Vazgen Azrojan (; born 22 January 1977) is a retired

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

. He is best known for his partnership with Anastasia Grebenkina with whom he represented Armenia at the 2006 Winter Olympics and won the bronze medal at the 2005 NHK Trophy.

Personal life

He was born on 22 January 1977 in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. He is the father of Armenian ice dancer Viktoriia Azroian (born 15 July 2003 in Moscow).

Career

Azrojan placed ninth with Ekaterina Davydova at the 1994 World Junior Championships, representing Russia. The next season, he competed with Elena Kustarova for Russia and placed 17th at the 1995 European Championships. Azrojan teamed up with Anastasia Grebenkina in 1996 and skated with her until 1998, representing Russia. After their partnership ended, he skated with Tiffany Hyden, representing Armenia. Grebenkina and Azrojan reformed their partnership in 2002 to compete for Armenia. They became the first skaters to medal for Armenia at a Grand Prix event, obtaining bronze at the

NHK Trophy The NHK Trophy is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Japan Skating Federation. The first NHK Trophy was held in 1979 in Tokyo. When the ISU launched the Champ ...

in 2005. They competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics, finishing 20th. Azrojan was the

flag bearer A standard-bearer, also known as a colour-bearer or flag-bearer, is a person who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a ...

for Armenia at the event. In September 2006, Grebenkina / Azrojan changed coaches, moving from Alexei Gorshkov to

Alexander Zhulin Alexander (Sasha) Viacheslavovich Zhulin (; born 20 July 1963) is a Russian ice dancing coach and former competitor. With Maya Usova, he is a two-time Olympic medalist ( 1994 silver, 1992 bronze), the 1993 World champion, and the 1993 Europ ...

. At the

2006 Cup of China The 2006 Cup of China was the third event of six in the 2006–07 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Nanjing on November 9 ...

, Grebenkina cut her leg with her own blade during practice, requiring stitches, but was able to compete and finished 6th with Azrojan. The duo retired from competition in 2008.

Programs

With Grebenkina

With Hyden

Competitive highlights

With Grebenkina for Armenia and Russia

With Hyden for Armenia

With Kustarova for Russia

With Davydova for Russia

References

External links

Grebenkina-Azroyan.com
( archived fro
original
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Azrojan, Vazgen Armenian male ice dancers Russian male ice dancers Figure skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters for Armenia 1977 births Living people Figure skaters from Odesa Ukrainian people of Armenian descent Russian figure skating coaches