World champion, twice European champion, Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation, participant in ice television shows and ice performances. It's all about her, about the skater Maria Petrova. Who is she and where is she from? How was her career and personal life?
Externally fragile, delicate and vulnerable, but unusually persistent, with a steel character. That is exactly what her relatives and colleagues say about Maria Petrova. Indeed, only such a woman can successfully develop a career and personal life. What is she doing now? Where can I see the performances of figure skater Maria Petrova on the ice now that she has already completed her sports career?
Biography of Maria Petrova
Russian figure skater Maria Igorevna Petrova Petersburger. She was born in the Northern capital of the Russian Federation, in late November 1977, in a family of professional athletes. It is known that the girl’s mother was quite successful in skiing. But little Masha didn’t get into sports at the “call of her heart”, but because her parents were looking for ways to strengthen her weak health at that time.
The girl was brought to the figure skating section at the age of 7, which is rather late for sports. Nevertheless, the girl quickly caught up with her peers and even began to show better results than those who worked in the group from 4-5 years old.
Seeing that Masha was talented and persistent, her mother decided to help her, transferred her daughter to specialized elementary school classes, where she was sympathetic to missing classes due to training. But in high school she had to go to a regular school. Knowledge was lower than that of classmates, but even here Masha showed herself, quickly caught up, and this did not affect the performance in sports.
How she managed to keep up with everything and everywhere, Mary does not understand now. In her interviews, she admits that she did not make much effort to study and attend training. The load was given to her without difficulty.
Sports career of the skater Maria Petrova
In 1989, Petrova changed her coaches. The spouses Nikolay and Lyudmila Velikova took up its development. They played a very important role in the development of Mary as a figure skater. Three years later, she received her first significant award - she became the silver medalist of the European Junior Championship. Then her partner was Sikharulidze Anton. In the next two competitions at this level, the couple again and again ahead of rivals with enviable constancy. Then a pair of discord arose, Masha changed her partner - for two years they became Pulin Teymuraz. The pair clearly became weaker, although it won some awards.
A new breakthrough in Maria Petrova’s sports career occurred in 1998, when Alexei Tikhonov, who later became her husband, also became her partner. Only 4 months after the pair was formed, she won a gold medal in Germany.
9 years lasted the triumph of a pair of figure skaters Tikhonov-Petrov. On their account such achievements as
- 7 gold medals,
- 5 silver medals,
- place in the top three of the best Europeans,
- place in the 5th best skaters in the world.
In 2007, the couple had to leave the "big sport". Maria Petrova’s partner Alexey Tikhonov pulled his groin and received a double fracture of the big toe during training. Sports doctors strongly recommended that he postpone intensive training, or even completely abandon figure skating. Masha followed her common-law husband and abandoned her career.
Work in TV shows and performances on ice
Despite the fact that the sports career was completed for Maria Petrova, she did not leave the rink and continued to amaze fans with her skating. A talented skater was invited to take part in all television shows where this sport was popularized. Maria Igorevna took part in projects such as
- "Ice Age",
- "Stars on Ice"
- "Ice and Fire",
- "Cup of Professionals".
The most striking performance of this plan was Maria Petrova's exits on the ice, paired with actor and showman Mikhail Galustyan. He never stood on skates, was clumsy and ridiculously kind, but Mary managed to literally "grow" a real skater out of Mikhail.
Figure skating has become a true direction of art, and Petrova's merit in this sense is undeniable. She became an artist of ice ballet, performed and performs leading dance parties in the performances "Miracles on New Year's Eve", "Toddler and Carlson on Ice", "Bolero", "Carmen", "Classmates" and many others.
