Adelina Sotnikova

Adelina Dmitriyevna Sotnikova ( ; born 1 July 1996) is a retired Russian figure skater. She is the 2014 Olympic gold medalist in ladies' singles, a two-time European silver medalist (2012, 2013), a two-time Rostelecom Cup bronze medalist (2011, 2015), and a four-time Russian national champion (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014).

On the junior level, she is the 2012 Youth Olympic silver medalist, the 2011 Junior World champion, the 2010 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and the 2009 Russian junior national champion. Sotnikova stopped competing after the 2015–2016 season. She announced her retirement on 1 March 2020. She later admitted that she failed a drug test during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but that her second sample showed no signs of doping. However, Sotnikova's victory was controversial due to allegations of judges' impartiality and criticisms of the scoring system. Questions over the judges, the judging system, and the anonymity of scores were also raised in the press. In the press conference after her win at the Olympics, Sotnikova stated that she became "more motivated to win the singles competition" after not being chosen to compete in the earlier team competition. Sotnikova did not participate in the 2014 World Championships held in Saitama, Japan.

2014–2015 season Sotnikova was selected to compete at 2014 Rostelecom Cup and 2014 NHK Trophy, but withdrew due to a torn ankle ligament. She later withdrew from the 2015 Russian Championships. While doctors had forbidden her to jump in full force, Adelina Sotnikova decided to focus on the choreographic component in appearances with Gleb Savchenko in the 2015 Russian version of Dancing with the Stars.

2015–2016 season Sotnikova placed 4th in the individual competition of Japan Open. She appeared at two Challenger Series events, winning the silver medal at the 2015 Mordovian Ornament behind Anna Pogorilaya and placing 6th at the 2015 Golden Spin of Zagreb. On the ISU Grand Prix, Sotnikova competed only at 2015 Rostelecom Cup, and won bronze medal behind her teammates Elena Radionova and Evgenia Medvedeva.

On 24–27 December 2015, Sotnikova competed at the 2016 Russian Championships and placed 6th. She was named only as an alternate for the 2016 European Championships.

From 2016 to 2023 As injuries started to linger, Sotnikova did not participate at any event, domestic and international, from 2016 onwards. In April 2017, she changed coach and training location, by hiring former Olympic men's champion Evgeni Plushenko at his skating academy, Angels of Plushenko in Moscow. But her persisting health problems prevented her from performing at any competition.

While doing a skating show in Turkey during the summer of 2019, Sotnikova experienced back pain, but thought that it was manageable. However, just prior to the 2019 Rostelecom Cup exhibition gala, her spine pain persisted to the point she was considering consulting for further treatment. In December, after facing more serious pain, she was recommended surgery, but decided to delay it due to ongoing commitments, including performances of Plushenko's New Year show as Cinderella. In late February, she underwent surgery, in which she got two spinal implants connected by a metal sheet, itself fixed by six titanium screws inserted into the vertebrae.

On 1 March 2020, Sotnikova officially announced her retirement from competitive figure skating. She plans however, thanks to her surgery, to perform in skating shows in the near future.

In July 2023, Sotnikova admitted in an interview she returned a positive doping test during the year of her Olympic triumph, but insisted she was cleared by her B-sample. Sotnikova was named in the WADA-commissioned McLaren Report in December 2016 as one athlete about whom scratches indicative of tampering were found on test tubes in which urine samples were submitted, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cleared her of wrongdoing in November 2017 after deeming "there is no sufficient element in the evidence available to date" to establish an anti-doping rule violation. Former Moscow laboratory director turned whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the main witness in the McLaren Report, said she was not part of the programme. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency told the country's state-run news agency TASS it has "no information on this issue". WADA and the IOC declined to comment.

Television She appeared in the eighth season of ice show contest Ice Age.

Personal life Sotnikova was born on 1 July 1996 in Moscow. Sotnikova attended a high school where athletes form about half the student body. On October 30, 2022, she gave birth to her first child, a boy she named Adrian.

Political views On 18 March 2022, Sotnikova attended Vladimir Putin's Moscow rally, which celebrated the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation from Ukraine and justified the Russian invasion of the country. On Instagram, she posted a video of herself singing along with Nikolay Rastorguyev, as well as other videos from the rally. In December 2022, the Ukrainian Parliament sanctioned Sotnikova for her support of the war.

Programs

Season Short program Free skating Exhibition 2016–17 Suite Festiva Never Meant to Belong 2015–16 Historia de un Amor Latin Selection

Je suis malade by Lara Fabian "Swan Lake" theme performed by David Garrett 2014–15