Athletistic/ Figure skating. In 2022, a generational change has occurred in Russian figure skating. After the 2022 Olympics in Beijing (China) and the ban on Russian athletes that followed almost immediately, many leaders abandoned ice dancing and some duos appeared in new combinations. A girl with an unusual surname for Russia, Annabelle Morozov, managed to take advantage of this. Together with David Narizhny, she managed to win the Russian Grand Prix in Kazan and Moscow.

There are definitely a lot of unusual things about Annabelle. First, in all official documents, his last name is written in the masculine form. Second, during the interview, the skater answers questions with a pronounced foreign accent. Third, she is a citizen of the United States (she was born there) and France (she lived there for a long time). But she ended up in Russia only in 2017. Her arrival in Russia was due to the fact that her father Nikolai Morozov was then living and working in Moscow.

Photo source: personal archive of Annabel Morozov

Morozov is an iconic figure in world figure skating. He trained the legends of this sport – Miki Ando, ​​​​Shizuka Arakawa, Denis Ten, Javier Fernandez, Alena Leonova and many others. However, Nikolai is known not only for his students, but also for his eventful personal life, about which legends are made. Only officially, Morozov was married four times. His second wife was the French figure skater Caroline Duarin. He met her when he was a choreographer for Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova. A year into their relationship, Nikolai and Carolyn got married, and a year later their daughter Annabelle was born. Five years after the start of the relationship, the family broke up, but Morozov did not stop communicating with his daughter and contributed to her starting to take up figure skating.

In Russia, Annabelle’s first partner was Andrei Bagin. They first teamed up in November 2017, and three months later they became winners of the Russian Cup final. In 2019, they managed to get into the top four of the Russian Championship and managed to get closer to the 200-point mark in the amount of two dances. They reached their peak during the Olympic season, when they were on the verge of making the national team for the 2022 Games in Beijing. However, another couple later went to the capital of the Celestial Empire – Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin. After that, Morozov and Bagin unexpectedly parted ways.

In spring 2022, she teamed up with David Narizhny, who previously partnered with Elizaveta Shanaeva. Since the skater kept her American passport, rumors immediately spread around their duo about a possible change of country. However, this did not happen, and Annabelle and David showed themselves brilliantly last season. However, already in December 2022, after a good start, the couple broke up. Narizhny later said that this happened due to the constant pressure on him from his partner’s family, who, bypassing his coaches – Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin – tried to involve his father in working with their relationship.

Photo source: FFKKR

In March this year it became known that Morozov would be associated with Igor Eremenko, who completed his long collaboration with Sofia Shevchenko. The couple calmly prepared for the new season, prepared interesting programs, but could not debut properly. The reason was Morozov’s accidental injury while skating at the third stage of the Krasnoyarsk Grand Prix – Elizaveta Shanaeva accidentally touched Annabelle’s leg with her skate and cut it. Later, Morozov and Eremenko withdrew from the tournament. Experts, figure skating fans and specialists awaited the return of this couple to the stage of the Moscow Grand Prix. Their choreographer Angelina Krylova said it absolutely had to happen. However, the couple ultimately never set foot on the ice. And three days after the end of the competition, we learned that Annabelle and Igor left Krylova and left Russia. The skaters now plan to train in the United States under Nikolai Morozov, who returned to work in the United States.

This development of events can hardly be called unexpected. Before the start of this season, the couple Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin (the same one who did not allow Morozov and Narizhny to participate in the 2022 Olympic Games) left the Russian team and joined the Georgian team. But Davis is the daughter of Eteri Tutberidze, the main character of the latest successes of Russian figure skating. Therefore, in this case, Diana and Gleb, after checking the reaction of the public, the international federation and various politicians, opened the way for Annabelle and Igor to international competitions in the conditions of the ban on Russian athletes . Still, many athletes want to compete in the World Championships and Olympics, regardless of which country they will represent.

We already know that Annabelle Morozov and Igor Eremenko plan to represent France in the new season. The floor now returns to the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) and the International Skating Union (ISU). If the former give the green light to transfer athletes to another team and the latter confirm it, then from the 2024/2025 season there will be an additional Russian pair in international competitions. Certainly, this couple will represent a country that is hostile to us.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic


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