Alena Kostornaia

Aliona Sergeevna Kostornaia (; born 24 August 2003) is a Russian figure skater. As a singles skater, she is the 2020 European champion, the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final champion, a six-time Grand Prix medalist (including gold at the 2019 Internationaux de France and the 2019 NHK Trophy), and the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy champion. Competing domestically, she is a three-time Russian senior national medalist (silver 2020, bronze 2018 and 2019). She previously held the world record for the highest senior short program score in women's skating.

At the junior level, Kostornaia is the 2018 Junior World silver medalist, the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, and a two-time Russian junior national silver medalist (2018, 2019). She currently holds the world record for the highest junior short program score in women's skating.

Kostornaia is the tenth woman in history to have landed the triple Axel jump in a senior international competition. Kostornaia is the third woman after teammate Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Rika Kihira of Japan to attempt and land the maximum number of triple jumps allowed in one senior international competition: four in the short program and eight in the free skate (see Zayak rule). She first accomplished this at the 2019 Internationaux de France, and later landed all twelve triples cleanly at the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final.

Personal life Kostornaia was born on 24 August 2003 in Moscow to parents Sergei and Tatiana. She has a younger brother, Stepan. In a May 2020 Q&A with former teammate Anna Shcherbakova, Kostornaia stated that she wants to become a neurosurgeon once she retires from figure skating.

In her free time, Kostornaia enjoys horseback riding and as such often received horse and unicorn stuffed toys from fans. She also has several pets, including a rabbit gifted to her by her fans, a cat, and a Maltipoo named Audrey.

As of September 2021, Kostornaia is a student studying psychology at the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism.

Kostornaia married her skating partner, Georgy Kunitsa, on 11 August 2023, following a brief engagement. On 3 October 2025, Kostornaia and Kunitsa announced the birth of their son Dmitry Kunitsa via Instagram. He was born on 28 September 2025.

Career

Single skating

Early years Kostornaia began learning to skate in 2007.

In March 2018, Kostornaia competed at the 2018 World Junior Championships. She placed second in the short program and the free skate, winning the silver medal behind Trusova.

2018–2019 season: Junior Grand Prix Final champion

Kostornaia learned to perform a triple Axel in the preceding year, and originally planned to introduce it in competition. However, she lost the jump following growth during the offseason. On 19 January 2021, it was announced that Kostornaia was selected to participate in the Channel One Russia Figure Skating Cup, a domestic team tournament featuring six skaters or teams in each discipline, competing against one another in teams of three.

Kostornaia announced on Instagram on 28 January that she had developed a new free program, again choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne. Vice President of the ISU Alexander Lakernik visited one of Kostornaia's training sessions to help polish the program.

On 13 December 2021, it was announced by Sports.ru that Kostornaia had been forced to withdraw from the 2022 Russian Championships due to a hand fracture that would keep her off the ice for 20 days.

2024–2025 season Kostornaia/Kunitsa appeared at the 2024 Russian test skates, but subsequently withdrew from the rest of the season due to an unspecified illness contracted by Kostornaia.

2025–2026 season: Return to Plushenko 4 months after giving birth to their son, Kostornaia and Kunitsa announced that they would be returning to training under the guidance of Evgeni Plushenko at Angels of Plushenko Figure Skating Academy. They did not compete during the 2025–26 season.

Skating technique

Kostornaia's skating technique is distinguished by her strong program components, particularly her skating skills and artistic interpretation of her programs, combined with her ability to execute difficult technical elements, such as her now trademark triple Axel. Unlike her training-mates at Sambo-70, Kostornaia is often considered a product of the Elena Tchaikovskaia school of figure skating as her first coach, Elena Zhgun, was a student of Tchaikovskaia's and passed her knowledge of strong skating basics on to Kostornaia from a young age. She is often compared to her training-mates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova as the three entered the international junior and senior competitive circuits together and for many seasons were considered one another's primary rivals by both fans and specialists. Of the three (sometimes referred to as the 3A as their names all begin with the letter A), Kostornaia is widely considered the most artistic, with Trusova being her technical counterpart and Shcherbakova falling somewhere in the middle.

In 2019, Olympic champion Tara Lipinski referred to Kostornaia as part of the future hope of the Russian women's figure skating, singling her out as "a figure skater who proves that you can achieve technical excellence in landing triple axels and perhaps even quads in the near future. At the same time, she does not forget about basics such as balance which viewers of the sport admire as well as her presentation of fine emotional qualities in the execution of her programs."

Kostornaia has a history of increasing the difficulty of the technical elements in her programs to remain at the top of the ladies field. During the 2019–20 season, she began incorporating a triple Axel into her programs in order to compete with Shcherbakova and Trusova, who were both performing multiple quadruple jumps in their free programs. She has stated in the past that she hopes to eventually add a quad Salchow to her technical arsenal.

Public life

Junior

Programs

Pairs with Kunitsa

Women's singles