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Anastasia Golubeva
Anastasia Igorevna Golubeva (Russian: Анастасия Игоревна Голубева, born 3 January 2006) is a Russian pair skater who currently represents Australia. With her skating partner, Hektor Giotopoulos Moore, they are the 2022 Warsaw Cup champions and the 2023 Australian National champions. On the junior level, Golubeva and Giotopoulos Moore are two-time World Junior silver medalists (2022 and 2023) and the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final champions. Personal lifeGolubeva was born on January 3, 2006, in Moscow, Russia.[1] Her older sister, Maria, is also a former competitive figure skater who now coaches.[2] She looks up to pair teams, Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov and Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot.[2] CareerEarly careerFollowing the construction of a skating rink in Golubeva's hometown of Balashikha, her father decided to enroll her older sister there. Golubeva would meanwhile sit rinkside and watch her sister train, before deciding that she wanted to learn how to skate as well. Her parents would eventually enroll her into skating by the age of three. Marina Dezhina was her first coach.[2] Golubeva originally competed as a singles skater until fall 2019 when she and Dezhina were contacted by Galina and Andrei Pachin, asking if she would be interested in trying out for pair skating with Australian pair skater, Hektor Giotopoulos Moore. Deciding to give it a try, Golubeva immediately fell in love with the discipline, and decided to team up with Giotopoulos Moore and skate for Australia with him. Initially, wanting to finish the 2019–20 figure skating season, Golubeva continued participating in women's singles skating at Russian domestic competitions while simultaneously beginning to train in pairs with Giotopoulos Moore.[3][2] In February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit while Giotopoulos Moore was training with Golubeva in Moscow, and Golubeva had yet to obtain a visa to relocate to Australia. Due to lockdowns, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were unable to use Russian ice rinks to train so instead, they would meet every day in a closed restaurant to practice off-ice training. When Giatopoulos Moore's visa began to expire, the pair temporarily relocated to Belarus due to the country allowing three-month visa-free entry.[3][4][2] The team would finally relocate to Sydney, Australia after the country re-opened its borders.[3] Reflecting on being fifteen years old and moving to a foreign country, Golubeva said in 2024, "I was so scared to move to Australia alone, with no family there. I was scared. It was the first time I was leaving my family, and I was going to a country that had a completely different culture and a different language. At first, it was quite difficult. What helped was, of course, figure skating: focusing on my routine and making sure I was mentally healthy. I didn’t know many people. The only people I knew were Hektor and our coaches... I lived with Hektor’s family, so it was super-nice. Hektor’s mom is like my second mom."[2][5] 2021–22 seasonGolubeva/Giotopoulos Moore debuted as a pair team on the 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix and finished fifth at both their ISU Junior Grand Prix events in Russia and Austria. The pair would also go on to compete at the senior level the 2021–22 Challenger Series, placing eighth at the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy and tenth at the 2021 Golden Spin of Zagreb. At the 2022 Winter Star in Minsk, Belarus, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore would win the gold medal.[6] Although the pair were assigned to compete at the 2022 World Championships in Montpellier, their plans were disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Due to Golubeva's Russian citizenship, they were unable to have a visa processed in time to travel to France, and withdrew from the event.[7] As a further result of the invasion, the International Skating Union banned all Russian and Belarusian skaters from participating in international competitions, which had a significant impact on the international pairs field.[8] Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were assigned as well to the 2022 World Junior Championships, initially scheduled to be held in Sofia in March. However, due to both the invasion and COVID pandemic issues, Bulgaria renounced hosting the event, which was rescheduled for Tallinn in April.[9] Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore placed second in the short program.[7] They were second in the free skate as well, despite some minor errors, winning the silver medal. Golubeva said afterward that "this is my first medal. We have some little mistakes in the program, but overall we're very happy."[10] They became the third Australian pair team to win a World Junior medal, after Cain/Cain in 1976 and Alexandrovskaya/Windsor in 2017.[11] 2022–23 seasonAlthough Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were selected to compete on the Grand Prix circuit at 2022 Skate America and 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, the pair elected to compete on the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix instead. They were assigned to both Polish JGP events in Gdańsk, arriving at the first as the favourites to win, which they did by a wide margin. The gold medal was their first JGP medal.[12] The following weekend they won their second event as well, despite a number of errors that caused Giotopoulos Mooere to say it "wasn't as good as last week." Their results qualified them for the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino, Italy.[13] Following the Junior Grand Prix, the pair also competed at the 2022 Warsaw Cup, which they won.[6] At the JGP Final, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore placed second in the short program after Golubeva struggled to cleanly land the throw triple toe-loop, but the pair would go on to deliver a strong free skate and take the gold medal. After their free skate comeback, Golubeva said that they "tried to give all the strength we had to put into this program." Theirs was the second Junior Grand Prix Final title for an Australian pair, after Alexandrovskaya/Windsor.[14] Although assigned to compete at the 2023 Four Continents Championships, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore withdrew from the event due to Golubeva being unable to obtain an American visa to compete in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[2] At the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alberta, they placed second in the short program after unexpectedly missing their death spiral. The pair were able to deliver a solid free skate, however, and win the silver medal behind Americans Baram/Tioumentsev. Giotopoulos Moore called it "a huge achievement for us and we are very happy."[15] Making their World Championship debut at the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, the pair placed eleventh in the short program after Golubeva fell on a throw triple loop attempt but the pair would go on to deliver an almost-perfect free skate, earning a new personal best and placing fifth in that segment of the competition, moving up to eighth-place overall. Golubeva said that they had achieved their goal of a top ten placement, adding they were "so happy and thrilled" with how they had skated.[16] Following the season, Golubeva/Giatopoulos Moore and their coach, Galina Pachin, relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, due to the suboptimal training conditions in Sydney. The pair began training at the École de Patinage Artistique Julie Marcotte Ste-Julie, the same training rink as Canadian pair team, Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps.[2][5][17] 2023–24 season With Giotopoulos Moore aging out of junior eligibility, the team planned for its first full senior season, primarily training in Australia for Golubeva's residency purposes, but also spending time in Montreal due to the coach's belief they needed to train with other high-level pair skaters, and Russia's being difficult to train in at the time.[3] They were invited to participate in the Shanghai Trophy, finishing fourth.[6]  Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore made their senior Grand Prix debut at the 2023 Skate Canada International. They placed third in both segments of the competition, but finished fourth overall, less than two points behind bronze medalists Beccari/Guarise of Italy. Despite several errors in their free skate, they considered it an improvement on their earlier performances, with Golubeva saying "we are looking forward to growing this program."[18] At the 2023 NHK Trophy they finished third in the short program, but dropped to fourth place after the free skate. They said they considered their first Grand Prix season a valuable experience given its much greater professionalism in comparison to the Junior Grand Prix.[19]  For the first time in their partnership, the team was able to compete at a domestic championships, winning the Australian national title.[6] At the 2024 Four Continents Championships in Shanghai, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were seventh in the short program after she fell on a jump. They rallied in the free skate, coming fourth in that segment and moving up to fourth overall. The two said that they were pleased at their ability to recover from a disappointing short program.[20] The team went on to compete at the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, where they came in tenth.[6] 2024–25 seasonIn early fall, Giatopoulos Moore struggled with back problems, thus the team did not get to compete until late October.[5] Beginning the season by competing on the 2024–25 Grand Prix series, at their first event, 2024 Skate Canada International, the pair won the bronze medal, making history as the first skaters from Australia in any discipline to win a senior Grand Prix medal.[21] Although the pair were also assigned to compete at the 2024 Finlandia Trophy, however, they were forced to withdraw due to Golubeva falling ill with COVID-19.[22] ProgramsWith Giotopoulos Moore
Competitive highlightsPair skating with Hektor Giotopoulos Moore
Detailed resultsPair skating with Hektor Giotopoulos Moore
Senior level
Junior level
References
External links
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