Maya Usova

Maya Valentinovna Usova (; born 22 May 1964) is a Russian former ice dancer. With Alexander Zhulin, she is a two-time Olympic medalist (1994 silver, 1992 bronze), the 1993 World champion, and the 1993 European champion. They also won gold medals at Skate America, NHK Trophy, Nations Cup, and Winter Universiade. They represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Russia.

Career

Maya Usova initially competed with Alexei Batalov. At the age of nine, she moved from Gorky to Moscow to train with coach Natalia Dubova. They later described their 1991 free dance as "being about Paganini and his muse". Usova wore a short, Empire-style beige dress and according to writer Ellyn Kestnbaum, represented both a muse and inanimate object. Kestnbaum also reported that they skated their program with "intense emotion" and created "an overall aura of Romanticism and uncanniness", using little runs and turns on their toepicks, knee slides, and "sensuous flowing and intertwining movements" that were enhanced by their billowing costumes. Usova described their costumes as inspired by "dinner mints" .

In the 1992–93 season, Usova/Zhulin won the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki and the 1993 World Championships in Prague. This was a commanding victory as they won all four phases of the competition at both events, despite losing two first place ordinals to the up-and-coming Russians Anjelika Krylova & Vladimir Fedorov at Worlds.

The next season, they were third at the 1994 European Championships in Copenhagen, behind Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean and Oksana Grishuk / Evgeni Platov. They entered the free dance tied for first with Torvill & Dean, and Grishuk & Platov were mathematically out of contention for the gold medal entering the free dance. However the free dance of Grishuk & Platov which handily won that phase changed the ordinals, and Usova & Zhulin were pushed to third in the free dance behind Torvill & Dean and dropped to third overall. They were heavily criticized for their new free program which was said by critics to lack speed and be too far a departure from their usual sensual and elegant style of dancing.

At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, they won the silver medal behind Grishuk/Platov. They entered the free dance tied for first with Torvill & Dean, with Grishuk & Platov in third, but with all 3 teams in contention for the gold by winning the free dance. They lost gold by the majority rule, Grishuk & Platov having the five first place ordinals they needed to win the free dance. After the loss Usova & Zhulin withdrew from the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships, where they had planned to end their amateur career and immediately went professional. Usova and Zhulin were known for excelling technically and artistically and according to writer Ellyn Kestnbaum, "leaned toward drama and passion". .

From 2002 to 2004, Usova was an assistant coach to Tatiana Tarasova and Platov, working with Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovsky and Shizuka Arakawa. She has coached at the Igloo in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey and Odintsovo, near Moscow. She is an International Technical Specialist for Russia. Zhulin apologized in a subsequent article.

Usova and Oksana Grishuk had one of the most infamous and widely covered rivalries in figure skating. Usova punched Grishuk and smashed her head into a counter at a Spago restaurant in Los Angeles in 1992, when she caught Grishuk dining with her husband and partner Zhulin. The rivalry resurfaced in 1997 when Usova, then without a partner, relocated to Grishuk's training rink. Grishuk accused her of attempting to steal her partner Evgeny Platov, and distract from her Olympic preparations by blocking her entrance to the rink while smoking cigarettes.

Usova is remarried to a Russian professor in medicine, Anatoly Orletsky.