Elena Ilinykh

Elena Ilinykh is a talented, spectacular, bright figure skater who won Olympic gold in 2014. She and her partner Nikita Katsalapov were promised a great future, but, contrary to forecasts, the couple broke up: both of them, leaders by nature, were able to converge in character. Despite the fact that the collapse of the duet, in fact, cost Elena a career in figure skating, her creative biography found an unexpected continuation in ballet.

Elena Ilinykh was born on April 25, 1994 in the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan. Her parents Ruslan and Lilia Ilinykh are Russian by nationality. They could not save the marriage and broke up when their daughter was 2 years old. Therefore, subsequently, the mother and grandmother were engaged in the upbringing of the skater. In 1998, the family moved to Moscow.

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A post shared by ELENA ILINYKH (@blackswanei) on Jan 8, 2017 at 11:17 pm PST

Already in childhood, Elena showed the makings of a leader, was a lively, agile child. The family understood that this energy needed to be directed somewhere. When a skating rink was opened next to the house, my grandmother had the idea to send the girl to the figure skating section. This event became the first page in the Ilyins' sports biography.

At first she got into the health group of Ekaterina Volkova. The coach quickly drew attention to the talented girl and advised her parents to transfer her to a sports group, where they practiced figure skating professionally. Over the years, the coaches of the future champion were Lyubov Maleva and Natalia Dubinskaya.

In 2005, the Ilinykh, having decided to try herself in ice dancing, began to train in tandem with Nikita Katsalapov. He, like Elena, was a single skater in the past, so working in pairs turned out to be a difficult test for young people. Even coaches Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh could not cope with the constantly quarreling wards.

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In 2006, the tandem of Elena and Nikita broke up. Ilinykh tried herself in a duet with Ivan Bukin, but soon went to the USA, where she continued to improve her sports skills under the guidance of Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva.

However, returning to Moscow after 3 years, the Ilinykh renewed communication with Katsalapov. He was just in search of a new partner, and as a result, the young people decided to start working together from scratch. The pair were mentored by Alexander Zhulin and Oleg Volkov.

The personal life of a fragile athlete (weight 54 kg with a height of 164 cm) has always aroused keen interest from fans. The media more than once called Elena the sexiest skater in the world. And, looking at the photos that the girl shares on her Instagram, it's hard to argue with this: the Ilinykhs are equally good in luxurious outfits and in a swimsuit.

Even during the period of joint work of Elena and Nikita Katsalapov, there were rumors that the skaters were connected not only by professional, but also by romantic relationships. However, in an interview, the champion dispelled this myth. The press also wrote about the skater's romance with Vyacheslav Fedorchenko, a basketball player and children's coach. According to media reports, in 2015, the young people broke up. As Elena later admitted, she did not wait for male actions from her chosen one, so she decided to break off the relationship.

In 2018, Elena began an affair with ballet star Sergei Polunin. The girl watched the film "Dancer", which was about the work of Sergei, and decided to express her admiration through Instagram.

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Polunin by this time was already going to close his account, but drew attention to the girl's message. He intuitively felt that she would soon take a special role in his life. The dancer offered the skater to participate in his new project, which somewhat surprised Elena. Their first meeting took place at Munich airport.

In May 2019, Polunin and Ilinykh presented the premiere of the dramatic play Rasputin, which was shown in Barvikha in the Luxury Village and on the London stage. In a new genre for herself, the athlete first appeared in the form of Empress Alexandra. The couple told the story of their acquaintance and joint creativity on the air of the release of the entertainment show "Evening Urgant".

In January 2020, the Ilinykh gave birth to a son. The skater hid the fact of her pregnancy from the fans, so the birth took place in a Miami clinic. The boy was named Mir. Sergei and Elena reported about the birth of an heir 2 months later.

In 2009, Ilinykh and Katsalapov began performing in the junior category. The first triumph awaited them at the Russian Cup in Tver. After this victory, the couple joined the junior national team of the country and began to appear at international competitions. At the same time, young skaters continued to hone their technique under the leadership of Zhulin. The result of hard training was gold at the World Championships in The Hague.

The 2010/2011 season for the duet of Elena and Nikita was marked by a transition to the adult level. Their successful performance at the Russian championship became their ticket to the European Championship, where the couple took 4th place in their debut championship. Then Ilinykh and Katsalapov went to the World Championship, the result of this trip was 7th place. Towards the end of the season, young skaters said goodbye to Alexander Zhulin, Nikolai Morozov became their new mentor.

With him, the guys began preparations for the Olympics. In parallel with the training, the Ilinykh and Katsalapov continued their performances. In the 2011/2012 season, they won silver at the Russian championship and became prize-winners of the European championship thanks to their memorable performance to the music of the composition "Ave Maria". The next season, the couple took several silver medals at once - at the NHK Trophy international tournament, at the Russian Championship and the European Championship.

The Swan Lake program, set to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, brought the skaters gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in team competitions and bronze in individual competitions. Elena and Nikita were not faced with the task of transferring the ballet to the ice. The couple performed in two beautiful images - a black swan and an evil genius. At the same time, reports began to appear in the press that the duet of Katsalapov and Ilinykh would soon break up. Nikolai Morozov denied all rumors.

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In April 2014, Katsalapov announced that his joint work with Elena was over. This decision came as a surprise to the girl herself and the sports community.

Ilinykh had to urgently look for a new partner, Ruslan Zhiganshin became him. Together they began preparations for the 2014/2015 season, with Elena Kustarova and Svetlana Alekseeva as mentors of the duet. For the debut program, they used the musical accompaniment from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.

They demonstrated this vivid image, as well as the dance set to the music of the Appassionata Secret Garden composition at several stages of the Grand Prix, as a result of which they made their way to the final of the competition, which was held in Barcelona. As Ilinykh later noted, she dreamed of skating Carmen on Spanish ice, and her wish came true.

The first joint season brought success to Elena and Ruslan: they became Russian champions in total points. True, the subsequent performances at the European and World Championships made the judges doubt the great potential of the couple; due to numerous mistakes, young people left the competition without medals.

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Ilinykh and Zhiganshin rehabilitated themselves in the next two seasons - they became the leaders of the "Mordovian Patterns" tournament, took a bronze medal at the Grand Prix stage of the Audi Cup of China. This was followed by a series of failures, which ended at the 2016 Tallinn Trophy, where the pair won a landslide victory. At the close of the season Ruslan announced his retirement. When the question arose about the new partner of the Ilyins, some were betting on Dmitry Solovyov, but Anton Shibnev became him.

Since 2018, Elena's attention has been focused on the wards of the "Academy of Champions", which she opened together with Yulia Lipnitskaya. Here, Olympic champions train young athletes and organize master classes for figure skating fans. As part of the educational program, classes are also conducted by Sergei Polunin. He introduces children to the basics of choreography.

The Polunin and Ilinykh couple are planning a ballet production based on Bollywood.

In 2019, in an interview on Megapolis radio, the Olympic champion stated that she had to retire. By this time, she had not participated in competitions for about two years. Elena noted that her return to the Russian national team will not take place, and she is not interested in other prospects in figure skating.

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According to the athlete, she had the opportunity to perform for another 8 years, but the prospects for continuing her work are not foreseen now.

2010 - Gold medal at the World Junior Figure Skating Championship 2011 - Bronze medal at the Russian Figure Skating Championship 2011 - International Master of Sports of Russia 2012 - Silver medal at the Russian Figure Skating Championship 2013 - Silver medal at the European Figure Skating Championship 2014 - Gold medal of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games - Honored Master of Sports of Russia 2015 - Gold medal of the Mordovian Patterns tournament 2016 - Gold medal of the Tallinn Trophy tournament

Elena Ilinykh 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Elena Ilinykh in 2020?

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2021

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.8M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $741.4K - $1.2M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2020

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.8M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $789.8K - $1.6M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2019

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.3M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $922.1K - $1.7M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2018

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.5M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $586.7K - $1.3M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2017

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.8M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $517.1K - $1.6M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2016

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1.6M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $758.6K - $1M.

Elena Ilinykh Net Worth 2015

Elena Ilinykh 's revenue is $1M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Elena Ilinykh and could vary in the range between $988.1K - $1M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Elena Ilinykh. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Elena Ilinykh makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Elena Ilinykh's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.