Sofya Samodurova is a young Russian figure skater performing in single skating and representing the Russian national figure skating team. Winner of a gold medal in single skating at the European Championship -2019, held from 23 to 26 January in Minsk. According to the results of the competition, the student of Alexei Mishin scored 213, 84 points and overtook the Olympic champion Alina Zagitova in the fight for gold, who scored 198, 34 points.
Sofya Samodurova: biography
Sofya Samodurova was born in the city of Krasnoyarsk in July 2002. Several years later, the family moved to St. Petersburg. At the age of 5, Sophia first skated and began to take the first steps towards figure skating. The childhood of the young figure skater was spent on the ice of the St. Petersburg sports school of the Olympic reserve in figure skating. Sophia's first coach was Maria Nikolaeva, who, after going on maternity leave, handed the girl over to Oleg Taturov's guardianship. After him, the talented figure skater fell into the hands of the famous coach Alexei Mishin and choreographer Ilya Averbukh.
Figure skating career
Sofya Samodurova made her debut at the Japanese stage in the junior Grand Prix series in 2016/2017. This was followed by performances at the World Junior Championships in 2017 and 2018. In the adult championships of Russia in figure skating, Sofya Samodurova appeared in 2017 and 2018 and took 9th and 11th place.
In the 2018/19 season, the skater began performing in the adult international series. In September 2018, she won a silver medal in the Lombardy Cup international figure skating tournament held in the Italian city of Bergamo.
In October 2018, Sofya Samodurova took part in the Skate America 2018 tournament. The competition, held in the American city of Everett, brought the young figure skater a bronze medal.
The figure skater approached the 2019 European Championship, which was held in Minsk from 23 to 26 January, in the best shape. The main rival for gold, for Sofia Samodurova, was the Olympic champion Alina Zagitova.
According to the results of the short program, Sophia scored 72, 88 and lost first place to Alina Zagitova, who scored 75, 00 points.
The free program brought the skater 140, 96 points, and made her the leader of the championship. In the final tally, Sofya Samodurova, having typed 213, 84 points, won the gold medal of the 2019 European Championship.
