Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya, at the age of 15 years 249 days, became the youngest champion in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. She won both the short and free programs, contributing 20 points to the team. She skated the program cleanly, handling difficult multi-rotation jumps and performing phenomenal spins. This was beautiful!

Here are interesting facts from the life of Yulia Lipnitskaya.

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Lipnitskaya was born on June 5, 1998 in Yekaterinburg. As of January 2014, it ranks third in the ranking of the International Skating Union. In the 2009/2010 season, Lipnitskaya became fifth at the Russian Junior Championships, and the following season, fourth at the adult national championship. In the 2011/2012 season, Yulia reached the age at which athletes are allowed to participate in international competitions among juniors. In all the international tournaments of the season in which Lipnitskaya participated, she took only first places.

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Now it’s hard to believe, but last year Yulia Lipnitskaya almost left big sport. As her former coach Elena Levkovets admitted in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, due to puberty, Yulia had a hard time coping with her height and weight: “Yulia was even going to end her sports career because she didn’t understand what was happening, what to do with her hands, where to put your feet. She didn't do well in training. But Lipnitskaya’s current coach and her mother worked with her for a very long time. And they managed to cope!”

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Yulia Lipnitskaya is the youngest figure skating champion in the history of the Winter Olympic Games since 1936. The athlete updated the record previously held by American figure skater Tara Lipinski, who won in Nagano in 1998 at the age of 15 years and 255 days. Yulia, at the time of her performance in the free program of the team tournament, was 15 years and 249 days old - she was exactly six days younger than the American.

Now Yulia is the second youngest Olympic champion in figure skating in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. And the first is the German Maxi Gerber, who in 1936 won the Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The athlete performing in pair skating was 15 years, 4 months and 5 days old at that time. According to the current rules, this age record can no longer be broken, since figure skaters who are already 15 years and 5 months old are now allowed to participate in the Winter Olympic Games.

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After winning the Skate Canada tournament, Lipnitskaya posed for TV cameramen and photographers with the Russian flag, which featured a large Volkswagen logo, which outraged bloggers. The figure skater’s coach, Eteri Tutberidze, explained that it was not a flag, but a cape that was given to Lipnitsa by one of the Russian fans.

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At her first European Championships in 2014, Lipnitskaya won an unconditional victory, achieving such success among Russian singles skaters for the first time in eight years and also ahead of five-time European champion Carolina Kostner. Interestingly, at this tournament, 15-year-old Yulia was the youngest participant. Lipnitskaya exceeded her own personal record by 11.49 points. She is the first figure skater to win her debut European Championship since Sonia Henie in 1931.

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Julia herself chose the music from the Oscar-winning “Schindler’s List” for her performance. “She watched this film several times - and she said that she wanted to be that girl in the burgundy coat,” said coach Eteri Tutberidze. According to the coach, when Yulia first said that she wanted to perform to this music, she tried to dissuade her. Moreover, according to Tutberidze, several directors abandoned this idea and only Ilya Averbukh decided to stage the dance.

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Yulia does not go to school - she studies at home. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, she even complained: “Don’t ask, for God’s sake, about your favorite subject, there is no such thing! One thought: I wish I could learn everything quickly, pass the exam and suffer.”

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The name of Yulia Lipnitskaya entered global Twitter trends after her victory. The list of global Twitter trends was topped by the name of figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya; this trend also included the phrase “Yulia Lipnitskaya”, and Russian trends included “Yulia Lipnitskaya”, “Yuli” and “Yulya”, the hashtags #Lipnitskaya and #figure_skating. In total, Twitter users left more than 790 thousand messages with the hashtag #Sochi2014, with figure skating being the leader in discussion activity.

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On February 12, Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of Russia.

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The closest person to Yulia is her mother, who helped the girl achieve her current success. It was her mother who noticed Yulina’s talent and brought her daughter to the skating rink at the Olympic Reserve Sports School in Yekaterinburg. The girl was 4 years old. But Julia never knew her dad - he left the family before the girl was born. “When Yulina’s mother became pregnant, Slavka was drafted into the army. He never returned from there. They say that immediately after the service he left for another city. Daniela lifted the girl alone. Gave her my last name. The girl had to work several jobs, even at the market. I remember Daniela returning all frozen. But she withstood everything: she put herself and Yulia on her feet,” Valentina Popova, a friend of the Lipnitsky family, told Komsomolskaya Pravda in an interview. When the opportunities for further athletic growth for Yulia in Yekaterinburg ended, she and her mother moved to Moscow. Daniela Leonidovna is still always next to Yulia, helping and supporting her in everything.

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The young athlete naturally has incredible flexibility. She practiced stretching as a young child, which now allows her to perform one of the most difficult spins in the world, with unique leg locking positions. “What is the phenomenon of Yulia Lipnitskaya? I think it lies in the incompatible qualities that the athlete has,” ITAR-TASS quotes Elena Levkovets as saying. “Yulia has the grace of a ballerina, the tenacity of a wrestler and the stretch of a gymnast. She has talent and hard work. She lives for figure skating."

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Despite the fact that Yulia’s performance in the free program of the team competition delighted spectators and athletes around the world, Yulia herself considers it “the worst performance of her life.” In an interview with Sovetsky Sport, the skater admitted that she prefers to win with a clean skate and asked not to congratulate her on her victory. “I still have some things to improve before the individual championship. I hope I will perform there without any shortcomings. Then I’ll be happy,” Lipnitskaya said. But Evgeni Plushenko is completely delighted with Yulina’s performance. “Lipnitskaya is a genius,” the athlete said on the Sport-1 channel. This is an athlete who has a huge future, 10-12 years ahead.” And even President Vladimir Putin himself praised the athlete after the award and patted her on the head. But Julia does not allow herself to relax. “I don’t know how to forgive myself yet,” she says. “If you allow yourself to make mistakes, then... How can you continue to live?”

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After the European Figure Skating Championships, the athlete’s current coach, Eteri Tutberidze, said that she was very sorry for Yulia. The girl is prone to gaining extra pounds, so she is forced to strictly take care of herself. “It’s still very difficult for Yulia, she struggles with weight every day. I’ve never encountered anything like this in my work – she just can’t eat at all. And I’m very sorry that she has to endure so much, but I can’t do anything about it. She's great for dealing with this. When she needs to lose weight, she only eats Squizzy powder - it's fiber, which gives energy. It’s hard for her, and the weight comes down very slowly - 100 grams a day. But she’s coping, thank God,” the coach said in an interview with TEAM RUSSIA-2014.

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Judging by Yulina’s page on the popular social network VKontakte, her Dalmatian dog’s name is Che Guevara. Yulia also has a horse named Pobeda. In an interview with Soviet Sport, the figure skater said that as a child she loved to spend the summer in the village with her grandmother, where she even learned to milk cows, although not her own, but the neighbors’: “They know me, so I don’t have any problems with them.” But now the girl doesn’t often go to the village - training takes up all her time.

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On February 10, Yulia Lipnitskaya went to Moscow. According to the figure skater, it is more convenient for her to prepare for personal competitions in the capital, since the athlete does not have enough ice in Sochi. She plans to return to Sochi by February 19, when the competition begins

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A little girl in a red dress easily flies up and down onto the ice to the tune from the movie “Schindler’s List.” The next day she will receive a letter of gratitude personally from director Spielberg for the created image. And the experts will say: not a performance, but some kind of effect of the 25th frame. You can’t take your eyes off Lipnitskaya.

The youngest single skater to become an Olympic champion in the team event. Tightly compressed lips. A sly squint. Fragile but strong. The whole country loved her like that. And here's some unexpected news: Yulia Lipnitskaya is leaving the sport.

The TASS agency quotes the mother of figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya: “Yulia informed the leadership of the federation about her plans to end her career back in April, immediately after returning from Europe, where she underwent three months of treatment for anorexia.”

There had been no conversation about such details of Yulina’s life before. Lipnitskaya, although she did not often give interviews, when she communicated with journalists, it was quite open. She talked, for example, about adolescence and just the opposite - the fight against excess weight.

“I used to think that the phrase “you get better from the air” is just such a turn of phrase, but what happened to me is best reflected by these words,” the athlete said in an interview with the Sports.ru portal.

Last year, again, she didn’t hide why she missed the Russian Championship in December - she was injured, she slipped on the street. However, failures began immediately after Sochi. Ninth place at the Russian Championship, did not qualify for the European Championship. Then Yulia doesn’t go on the ice for almost a year. Returns in October 2015 during a tournament in Finland. Whether she’s leaving or not, this time Julia herself is in no hurry to explain.

“She has not yet come to the Federation, she has not yet said that she is leaving, although I have not seen her for a very long time. A person who would like to return, he would have already returned,” says coach Tatyana Tarasova.

Tatyana Tarasova believes that fame came to Yulia too early. As a teenager, she took gold at the European Championships, silver at the World Championships, and made a big splash at the Olympics in Sochi. Then there are growing problems, which only hinder growth in sports. Coach Alexei Mishin has a different version: perhaps Yulia set the bar too high and in the end she was simply tired.

“I came to the skating rink and realized that I couldn’t skate anymore. These are the states of a person’s soul,” he says.

Alexey Mishin is the coach of Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, once one of Lipnitskaya’s main rivals. Tuktamysheva is called a figure skating prodigy. Since the age of 12, she has masterfully and easily performed triple jumps of any complexity. There are enough strong young figure skaters in Russia today, and again, there is competition that is not easy to withstand.

“Women's single skating in Russia remains the strongest. We have a very strong position. Following Yulia, Liza Tuktamysheva became the world champion. And now the leadership has been very clearly and confidently taken by Evgenia Medvedeva, who has already become a two-time world champion,” says coach Ilya Averbukh.

Medvedeva is a pupil of Eteri Tuberidze. It was this coach who once led Lipnitskaya to victory in Sochi. Then Yulia decided to change her coach. Moved to Alexey Urmanov. Moved from Moscow to Sochi. I was looking for myself. Perhaps ending a career is a continuation of the search, the Figure Skating Federation suggests.

“Or maybe they will want to study? And at 19 it's not too late to start. So I started coaching at the age of 19,” says Tatyana Tarasova.

Whatever Yulia Lipnitskaya decides, her victory is unique. After the Olympics, the figure skater won something more significant than a cup, medal or statuette - people's love.

Where is figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya now? After brilliant victories at the Olympics and being awarded the title of Olympic champion, the athlete announced the end of her figure skating career. What really happened and how are things now for the youngest “golden” winner of Sochi 2014?

Biography

Yulia Lipnitskaya was born in the city of Yekaterinburg on June 5, 1998. Mother Daniela Leonidovna raised her daughter alone. Her mother once brought 4-year-old Yulia to the Lokomotiv Sports and Youth Sports School skating rink in her hometown. In an interview, the Olympic champion admitted that for a long time she could not decide what to give preference to, skates or horses. By the way, Julia still retains her love for equestrian sports.

But the choice was made in favor of figure skating thanks to my mother. The girl’s first coach later recalled that the athlete impressed him with her hard work and persistent character. Also, mentor Elena Levkovets noted the girl’s good build for this sport: she has an excellent combination of jumping and stretching, and her reaction and vestibular apparatus are also excellent.

The young athlete and her mother moved to Moscow in 2009 to further develop their athletic talent. Lipnitskaya falls into the hands of coach Eteri Tutberidze, who will soon grow into a real Olympic champion.

Since 2011, the skater has successfully competed at the Junior Grand Prix, where she won first place. For an entire season, the ice conqueror was at the top, not giving others a chance to win. Next season, Yulia is already showing excellent results in adult tournaments.

Before the Sochi Olympics, Lipnitskaya earned the title of European champion. At the 2014 Olympic Games, a free program based on the film “Schindler's List” was shown. The latest news reported that the performance created a real sensation - the Russian president himself gave a standing ovation, and Steven Spielberg, the director of the film, wrote his admiring reviews in a letter to the athlete.

The Olympic Games brought gold to our country, and Yulia the title of the first single figure skater to achieve victory at the Olympics.

After triumphant victories in 2014, his career began to decline. Lipnitskaya was unable to get to the European Championships, conflicts began with her mother and coach. Everyone attributed the athlete’s behavior to adolescence, and some suspected Julia of star fever. The figure skater left Eteri Tutberidze and began training with another coach. In 2016, the champion severely injured her back and took a long time to recover. Then information began to appear more and more often that the girl was suffering from anorexia.

Where did Yulia Lipnitskaya go?

Where is figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya now? This question can often be heard from both sports fans and all those who watched the 2014 Olympics, where Yulia showed brilliant results and brought gold medals to the country.

It must be said that after triumphant victories at the Olympic Games, Lipnitskaya’s career began to decline. In 2016, at the Grand Prix stage, she felt severe cramps in her leg during a performance. The girl tried to skate the program again, but made an unfortunate fall. She ultimately ended up in last place in the standings. This circumstance greatly overshadowed the athlete and all sports observers.

The failures did not end there. In December 2016, Yulia, returning from training, slipped and fell. As a result, a hip and lower back injury was diagnosed. Due to health problems, Julia was forced to interrupt the selections for the European and world championships.

Since then, the athlete has disappeared from the sight of fans and the public. She even stopped posting pictures and news on social networks. For several months, everyone wondered what happened to figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya and where she is now.

A few months later, new photos of the athlete appeared on the Internet. In them the girl looked very plump. It turned out that the girl had hormonal changes and was suffering from excess weight loss. The athlete began to fight the disease. She tried to limit her diet and exercise, but full-fledged sports were impossible. As a result, the struggle to restore her former form ended with Julia beginning to suffer from anorexia.

For a long time nothing was heard about the Olympic champion. There was information that she was being treated for anorexia in one of the European clinics. This information was later confirmed by the girl’s mother, Daniela Leonidovna. Also, the mother of the Olympic star in mid-2017 announced another piece of news that shocked everyone. It turned out that Yulia Lipnitskaya was ending her sports career.

Now it has become clear what happened to figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya and where she is now. Shortly before this, the girl was awarded the keys to a 2-room apartment in the southwest of Moscow for her sporting merits. Due to health problems, the girl gave up her dreams of returning to the ice, stopped going on debilitating diets and began to arrange her new apartment.

Last news

The news of Yulia Lipnitskaya's departure from big-time sports caused a wide public outcry. For some time the girl remained silent and did not talk about the reasons for leaving. A few months later she gave a candid interview. According to Lipnitskaya herself, 99 percent of her decision to end her career was influenced by health problems, other circumstances were already imposed from above. For several months the girl was treated for anorexia; psychologists worked with her and helped the athlete set life priorities.

Soon, Yulia met with the leadership of the Figure Skating Federation and announced her decision to leave the national team. Fans noticed that Julia was very sad at the meeting, it is clear that such a decision was not easy for her.

Yulia Lipnitskaya took first place in the short and free programs of the team tournament of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, scoring 209.72 points. The figure skater became the youngest champion in the history of the Winter Olympics.

During Yulia Lipnitskaya's performance, President Vladimir Putin came to the Iceberg Ice Sports Palace and personally congratulated the figure skater on her victory. Lipnitskaya was also supported by figure skater Evgeni Plushenko.

“Lipnitskaya is a genius. She has a huge future, gigantic. Just like Hanyu. These are athletes who have a great future, 10-12 years ahead. I’m proud to skate with such great athletes,” figure skater Evgeni Plushenko commented on Lipnitskaya’s performance on the Rossiya 2 TV channel.

“You know, there are two phenomena here. The fact that her parents gave birth to a very talented girl, and the fact that at one time she met a wonderful young coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who does her job perfectly,” Plushenko’s coach, Alexey Mishin, said in an interview with the same TV channel.

“For me it was a test skate. With this title, it will be easier for me to start in a personal tournament purely morally, because I already have Olympic experience, which is very valuable to me. I still can’t believe all this. In the personal tournament, I will skate better,” the Internet portal Sports.ru quotes Lipnitskaya as saying.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began figure skating at the age of four. The future champion was brought to the Lokomotiv Olympic reserve sports school in Yekaterinburg by her mother, Daniela Leonidovna Lipnitskaya. In 2009, the figure skater’s family had to make an important decision: in order for Yulia to continue her studies, Daniela Leonidovna moved to Moscow.

“We went to the stages, and it became clear to us that our level is much lower than what the athletes from Moscow and St. Petersburg show. Therefore, the question arose: what to do next?” - Yulia’s mother said in an interview with Moscow Skater magazine.

From Yekaterinburg, Daniela Leonidovna and Yulia were literally going “to nowhere”: in Moscow they had no housing, no relatives, no acquaintances. However, after coach Eteri Tutberidze, who teaches at the Moscow Olympic Reserve Sports School, agreed to work with the aspiring figure skater, the Lipnitskys’ difficulties were no longer frightening.

“We arrived, called the owner of the apartment, with whom we had agreed that we would live with her, but they didn’t answer the phone. And here my mother and I are sitting in the car near Auchan, it’s almost night outside, and we have nowhere to go, and we don’t know what to do,” Yulia shared with the Moscow Skater magazine.

The support of Daniela Leonidovna, according to Eteri Tutberidze, greatly helps her in preparing Yulia. The fact is that Lipnitskaya’s mother goes with her to all competitions and closely monitors her diet and diet. However, the young figure skater herself is very organized. Thus, Yulia was nicknamed “the girl without nerves” for her calmness during competitions.

“It’s just that Yulia is a characterful lady, she knows how to keep her emotions in her fist. Julia is a very harmonious fusion of physical abilities, endurance, determination and hard work. Even general physical training coaches admit that it is almost impossible to combine high flexibility, stretching and jumping on ice in one person,” Lipnitskaya’s first coach, Elena Levkovets, shared in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

By the age of 15, Yulia Lipnitskaya became the European champion, the world champion among juniors, the silver medalist of the Grand Prix final, the silver medalist of the Russian championship... Now, to this far from complete list of victories, the figure skater has added championship in the team tournament of the Winter Olympic Games. Now Yulia is preparing for personal competitions, which will be held in Sochi on February 19 and 20.

The figure skater’s preparation is more than thorough. What is Yulia’s diet worth? “It’s still very difficult for Yulia, she struggles with weight every day. I have never encountered this in my work - she simply cannot eat at all. And I’m very sorry that she has to endure so much, but I can’t do anything about it. She's great for dealing with this. When she needs to lose weight, she only eats Squizzy powder - it’s fiber that gives energy,” said Lipnitskaya’s coach in an interview with the Team Russia Internet portal.

After her performance at the Sochi Olympics, the name of the figure skater (Yulia Lipnitskaya) topped the list of global trends on Twitter. Also, users search for the phrase “Yulia Lipnitskaya” more often than others; “Yulia Lipnitskaya”, “Yuli” and “Yulia”, the hashtags #Lipnitskaya and #figure skating, have entered Russian trends. We are confident that after her performance in the individual championship, Yulia Lipnitskaya will become even more popular.