Sofia Akateva

Sofia Dmitrievna Akateva (, born 7 July 2007) is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2023 Russian champion. At the junior level, she is the 2021 JGP Russia champion, the 2021 JGP Poland champion, a two-time Russian junior national champion (2021, 2022), and currently holds the junior women's world records for the highest total and free skate scores.

Akateva is the 11th woman to land a quad jump and the 14th to land a triple Axel in international competition. She is the second woman after American skater Alysa Liu to land a quad jump and triple Axel in one program successfully.

Personal life

Akateva was born in Moscow on 7 July 2007. She has a younger brother, Aleksandr. Sonik () is a Russian diminutive form of Sofia, so she is affectionately nicknamed Super Soniс by her fans and teammates for her strong technical ability.

Career

Early years

Akateva began learning to skate in 2011 as a four-year-old at Sambo 70. She transitioned into the Khrustalnyi rink under her current coach Eteri Tutberidze's group within the Sambo 70 training complex in 2017.

Akateva began training her first quadruple jump, the quad toe loop, with the support of a harness in December 2018 and the triple Axel in January 2019. She landed her first attempts of both jumps independently in March and April 2019, respectively.

As a novice and domestic junior skater under Tutberidze, Akateva placed second at the 2019 Russian Youth Championships (Russia's equivalent of a novice national championship) behind her teammate Kamila Valieva. In 2020, she won the silver medal at the 2020 Russian Junior Championships, again behind Valieva, and won her first junior national title the following year at the 2021 edition. During the domestic Cup of Russia series held during the 2020–21 season, Akateva was lauded as the first female skater to land a triple Axel and two quadruple jumps in a program during her free skate.

2021–22 season: International junior debut

Akateva made her junior international debut at the 2021 JGP Russia held in Krasnoyarsk in mid-September. At the event, she surpassed teammate Kamila Valieva's junior world record scores for the free program and total combined score and came close to matching teammate Alena Kostornaia's junior world record for the short program to take the title by a comfortable 27 point margin ahead of silver medalist Anastasia Zinina. Across her two programs, Akateva landed two triple Axels, one in combination, and three quad jumps, the toe loop, and the Salchow, two in combination. She is the first woman to land three quads and a triple Axel in one program.

At her second JGP assignment, the 2021 JGP Poland, Akateva skated two clean programs, again executing two triple Axels and three quad jumps over the course of the competition to claim the title ahead of compatriot Elizaveta Kulikova and South Korean competitor Shin Ji-a. Due to her results over her two events, Akateva qualified to the 2021–22 Junior Grand Prix Final as the top-seeded competitor in the junior women's event. Akateva's results also automatically qualified her a spot in the senior-level 2022 Russian Championships, but she was barred from competing there by the Russian Figure Skating Federation as her birthday fell after the age-eligibility cutoff date.

In February 2022, Akateva handily won her second consecutive junior national title at the 2022 Russian Junior Championships. She placed first in both segments of competition to take the gold medal by an over 23-point margin ahead of silver medalist Sofia Samodelkina.

2022–23 season: Russian national title

Akateva competed on the domestic Russian Grand Prix (in lieu of the ISU Grand Prix, as Russian skaters were banned from competing internationally, Akateva was assigned to the first and fourth stages of the Russian Grand Prix series.

At the first stage of the Russian Grand Prix, Akateva ranked second in the short program with a score of 72.70. in the free skate she successfully landed a triple axel, and two quad toes, one of which was landed in combination with a double axel. She won the free skate and ranked second overall, 7.98 points behind Kamila Valieva.

At the fourth stage of the Russian Grand Prix, Akateva ranked second in the short program with a score of 83.39, before ranking third in both the free skate and the overalls, taking the bronze medal behind Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Sofia Muravieva. Her results at the first and fourth stages of the Russian Grand Prix series qualified Akateva for the Russian Grand Prix Finale.

Akateva competed at the 2023 Russian Figure Skating Championships. She successfully landed a triple axel in the short program and ranked in first place. She ranked in second place in the free skate after falling on her opening triple axel, though she otherwise skated cleanly, landing two quad Toe loops and ranking in first place overall and winning the gold medal.

Akateva competed next at the 2023 Channel One Trophy where she was assigned to the team titled “The Red Machine” and was captained by Alina Zagitova. Akateva ranked in third place after the short program but landed a Triple Axel and both quad Toe loops in the free skate to rank in first place in the individual standings and help the Red Machine claim victory in the team standings.

Akateva’s last competition of the season was the 2023 Russian Grand Prix Final. She fell on her Triple Axel in the short program causing her to rank in fifth place and 10.22 points behind Adeliia Petrosian. She landed a Triple Axel and two quad Twos in the free skate, although both quads were marked as under-rotated and she moved up to only fourth place overall, missing out on a medal by only 0.52 points.

In late June, Akateva was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the foot and had to suspend training. By late July she was able to resume training.

2023-2024 season: Injury

Although Akateva debuted two new programs at the 2023-2024 Russian Test Skates she did not compete at all during the 2023-2024 season due to injury.

2024-2025 Season : Comeback

Akateva performed at the 2024-2025 Russian Test Skates, confirming she would compete with her programs originally intended for the previous season. Her short program was set to the music Masquerade (Khachaturian) and her free skate was set to various pieces of music from the 2008 film Admiral .

The third stage of the Russian Grand Prix held in Krasnoyarsk in November of 2024 marked Akateva’s first competition since March of 2023. She ranked in third place in the short program behind Anna Frolova and Sofia Muravieva. In the free skate she popped her opening quad toe loop, her only quad attempt of the competition. She skated the rest of the program cleanly and ranked in third place overall winning the bronze medal behind Frolova and Alina Gorbacheva

Programs

Competitive highlights

JGP: Junior Grand Prix; GPR: Grand Prix of Russia

Records and achievements

Junior world record scores

Akateva is currently the junior world record holder for the women's free program and total combined score.

• Akateva is the first woman to land a triple Axel and three quadruple jumps in one program.

Detailed results

''Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. Personal bests highlighted in'' bold.

Although she participated in senior level competitions in Russia in the 2022–23 season, she is still considered a junior competitor according to the ISU classification.

Senior level

Junior level

References

External links

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! colspan="3" style="border-top: 5px solid #78FF78;" , World Junior Record Holders

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akateva, Sofia
2007 births
Living people
Russian female single skaters
Figure skaters from Moscow
21st-century Russian sportswomen