Alexei Vadimovich Sviatchenko (; born 24 March 1999) is a Russian

pair skater Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

who currently competes for Hungary. With his current skating partner,

Maria Pavlova Maria Vasilievna Pavlova (; ''née'' Gortynskaia (); June 26, 1854 – December 23, 1938) was a Ukrainian who became a paleontologist and academician in Moscow during the Russian Empire and Soviet era. She is known for her research on the fossil ...

, he is the

2023 Skate Canada International The 2023 Skate Canada International was the second event of the 2023–24 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Thunderbird Sports Centre, Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Spor ...

silver medalist, the

2023 Grand Prix of Espoo The 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo was the fifth event of the 2023–24 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Espoo Metro Areena in Espoo, Finland, from November 17–19. Med ...

bronze medalist, the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy bronze medalist, and a two-time Hungarian national champion (2023–24).

Personal life

Sviatchenko was born on 24 March 1999 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, Russia. Fluent

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, he has also been learning how to speak the

Hungarian language Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...

. In March 2024, his girlfriend, former Russian ice dancer and choreographer, Sofia Evdokimova, announced that they were engaged. They married in April 2025.

Career

Early years and career for Russia

Sviatchenko began learning how to skate in 2006. He became interested in the sport upon first seeing skaters at an ice rink and asked his mother to put him in lessons. He trained first as a single skater in

Kolpino Kolpino () is a administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, municipal city in Kolpinsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the Izhora River (tributary of th ...

, a suburb of St. Petersburg, and at the age of 12 took up pair skating at the Figure Skating Club of St. Petersburg coached by

Alexei Sokolov Alexei Vladimirovich Sokolov (; born 15 January 1979) is a Russian pair skating coach and former competitor. With Julia Obertas, he won two Grand Prix medals and placed within the top ten at two ISU Championships. He is the 1998 World Junior s ...

. Sviatchenko competed with his first partner, Daria Kvartalova, until 2019. The team competed at four junior international events together, most notably finishing third at the 2018 JGP Canada. Following his split with Kvartalova, Sviatchenko had two more short-lived partnerships for Russia, one with Anastasia Balabanova during the 2020–21 season, and another with Nadezhda Labazina the following year. Labazina/Sviatchenko had one international start together before parting ways, finishing ninth at the 2021 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.

Partnership with Pavlova for Hungary

2022–23 season: Debut of Pavlova/Sviatchenko

Sviatchenko had his first tryout with his current skating partner, Maria Pavlova, in March 2022 at what is now their current training base in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

. The duo chose to move forward as a new team for Hungary not long after, coached by Pavlova's staff consisting of Dmitri Savin,

Fedor Klimov Fedor Alexandrovich Klimov (; born 7 September 1990) is a retired Russian pair skater. With partner Ksenia Stolbova, he is the 2014 Olympic silver medalist, the 2014 Olympic champion in the team event, the 2014 World silver medalist, a three-t ...

, Sofia Evdokimova, and

Gurgen Vardanjan Gurgen Vardanjan (, , born 18 October 1963) is an Armenian figure skating coach and former competitor for the Soviet Union. He is the 1983 Grand Prix International St. Gervais silver medalist and a two-time Prague Skate bronze medalist (1981, 19 ...

. Pavlova/Sviatchenko made their competitive debut late in the 2022–23 season at the

2022 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb The 2022 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb was held on December 7–10, 2022, in Sisak, Croatia. It was part of the 2022–23 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Entries The Inter ...

, where they finished ninth. Weeks later, the team claimed their first Hungarian national title at the 2023 Four Nationals Championship, the combined national championship event for Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Due to their placement at the event, Pavlova/Sviatchenko were named to the Hungarian teams for the 2023 European Championships in January, and the 2023 World Championships in March. At the European Championships, Pavlova/Sviatchenko placed sixth in the short program and fourth in the free skate to finish fifth overall, the best placement for a Hungarian team at the event in many years. In preparation for the World Championships, the team competed at two senior B events, the

2023 Bavarian Open 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

and the 2023 Challenge Cup, where they placed first and second respectively. Pavlova/Sviatchenko capped their season at Worlds, hosted in Saitama, Japan. There, the duo set new personal bests in both segments of competition, placing eighth in the short program and seventh in the free skate for seventh-place finish overall, another landmark placement for a Hungarian pair team at the competition in recent memory.

2023–24 season

Pavlova/Sviatchenko opened their second season together in September at the

2023 CS Nebelhorn Trophy The 2023 CS Nebelhorn Trophy was held on September 20–23, 2023, in Oberstdorf, Germany. It was part of the 2023–24 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Entries The Int ...

where they finished fifth. They followed up this placement with a third-place finish at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy, and a silver medal in the Challenger ineligible pairs event at the

2023 CS Budapest Trophy The 2023 CS Budapest Trophy was held on October 13–15, 2023, in Budapest, Hungary. It was part of the 2023–24 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, and ice dance. Entries The International Skating U ...

. The team made their ISU Grand Prix series debut in late October at the

, held in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Pavlova/Sviatchenko placed fourth in the short program, and rose to second in the free skate to finish second overall between Canadian gold medalists Stellato-Dudek/ Deschamps and Italian third-place finishers Beccari/ Guarise. Their placement marked the first medal for Hungary in pairs at a Grand Prix event. Following the free skate, Pavlova remarked, "We're really happy with our performance and we're going to improve every time and we have a lot of things to work on. Our federation is happy for us. We're giving good results for our country and we will continue to do that." They were again fourth in the short program at the

, but another second-place free skate won them the bronze medal. The team's results on the Grand Prix initially had them finishing as first alternates to the

Grand Prix Final The Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final – originally known as the Champions Series Final – is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU). It is the culminating event of the Grand Prix Series. Meda ...

. They were called up to compete at the

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

event following the withdrawal of German team Hocke/ Kunkel, and came in fourth at the event. Pavlova/Sviatchenko competed next at the 2024 European Championships, finishing fourth in the short program, less than two points back of third place. They came third in the free skate, winning a bronze small medal, but remained fourth overall, 1.66 points behind bronze medalists Ghilardi/ Ambrosini of Italy. They expressed dissatisfaction with the judging of their performances, with Pavlova saying "our motivation goes down every time we keep getting these scores." Finishing the season at the 2024 World Championships in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Pavlova/Sviatchenko came sixth in the short program. They moved up to fourth after the free skate, which she called "very motivating for next season."

2024–25 season

Pavlova/Sviatchenko started the season by competing at the

2024 CS Lombardia Trophy The 2024 CS Lombardia Trophy was held on September 13–15, 2024, in Bergamo, Italy. It was part of the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Entries The Internati ...

and the 2024 Shanghai Trophy, where they won bronze and gold, respectively. Going on to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix series, they placed fifth at 2024 Skate America. “This wasn’t our best skate for sure," said Pavlova. "We were both a bit sick ahead of this competition. We have some time now to regroup and will be better at the next competition.” They went on to take silver at the

2024 Finlandia Trophy The 2024 Grand Prix of Finland, Finlandia Trophy was the fifth event of the 2024–25 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Helsinki Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland, from N ...

. Going on to compete at the 2025 European Championships in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Estonia, Pavlova/Sviatchenko placed third in the short program and fourth in the free skate, finishing fourth overall, only 0.44 points behind bronze medalists, Metelkina/ Berulava. The following month, they competed at the 2025 World Championships in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, United States, where the placed eighth overall after finishing sixth in the short program and eighth in the free skate.

Programs

Pair skating with Maria Pavlova (for Hungary)

With Kvartalova

Competitive highlights

Pair skating with Maria Pavlova (for Hungary)

With Labazina for Russia

With Balabanova for Russia

With Kvartalova for Russia

Detailed results

Pair skating with Maria Pavlova (for Hungary)

References

External links

*
Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko
at SkatingScores * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sviatchenko, Alexei 1999 births Living people Russian male pair skaters Hungarian male pair skaters Figure skaters from Saint Petersburg 21st-century Russian sportsmen 21st-century Hungarian sportsmen