Ekaterina Kurakova

Ekaterina Andreevna Kurakova (, , born 24 June 2002), is a Russian-Polish figure skater who currently competes for Poland. She is a three-time Warsaw Cup champion (2019, 2022, 2023), the 2019 Mentor Toruń Cup champion, a seven-time Four Nationals champion (2019–24, 2026), and an eight-time Polish national champion (2019–2026). Kurakova represented Poland at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics.

Personal life Kurakova was born on 24 June 2002 in Moscow.

Career

Early career Kurakova began learning to skate in 2006 at the age of four.

In her international senior debut at the Minto Summer Skate in Ontario, Canada, she placed first, scoring 182.77 points overall. She then competed at two ISU Junior Grand Prix events, placing fifth in Riga and seventh in Gdańsk. In November, she won gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, ahead of Bradie Tennell. In December, she defended her national title at the Four National Championships in Ostrava.

Kurakova competed at her first European Championships in January, placing tenth. However, she would come back with a solid free skate, placing eighth in that segment of the competition and moving up to ninth place overall. Kurakova subsequently finished eleventh at the 2024 NHK Trophy. She subsequently won the bronze medal at the 2025 Four National Championships and placed fourth at the 2025 Sofia Trophy.

In February, Kurakova filed a complaint against a French photographer who shared a photograph that had been edited to sexualize her without her consent at the end of December. Kurakova said that the incident caused her fear and stress and that she wanted to protect other skaters from similar behavior. The French Federation of Ice Sports supported her in the suit and banned the photographer.

In March, Kurakova competed at the 2025 Maria Olszewska Memorial, where she finished in fourth place.

2025–2026 season: Milano Cortina Olympics leftKurakova began her season in September with a twelfth-place finish at the 2025 CS Lombardia Trophy, and in October, she won the gold medal at the 2025 Budapest Trophy. She was originally entered to compete in the 2025 Warsaw Cup the next week; however, on her return flight, the luggage that contained her skates was lost, forcing her to withdraw. In December, she competed at the Four Nationals Championships, where she won both the Polish women's competition as well as the overall women's competition. The following month, Kurakova competed at the 2026 European Championships in Sheffield, England, United Kingdom. She placed eighth in the short program and tenth in the free skate, finishing in ninth overall. "Today was amazing," she said following her free skate. "I would say the last time when I had a competition like that was like in 2023, so I think it was a very tough two and a half years and now I’m coming back. I am so grateful. I’m so grateful for the people always believing in me no matter how I skate. The people who kept saying to me, ‘my God, you are amazing’, those people got less than before, but they were still there. And I want to thank so much everyone who kept believing in me."

On 17 February, Kurakova competed in the short program segment of the 2026 Winter Olympics – Women's singles event, placing nineteenth and scoring another season's best.

Two days later, three hours before the free skate, after landing a jump in training, Kurakova injured her left calf. Not wanting to know what injury she had sustained, Kurakova opted to only take pain medication before competing. She placed twenty-first in the free skate to finish in twentieth place overall. A month following the Olympics, Kurakova competed at the 2026 World Championships – placing nineteenth in both competition segments and overall. She shared with the media about her injury and burn out from the Olympics, "I am so tired. It’s the end of the season and the last competition. The time after the Olympics was actually very hard. I had a stress fracture in my ankle, which is why I also felt so much pain during the free skate at the Olympics. I was off the ice for two weeks, and just one week ago I started jumping again. So most of my preparation was really only last week. I honestly thought I was going to have to withdraw because I couldn’t do it, but my coach told me, ‘Yes, you can do it. Do it for little Katia, so I did it for her, I did it for my coach (Florent Amodio) and I am so thankful to him. So, I’m here."

Programs

Competitive highlights

Women's singles (for Poland)

Women's singles (for Russia)

Detailed results

Senior results

Junior results