Aljona Savchenko

Aljona Savchenko (, Olena Valentynivna Savchenko; German Romanization: Aljona Sawtschenko, sometimes Aliona Savchenko; born 19 January 1984) is a retired Ukrainian-born German pair skater. One of the most decorated pair skaters, she is the 2018 Olympic Champion and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2010, 2014), In September 2021, she announced that, due to having difficulties in the search of a partner, she would be focusing on coaching again.

Personal life Aliona Savchenko was born in Obukhiv, near Kyiv, whom she met at a poker game. The couple lived in Oberstdorf and married on 18 August 2016 - now divorced. Savchenko's second daughter, Naomi, was born on 12 December 2024 to a new partner.

Career for Ukraine Savchenko became interested in figure skating after seeing it on television. making them only the second pair to win all six Grand Prix events. At the 2013–14 Grand Prix Final, Savchenko/Szolkowy edged out Volosozhar/Trankov for the gold medal after placing second in the short and first in the free setting a new personal best scores total of 227.03 points. They then competed at the 2014 European Championships but withdrew after the short program because of Savchenko's flu.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Savchenko/Szolkowy earned the bronze medal. They placed second in the short program and fourth in the free skate. During the free skate, Szolkowy fell on the pair's side-by-side triple jumps and Savchenko fell on the throw triple Axel at the conclusion of the program and dropping to third in the overall standings behind Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov.

Savchenko/Szolkowy decided to compete at the 2014 World Championships and won their fifth world title together. They have the second-most world championship titles in pairs, second only to Irina Rodnina / Alexander Zaitsev. Szolkowy then retired from competition, leading Thomas Lloyd to end its sponsorship, in July 2014. The two began training together in April, working to adjust to each other's different technique. On 9 June 2015, Massot's mother announced that the French Figure Skating Federation (FFSG) had refused to release Massot to skate for Germany.

Savchenko/Massot made their debut at the 2015 CS Tallinn Trophy, an ISU Challenger Series (CS) event, where they won the gold medal. That was followed by gold at the 2015 CS Warsaw Cup and German Championships. In January, they won silver at the 2016 European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia. Turning to the Grand Prix series, they took silver at the 2017 Skate Canada International after placing first in the short program and second in the free skate. in spite of mark manipulation from Chinese judge Huang Feng (who was later investigated by the ISU and banned). At age 34, Savchenko became one of the oldest women to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and the first female European figure skater to win gold at all major ISU championships. Savchenko commented on the occasion: "I never give up. All my life I've been fighting."

Plans to resume her competitive career in the United States On 11 June 2021, only six weeks after Savchenko's retirement announcement, the Deutsche Eislauf-Union announced that she had requested to be released to U.S. Figure Skating, which was granted.

Choreography Savchenko has choreographed several of her and Massot's exhibition programs.

Skaters she has choreographed for include:

Annika Hocke / Ruben Blommaert. Annika Hocke / Robert Kunkel