Elena Berezhnaya began her figure skating career in her native Nevinnomyssk at the age of three. Ten years later, noting the talent of the young figure skater, the Moscow coaches noticed the athlete and sent her an invitation to the capital. This was done personally by the eminent specialist Stanislav Zhuk. Parents remained in their small homeland, and Elena herself went to conquer Moscow.
Her first partner on the ice was Oleg Shlyakhov from Latvia. There was an age barrier between the skaters - Oleg was four years older than Elena, which in turn seriously affected the couple's relationship. True, it was Shlyakhov who played a significant role in the problems. Before Berezhnaya, he managed to change as many as seven partners, who were extremely unhappy with the behavior of the Latvian skater.
Shlyakhov was accused of cruelty.
Berezhnaya also fully felt this on herself. The partner repeatedly beat her, shouted at Elena, and sometimes just locked one in the locker room, emotionally reacting to failures at the box office.
This behavior attracted the attention of the figure skater's friends, who several times stood up for their girlfriend. Shlyakhov, in turn, forcibly decided to take Elena with him to Latvia, where Berezhnaya almost died.
At one of the training sessions in preparation for the continental championship - 1996 in Riga, partner Russian figure skater after a complex rotation, he crashed his skate into the partner's head.
Berezhnaya as a result of the collision was urgently taken to intensive care. She survived two complex neurosurgical operations and forgot how to walk and talk on her own.
Romance with
A vital role in the truest sense of the word was played by Anton Sikharulide, who was a close friend of Berezhnaya. From the moment they met, Anton showed signs of attention to Berezhnaya, and it was he who, in the most difficult period for the skater, was there. The 19-year-old athlete broke from his training camp and flew to Riga to support his beloved, for whom he did not hide his feelings. Berezhnaya herself could not remember the moment of the collision with Shlyakhov for a long time.
“At first, I didn’t understand what had happened. When they told me that they had surgery on my head, I thought: well, I’ll have to skip a few workouts. But when they said that it would take at least two weeks to lie down without getting up, I realized that everything turned out to be much more difficult, ”said Elena.
It was Sikharulidze who undertook to put Berezhnaya on her feet. He helped her learn to walk and talk again and took Berezhnaya to St. Petersburg, where the couple began to train under the guidance.
Already in the 1996/97 season, Elena returned to the ice. Together with Anton, she won silver at the Russian Championship, became the bronze medalist of the European Championship and took ninth place in the world tournament. Later, Berezhnaya noted the contribution of her new partner, not excluding a romantic relationship with Sikharulidze.
“They, of course, inspire feelings. It is impossible to fly to Riga, get a visa in a few hours ... And these are, of course, feelings. Anton was the star of Petersburg. The fact that he showed me attention, I really liked it. He took me to Petersburg. At that time, his parents had a two-room apartment, in one of the rooms of which we lived - Anton, me and his sister, ”said Berezhnaya in the program“ Alone with Everyone.
In 1998, Berezhnaya fulfilled her dream and competed at the Olympics. In Nagano, the couple won silver and then won the world championship.
Realizing the full potential, the duo began preparations for Olympic Games- 2002 in Salt Lake City, simultaneously winning the championships of Russia, Europe and the world. In the US, the whole world witnessed a unique event.
The main competitors of Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze were Canadian figure skaters Jami Sale and David Peletier. Before the free program, the Russians were in the lead, and according to the results free program received only one point more from the judges than the Canadians, having won Olympic gold.
However, the judges' scores were criticized in North America so strong that the organizers decided to share the top step of the podium with the Russians and Canadian skaters.
The presentation of two sets of gold medals at once caused a wave of criticism in Russia as well. The public urged Elena and Anton to boycott the awards ceremony, but the couple refused this - the gold of the Games turned out to be more important.
Parting with Sikharulidze
After the triumph at the Olympics, the duo decided to end their amateur career and turn to professionals. From 2002 to 2006, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze toured the United States with the Stars on Ice show. However, the relationship of lovers became more and more tense.
Berezhnaya still had speech problems, but was forced to give interviews alone, while Sikharulidze increasingly took care of his own problems. As a result, the couple decided to leave.
“Life has begun. Anton had his own interests, I have something there. Don't know. We trained a lot together, skated, performed, and our relationship has already grown so much into kindred. We became brother and sister. On this related note, we realized that we had moved on. But Anton stays close,
Berezhnaya said.
After a while, Elena found a new couple. Her chosen one was an English skater. From the British, Berezhnaya gave birth to a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Sophia-Diana. Anton Sikharulidze also took up his personal life and married Yana Lebedeva. However, in 2013 their marriage broke up.
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This article will focus on a certain Elena Berezhnaya. The girl is an Olympic champion in figure skating. Also acts as an honored master of sports in Russian Federation. She started skating at the age of three and to this day shocks the public with her professionalism. In the girl’s hometown, everyone knows her without exception, she even opened a cafe there called “Axel”, where a large number of people come every day. So, let's not waste a minute and quickly move on to the analysis of the biography of the famous figure skater.
Height, weight, age. How old is Elena Berezhnaya
As in any sport, to become a master, you need to train for a long time and monitor your form. Our heroine is one of those people who especially harmonize height, weight, age. How old is Elena Berezhnaya, we will answer directly. Now the skater is only 39 years old, and so you understand, the girl has been faithful to her profession for 36 years. Elena's weight is 47 kilograms, while her height is 1 meter 54 centimeters. As you understand, she looks like a real fashion model, her figure can be envied. Our today's heroine was born under the star "Snakes", and according to the sign of the Zodiac she is "Libra".
Biography and personal life of Elena Berezhnaya
The biography and personal life of Elena Berezhnaya began in the city of Nevinnomyssk. In an ordinary family, in the autumn, on October 11, 1977, a girl was born, who was named Lena. Since birth, the parents wanted to take the baby to some section, and at the age of 3 they saw how plastic the girl was, the mother immediately decided to put her child on the ice, with which she did not fail.
As the years passed, Stanislav Alekseevich Zhuk, famous at that time, became interested in the girl. He originally wanted to educate Elena until she was superior to her teacher. Unfortunately for the men, the 13-year-old figure skater wants to go to Moscow to learn from more experienced masters. Mom was initially very worried about this, but soon reconciled, because she wanted to see her daughter as a star on the ice.
In Moscow, our heroine was settled in a hostel for athletes. Only men lived in this hostel, which was not at all pleasant for the girl. At that time, she met the athlete Oleg Shlyakhov, who became her partner on the ice. According to the people around him, he was a tyrant and even resorted to methods such as assault. For such behavior, Oleg wanted to be punished by the skaters from the club, but this only encouraged the man to take Elena to Latvia.
In Latvia, they conquered the peaks, and they were noticed by a certain Tamara Moskvina, who took the partners to the city on the Neva. Over time, the girl's partner even became softer in relations, but this did not last long, soon he again raised his voice to Elena and beat her.
In St. Petersburg, our heroine met Anton Sikharulidze, who later stood up for the girl when he found out about Oleg's habits. They liked each other, which made the current partner jealous of Elena and forced her to move to Latvia again. The girl wanted to refuse partnership with Shlyakhov after the European Championship, but the matter did not come to the championship, the skater suffered a head injury.
Mom and Anton arrived to support Elena, who again put the girl on her feet with his care.
We will list some of the championships where our heroine performed. In 1998, she participated in the Olympic Games held in the town of Nagano, where she received silver. In 2002 games in Salt Lake City, where she already received gold. From 2002 to 2006 - together with Anton Sikharulidze, she toured the United States, after the contract expired, she returned to St. Petersburg again. During her life she also participated in such TV projects as: "Stars on Ice" (2006) and "Star Ice" (2008).
Many fans saw what a good relationship was between Anton and Elena, but no matter how much the fans waited for the couple to get married, this never happened. Elena connected her fate with a British figure skater, to whom she gave birth to two children.
Family and children of Elena Berezhnaya
The family and children of Elena Berezhnaya excite fans, no less than the girl herself. Her figure skating partners were just partners and nothing more. The only person who could become her husband, as the fans thought, was Anton Sikharulidze, but, as mentioned earlier, nothing happened between them. The feelings that were between a man and a girl were at a related level. They felt like brother and sister.
Elena Berezhnaya became a mother for the first time already in 2007. The couple had a boy, Tristan, and two years later, the girl gives birth to a daughter, Sophia-Diana. The father of the children was the British figure skater Stephen Cousins.
The son of Elena Berezhnaya - Tristan
The son of Elena Berezhnaya is Tristan, now at the age of 10 years. He was born during Elena's marriage to Stephen. In the family, he was a fairly expected child. Because the girl, because of her career, could not find time for her family, although it was already time. Parents divorced, but Tristan sees his father very often and spends quite a lot of time with him. What the little boy is doing now is unknown, but most likely his mother is raising a new champion in figure skating from him.
Daughter of Elena Berezhnaya - Sofia-Diana
The daughter of Elena Berezhnaya - Sofia-Diana, has a double name, was born in the States, apparently her parents could not make a choice among these two beautiful names. The baby was born in 2009. Married couple wanted another child, because, in their opinion, a family should have at least two children. This is a help to parents - the spouses claimed. Like her brother, she often meets with her father, who lives in the United States, he pampers her with various gifts. She dreams of becoming a champion like her mother in the future.
Former husband of Elena Berezhnaya - Stephen Cousins
Ex-husband Elena Berezhnoy - Stephen Cousins is from Britain. In his country he became the champion eight times. Born in 1972, May 24th. I met our heroine on tour in the USA. It all started with a skirmish of views, but soon Stephen decided to take the first step and began to plentifully care for our heroine. Soon he made a marriage proposal, to which Elena unconditionally agreed. The wedding took place in 2007, at the time when the couple had their first son. Unfortunately, in 2014, Berezhnaya made a loud statement that she broke up with Stephen.
Elena Berezhnaya and the latest news in 2018
Anyone who has ever watched our heroine from television screens immediately becomes interested in Elena Berezhnaya and latest news 2017-2018 about her. Indeed, after all, our heroine was able to achieve everything with her perseverance. What is known from the latest events of this girl is that she opened the Axel cafe in her hometown. Now she often attends events related to her profession.
Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya, whose love story resembles a fairy tale, communicate to this day, he, as before, supports the girl.
Instagram and Wikipedia Elena Berezhnaya
In order to be even more illuminated about the life of our today's heroine, Instagram and Wikipedia Elena Berezhnaya will help you. After all, only on Wikipedia you can find out everything that happened to a girl in her entire life. Instagram, in turn, will help to keep abreast of all the events taking place in Elena's life. In the tape, the skater uploads photos from the rest, photos of her wards, and, well, when she never takes a selfie. More than 14 thousand subscribers are subscribed to the girl, and every day this figure is growing. Therefore, if you want to follow the life of Berezhnaya, subscribe.
If the famous figure skater, Olympic champion Elena Berezhnaya was told three years ago that she would love the English figure skater Stephen Cousins, give birth to his son Tristan, and even more so start skating on ice in a pair with ... singer Dima Bilan, she would just laugh. It was impossible to believe this. But life sometimes throws out such pretzels that you can’t say in a fairy tale or describe with a pen!
Photo: Mark Steinbock
When Lena Berezhnaya found out that Bilan would be her partner in the show of the Rossiya TV channel Star Ice, her delight knew no bounds. "That's cool! I thought. - After all, there is probably no more popular singer in Russia today! Then I got scared - when I saw Dima on the ice for the first time! He couldn't skate at all. I was horrified: how are we going to perform in the show with him ?! But he was so hardworking, tenacious! And besides, he's not afraid of anything." Lena happily agreed to participate in this TV project also because her common-law husband, the English figure skater Stephen Cousins, was also invited to it. He danced in tandem with Lera Kudryavtseva. But he was forced to leave Star Ice because he could not cancel his tour performances scheduled under the contract ... Lena and Stephen's romance began in 2006 and became a complete surprise in the world figure skating.
The athletes met at the famous Stars On Ice ice show. Although we had seen each other several times before. “All skaters know each other. At least in the face, Berezhnaya laughs. - We constantly meet at tournaments in different countries. I don't even remember when and where I first saw Steven. Most likely it was at the European Championships in 1993. But neither then, nor years later, I could not even imagine that our paths would cross with him. Cousins was a single skater, I skated with Anton Sikharulidze. I never paid much attention to Stephen: well, a skater and a skater. We didn’t even say hello to him ... And so we ended up on the same tour - for four months we traveled around the cities of the United States. Almost every day there are performances, moving, flights, new hotels…
Photo: Mark Steinbock
We traveled mostly on three buses. Russian skaters are forever separate from others. In addition to Anton and me, Lesha Yagudin participated in the show, sometimes Katya Gordeeva also joined us, all the rest are foreigners. I loved to rest alone - apart from male society. Yagudin and Sikharulidze enthusiastically communicated with each other, repeated the same jokes, jokes, discussed everyone, and at some point I thought: let them joke without me, discuss everyone without my ears. And then it so happened that I suddenly joined the American-Canadian party. Stephen was the leader, the soul of this company. The fact is that he, an Englishman, eventually moved to live in Toronto. Stephen seemed to bring us all together. And I began to attract: "Lena, let's go to the cinema with us, we'll sit in a cafe." Who would have thought how it would end!
They built a legendary career, becoming eyewitnesses of a unique event, when at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, together with them, the gold went to the Canadian duo. However, the personal life of domestic athletes did not work out. Gazeta.Ru tells about the path of Sikharulidze and Berezhnaya, who almost died after one of the training sessions.
Elena Berezhnaya began her figure skating career in her native Nevinnomyssk at the age of three. Ten years later, noting the talent of the young figure skater, the Moscow coaches noticed the athlete and sent her an invitation to the capital of the country. This was done personally by the eminent specialist Stanislav Zhuk. Berezhnaya's parents remained in Nevinnomyssk, and Elena herself went to conquer Moscow.
Her first partner on the ice was Oleg Shlyakhov from Latvia. There was an age barrier between the skaters - Oleg was four years older than Elena, which in turn seriously affected the couple's relationship. True, it was Shlyakhov who played a significant role in the problems. Before Berezhnaya, he managed to change as many as seven partners, who were extremely unhappy with the behavior of the Latvian skater.
This behavior did not go unnoticed by the skater's friends, who several times stood up for their girlfriend. Shlyakhov, in turn, forcibly decided to take Elena with him to Latvia, where Berezhnaya almost died.
At one of the training sessions in preparation for the continental championship - 1996 in Riga, the partner of the Russian figure skater, after a difficult rotation, crashed into her partner's head with a skate.
As a result of the collision, Berezhnaya was urgently taken to the hospital, where she ended up in intensive care. In the hospital, Elena survived two most difficult neurosurgical operations, and the athlete also forgot how to walk and talk on her own.
A vital role in the truest sense of the word was played by Anton Sikharulide, who was a close friend of Berezhnaya. From the moment they met, Anton showed Elena's attention, and it was he who, in the most difficult period for the skater, was there. The 19-year-old figure skater even broke from his training camp and flew to Riga to support his beloved, for whom he did not hide his feelings. Berezhnaya herself could not remember the moment of the collision with Shlyakhov for a long time.
“At first, I didn’t understand what had happened. When they told me that they had surgery on my head, I thought: well, I’ll have to skip a few workouts. But when they said that it would take at least two weeks to lie down without getting up, I realized that everything turned out to be much more difficult, ”said Elena.
It was her new boyfriend who helped the skater in rehabilitation. Sikharulidze helped her learn to walk and speak, who took Berezhnaya to St. Petersburg, where the couple began to train under the guidance of Tatyana Moskvina.
Already in the 1996/97 season, Elena returned to the ice. Together with Anton, she won silver at the Russian Championship, became the bronze medalist of the European Championship and took ninth place in the world tournament. Later, Berezhnaya noted the contribution of her new partner, not excluding a romantic relationship with Sikharulidze.
“They, of course, inspire feelings. It is impossible to fly to Riga, get a visa in a few hours ... And these are, of course, feelings. Anton was the star of Petersburg. The fact that he showed me attention, I really liked it. He took me to Petersburg. At that time, his parents had a two-room apartment, in one of the rooms of which we lived - Anton, me and his sister, ”Berezhnaya said in the program“ Alone with Everyone.
In 1998, Berezhnaya fulfilled her dream and competed at the Olympics. In Nagano, the couple won silver and then won the world championship.
Realizing all the potential, the duo began preparations for the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, winning the championships of Russia, Europe and the world along the way. In the US, the whole world witnessed a unique event.
The main competitors of Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze were Canadian figure skaters Jami Sale and David Peletier. Before the free program, the Russians were in the lead, and according to the results of the free program, they received only one point more from the judges than the Canadians, having won Olympic gold.
However, the judges' scores were criticized in North America so much that the organizers decided to share the top step of the podium with the Russians and Canadian skaters.
The presentation of two sets of gold medals at once caused a wave of criticism in Russia as well. The public urged Elena and Anton to boycott the award ceremony, but the couple refused this - the gold of the Games turned out to be more important.
After the triumph at the Olympics, the duo decided to end their amateur career and turn to professionals. From 2002 to 2006, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze toured the United States with the Stars on Ice show. However, the relationship of lovers became more and more tense.
Berezhnaya still had speech problems, but was forced to give interviews alone, while Sikharulidze increasingly took care of his own problems. As a result, the couple decided to leave.
“Life has begun. Anton had his own interests, I have something there. Don't know. We trained a lot together, skated, performed, and our relationship has already grown so much into kindred. We became brother and sister. On this related note, we realized that we had moved on. But Anton stays close,
After a while, Elena found a new couple. Her chosen one was the English figure skater Stephen Cousins. From the British, Berezhnaya gave birth to a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Sophia-Diana. Anton Sikharulidze also took up his personal life and married Yana Lebedeva. However, in 2013 their marriage broke up.
The famous figure skater, who marked the victory at the Olympic Games of the third millennium, Elena Berezhnaya glorified on the ice not only St. Petersburg, which became her native, but also the Fatherland. October 11, the birthday of the Honored Master of Sports, let's talk about her career on ice.
As a little girl, Lena got on the ice in her hometown of Nevinnomyssk. She was brought to the figure skating school so that she would get stronger physically, and no one imagined that a champion would grow out of her. The coaches appreciated the extraordinary flexibility of the girl, her performance and considered that for single skating she is no good. Nina Ivanovna Ruchkina offered her her son Alexander as a partner
The coach really wanted him to become a champion. They paid attention to their duet, and the coaches made every effort so that the girl continued her further studies at the CSKA figure skating school. So Lena moved from distant Stavropol to Moscow, trained with Vladimir Zakharov. However, she did not like the lanky and clumsy Sasha, and besides, he was no skater. Lena found a new partner, a promising athlete from Latvia Oleg Shlyakhov.
Since 1993, the Berezhnaya-Shlyakhov duet has become a couple No. 1, but at the European and World Championships they could not rise above 5–7 places.
They were noticed by Tamara Nikolaevna Moskvina - so Lena and Oleg ended up in St. Petersburg, starting to train at Yubileiny.
The relationship between the partners was very difficult, the mentally unbalanced Shlyakhov was rude and merciless, sometimes broke down, could hit for the slightest mistake, but the patient Lena did not complain about anything: she had long noticed that cruelty in sports is the norm. But one day, the fragile Thumbelina got a real defender - Anton Sikharulidze, who trained with them on the ice. Oleg woke up with terrible jealousy, and he literally overnight took Lena back to Latvia to prepare for the European Championship.
But the outcome of the couple's relationship was decided by a blunder that almost cost Berezhnaya her life. In 1996, in training, performing the most difficult rotation element,
narcissistic Shakhov did not even think about his partner, accidentally (?) hitting her head with a skate. As a result, the skater was severely injured: the temporal bone was pierced, and fragments damaged the brain membrane. Berezhnaya underwent two neurosurgical operations, after which she learned not only to walk, but also to speak and read.
She learned to skate again with a new partner - Anton Sikharulidze, who immediately rushed to Latvia and supported her throughout the postoperative period. After the hospital, Elena returned to Nevinnomyssk.
Soon Anton arrived there. They went to Pyatigorsk to his grandmother and spent a whole month there. Now they realized that they could not live without each other. Elena and Anton return to St. Petersburg and continue training. And in 1999 T.N. Moskvina transported them to America.
At the first championship, the couple took third place. Their number "Charlie Chaplin" conquered the strict jury and viewers around the world.
True, here a surprise awaited them: shortly before the competition, Lena caught a cold, but for some reason the couple was disqualified at the World Championships, explaining this fact by the presence of high concentrations of ephedrine in the blood of the figure skater - 13. It turned out that he was part of the drugs that Lena treated cold. The athletes could not prove anything, and the medals had to be given away. After this incident, the minimum value of the coefficient was raised to 25, but ... the championship was not returned.
The couple was preparing hard for the Olympic Games. In 2002, they became gold champions, taking first place.
After the competition, an American firm offered Elena and Anton a five-year contract to participate in the Stars on Ice show. Then a similar project began to be implemented in Russia. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze returned to St. Petersburg. In 2006, Elena participated in the Stars on Ice Channel One show, paired with actor Alexander Nosik, and in 2008, in the Star Ice RTR program with Dima Bilan.
Sikharulidze decided not to return to big sport, and Berezhnaya was left without a partner. She tried to perform solo, but it was already clear to everyone that she was not a loner.
In 2009, she performed in the 3rd season of Ice Age. Her show partner was Mikhail Galustyan. In 2010, in the show "Ice and Fire", the audience was delighted with the Berezhnaya-Ugolnikov duet. In 2011 she participated in the Canadian
TV show "Battle of Blades" paired with hockey player Curtis Leshishin.