Biography

Ilya Averbukh is a Soviet and Russian figure skater (ice dancing). Olympic silver medalist (2002) in a pair with Irina Lobacheva. Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Producer.

At the age of five, he first stood on skates - his mother brought him to the figure skating section; she loved this sport very much, always watched the performances of Soviet stars and dreamed that her son would also become a famous figure skater one day. He began training at the Avangard stadium, but was quickly expelled - the coach considered him too small. The same thing happened again a year later. However, the mother, who had set herself the goal of making Ilya a figure skater, continued to take her son to coaches. And, finally, her persistence was rewarded. Zhanna Gromova became Averbukh's first coach. Yuliya Markovna took Ilya to classes twice a day. Averbukh started out as a single skater. But at the age of 13-14, he suddenly grew 12 centimeters in a year, which caused his coordination to be impaired and his jumps to stop working. Then Ilya was offered to switch to a pair. That's how he ended up in ice dancing.

Ilya Averbukh achieved his first successes in a pair with Marina Anisina - they became two-time world champions among juniors in 1990 and 1992. Then Ilya started a relationship with Irina Lobacheva, who skated with him in the same group. Since 1992, Averbukh and Lobacheva have performed together. Their first success came in 1994 - they took second place in the Russian Championship. In 1998, they debuted at the Winter Olympics, where they came in fifth. At the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City they took 2nd place.

Having finished their amateur careers, Lobacheva and Averbukh decided not to perform in professional shows.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bazza the Beast