Maria and Anton competed at their first World Championships in 1994 and placed a solid eighth, just behind Elena and Oleg. Both pairs continued on to following season with higher expectations. Petrova and Sikharulidze won the World Junior title again in late 1994 before placing sixth at the 1995 World Championships ahead of Berezhnaya and Shliakhov, who finished seventh again, for the first time.

Elena and Oleg were also enjoying more greater success in competition, but their success hid a dark secret. For years, Elena had been enduring physical abuse from her partner. The young, frightened Elena did not speak with anyone about the abuse, not even her mother who lived in Nevinnomissk in southern Russia.

"My mom didn't know anything about the things that happened to me in Riga. I didn't tell her anything," Elena later told CBS. "I know her health is pretty bad and I didn't want to make it worse. I knew that she would watch me skate on TV and that it gave her strength. She was the only reason for me to continue."

Knowing that Elena was unhappy in Latvia, the Latvian Skating Federation tried to save the partnership by sending Berezhnaya and Shliakhov to St. Petersburg, Russia during the summer of 1995 to train with legendary coach Tamara Moskvina at the same rink where Petrova and Sikharulidze honed their skills. Latvian skating officials was hoped that the move would not only greatly improve their skating skills, but also soothe Oleg's temper.

The two young skaters were initially in awe of their new coach, but Oleg's usual ways eventually surfaced. "Oleg start to be again so mad at Tamara and everybody skating in the rink," Elena later recalled, "and again start to be himself."

Still, in the fall of 1995, Elena and Oleg won the Trophée Lalique competition defeating many of the top teams in the world including 1992 Olympic Champion Artur Dmitriev and his new partner, Oksana Kazakova. With that impressive win and additional strong placements at Skate America and Nations Cup, the pair was guaranteed to a spot in the Champions Series Final which was to take place in February, 1996.

At the Yubileny rink in St. Petersburg, the two young pairs often shared the ice during practice, and Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze soon became good friends and spent time together off the ice. Oleg, becoming jealous of the budding relationship, took Elena back to Riga were they could skate without distractions. However, Berezhnaya and Shliakhov did not train for long in Riga. On January 9, 1996, while practicing side-by-side camel spins alone on the ice, Oleg's skate blade sliced Elena's head.

She was rushed to the hospital, later telling ABC television, "In the ambulance, when they asked my name and address, I couldn't say anything. I couldn't talk." Two brain surgeries were required to remove pieces of bone from her brain. Anton, who went on to place fifth at the 1996 European Championships with Maria, traveled to Riga with Elena's mother when he heard the devastating news. "She was very important for me," Anton later told Blades On Ice. "I think it was very important for her."

After staying with Elena in Riga for several days, the three secretly returned to St. Petersburg aboard an overnight train where Elena could recuperate. Her partnership with Oleg was finally over. Following a coaching dispute, Anton's partnership with Maria ended as well, but Elena and Anton did not think of skating together initially. Doctors had questioned whether Elena would even be able to talk again, much less skate and Anton provided her with comfort and friendship. "When I know she's so bad, I can't think about skating," he told Blades On Ice. "Doctors told her mother maybe she'd never skate again, maybe it's possible. I don't think about it, before I think she is okay."

In St. Petersburg, Anton and coach Tamara Moskvina cared only about Elena's health. Tamara said, "We were so afraid because this was brain damage. We didn't speak about skating at all. The question was health and life." Elena recovered much quicker than doctors anticipated and on March 15 she returned to the ice although she did not put on skates for another two weeks. "I think the people around me were more scared than I was. For me, it felt as if I was relearning to walk," Elena later said.

As Elena's health improved, she and Anton had many conversations and eventually decided that they wanted to skate together. After asking Tamara to be their coach, they began serious training in May. Their progress was slow at first as Elena's well-being was always the utmost concern. "I think it was almost worse for me. I thought about her accident every time I lifted her for at least a year," Anton later told Blades On Ice. They developed two competitive routines which contained simple lifts and elements and were soon ready to compete in the fall of 1996.

Less than a year after Elena's near-fatal injury, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze entered their first competition together. The 1996 French Trophée Lalique competition took place in November and Elena and Anton performed extremely well, taking home the bronze medal. In December, they placed second at the Russian Nationals, earning a spot on the Russian European and World teams.

Elena and Anton's success continued at the European Championships where two strong performances won them a bronze medal in a field against the best pairs in the world. Few could have imagined in January, 1996 that Elena would be one of the best skaters in Europe just one year later. Elena was surprised by their impressive showing in Paris. "I was just so happy to be out there and never thought we'd win a medal," she told International Figure Skating.

With momentum building, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze arrived at the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland with the chance for a medal and they were in third place after a error-free short program. However, skating last in the free skate, the pressure seemed to overwhelm them. Elena and Anton each fell twice, missing both throw jumps and both sets of difficult side-by-side jumps. Beverley Smith wrote in Blades On Ice, "He said he felt no more nervous than usual before the long program, but when he took his first position, he found he could not raise his hand. Out of fear, his muscles had stiffened, with unfortunate results." Anton could not bear to hear the scores as he left Elena and Tamara Moskvina alone in the kiss-and-cry area while the marks were read. Their free skate was ranked only 12th and the pair finished in ninth place overall.

The season that had such a promising start ended in a very disappointing way. With the Olympic season now upon them, Elena and Anton had to learn from this experience and regain their confidence to fight for an Olympic medal.

Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze  •  homepage  site map
Let Me Fall header photo © Andrea "Hoo" Chempinski