Emilea Zingas

Emilea Zingas (born April 22, 2002) is a Cypriot-American figure skater. Competing in ice dance with Vadym Kolesnik, she is the 2022 Golden Spin of Zagreb bronze medalist and 2023 U.S. national pewter medalist.

Zingas previously represented Cyprus in women's singles, and was the 2020 Santa Claus Cup silver medalist and the 2021 Challenge Cup bronze medalist. She was the first Cypriot skater to qualify for the World Championships.

Personal life

Zingas was born on April 22, 2002, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan to parents Chris, an orthopedic surgeon, and Marsha, a dermatopathologist. She is the youngest of four children, including a sister, Elana, who currently plays ice hockey at Cornell University. Zingas' paternal grandparents, Nick and Xenia Zingas, were born in Cyprus. She holds both U.S. and Cypriot citizenship.

Zingas graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School in 2020, and currently studies neuroscience at Wayne State University.

Career

Early career

Zingas began skating as a preschooler and started training at age seven with Lindsay O'Donoghue and Brooke Castile O'Keefe in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Zingas won the 2018 U.S. national novice silver medal in her only trip to the U.S. Championships as a singles skater.

Singles skating for Cyprus

2020–2021 season

During the 2020–21 season, Zingas took advantage of her gap semester and switched nationalities to compete for Cyprus. She made her international competitive debut at the 2020 CS Budapest Trophy, where she finished seventh. Zingas later competed at 2020 Ice Star and 2020 Santa Claus Cup, where she finished fifth and second, respectively. She noted that she was grateful to have the opportunity to travel internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as she was returning to her Michigan training base between events in Europe.

At the 2021 Challenge Cup in February, Zingas won the bronze behind Belgian Loena Hendrickx and Emmy Ma of Chinese Taipei, as well as earned her technical minimums to qualify for the 2021 World Championships. She is the first Cypriot skater to ever qualify for the World Championships. During the short program at the World Championships in March, Zingas popped a planned triple Lutz into a single, and fell on the triple flip in her planned triple flip-triple toe loop combination, both of which severely impacted her score. She finished thirty-sixth in the segment and did not advance to the free skate.

2021–2022 season

After a tenth-place finish at the Skating Club of Boston's Cranberry Cup International event, Zingas was assigned to compete at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to attempt to qualify a berth for Cyprus at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She placed ninth at the event, resulting in Cyprus being the second reserve for the Olympics. She appeared at two additional Challenger events in the fall, coming sixteenth at the 2021 CS Cup of Austria and fourteenth at the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup.

During her competitive season, Zingas was offered the opportunity to try out in ice dancing, a discipline she had no previous experience in, with reigning World Junior champion Vadym Kolesnik, whose partnership with Avonley Nguyen had ended after that gold medal win. Kolesnik would later say that "the first time I skated with Emilea I felt something special. I felt like I can be myself. She opens up in the way that I want to skate and that's how it comes out — freedom." On May 15, Zingas officially announced that the two would compete together representing the United States.

Ice dance with Kolesnik for the United States

2022–2023 season: Debut of Zingas/Kolesnik

Zingas/Kolesnik made their international debut in December 2022 at the 2022 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they won the bronze medal.

After winning gold in November 2022 at the U.S. Ice Dance Final to qualify for the 2023 U.S. Championships, the team entered a dance field more open than normal due to presumptive national silver medalists Hawayek/Baker being absent due to health issues. Zingas/Kolesnik unexpectedly placed third in the rhythm dance, less than a point ahead of Zagreb gold medalists Carreira/ Ponomarenko, who had erred on their twizzles. After the free dance, Carreira/Ponomarenko had squeaked ahead overall by 0.32, but Zingas/Kolesnik stood on the podium as pewter medalists, a noteworthy achievement in a team's first season. Zingas called the whole week "surreal."

2023–2024 season

For their free dance, Zingas proposed skating to Alan Menken's ''Beauty and the Beast'' film score, which Kolesnik was persuaded of after a "watch party."

Beginning the season on the Challenger circuit, Zingas/Kolesnik finished fourth at the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial. They were invited to make their Grand Prix debut at 2023 Skate Canada International, where they placed fifth, despite a rhythm dance twizzle error. They were fifth as well at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo. Zingas/Kolesnik finished out the fall season at the 2023 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they won the silver medal.

In advance of the 2024 U.S. Championships, Zingas/Kolesnik were named as first alternates for the American team for the 2024 Four Continents Championships in Shanghai.They finished only sixth at the national championships, but were notified while driving home that national champions Chock/Bates had withdrawn from the Four Continents Championships due to illness, and they were to fly to Shanghai the following morning. They were fourth in both segments of the competition, coming fourth overall, 1.07 points back of bronze medalists Carreira/ Ponomarenko. Zingas called the event "a great bonus."

2024–2025 season

Zingas/Kolesnik started the season by winning bronze at the 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. Beginning the 2024–25 Grand Prix series at 2024 Skate Canada International, they came fourth in the rhythm dance, 1.13 points behind third-place French team Lopareva/ Brissaud. Both partners received low levels on their twizzles in the free dance, and they dropped to fifth overall, which Kolesnik called "very disappointing." They followed this up by finishing fifth at the 2024 Finlandia Trophy. "We are happy though that we could finish this competition on a high note with a good free dance," said Zingas.

In January, Zingas/Kolesnik competed at the 2025 U.S. Championships, where they placed third in the rhythm dance and fourth in the free dance, finishing fourth overall. “I think we did the best we could,” said Zingas. “It was a challenging season overall, and we’ve been dealing with some things on and off the ice. I’m really proud of how we handled ourselves, and I think we’ve shown a lot of growth and more maturity from last year to this year. I’m really proud, especially with Vadym. He is a very strong person, and I’m really happy to skate with him.”

They then closed the season with a fifth-place finish at the 2025 Four Continents Championships in Seoul, South Korea. “I’m happy with what we’ve done today,” said Kolesnik after the free dance. “I think we just wanted to skate our best and give justice to this program because we love it. We enjoy doing it and I feel like no matter how we skated, we just wanted to enjoy this process and today I felt like we accomplished it.”

Programs

Ice dance with Vadym Kolesnik (for the United States)

Single skating (for Cyprus)

Competitive highlights

Ice dance with Vadym Kolesnik (for the United States)

Single skating (for Cyprus)

Detailed results

Ice dance with Vadym Kolesnik (for the United States)

Single skating (for Cyprus)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zingas, Emilea
2002 births
Living people
American female single skaters
Cypriot female single skaters
American people of Greek Cypriot descent
People from Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
Sportspeople from Wayne County, Michigan
21st-century American sportswomen