World champion, twice European champion, Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation, participant in ice TV shows and ice performances. It's all about her, about the skater Maria Petrova. Who is she and where is she from? How did her career and personal life develop?
Outwardly fragile, delicate and vulnerable, but unusually resistant, with a steel character. This is exactly what her relatives and colleagues say about Maria Petrova. Indeed, only such a woman can successfully develop both a career and personal life. What is she doing now? Where can you see the performances of figure skater Maria Petrova on the ice now that she has already finished her sports career?
Biography of Maria Petrova
Russian figure skater Maria Igorevna Petrova from Petersburg. She was born in the northern capital of the Russian Federation, at the end of November 1977, in a family of professional athletes. It is known that the girl's mother was quite successful in the ski area. But little Masha got into sports not because of the “call of her heart,” but because her parents were looking for ways to strengthen her poor health at that time.
The girl was brought to the figure skating section at the age of 7, which is quite late for sports. Nevertheless, the girl quickly caught up with her peers and even began to show better results than those who studied in the group from 4-5 years old.
Seeing that Masha is talented and persistent, her mother decided to help her, transferred her daughter to specialized classes of elementary school, where they were sympathetic to missing lessons because of training. But she had to go to high school in a regular school. Knowledge was lower than that of her classmates, but even then Masha showed herself, quickly made up for lost time, and this did not affect her sports performance.
How she managed to keep up with everything and everywhere, Maria does not understand even now. In her interviews, she admits that she did not make much effort to study and attend training. The load was given to her without difficulty.
Sports career of figure skater Maria Petrova
In 1989, Petrova changed coaches. The spouses Nikolai and Lyudmila Velikovs were engaged in its development. It was they who played a very important role in the formation of Mary as a figure skater. Three years later, she received her first significant award - she became a silver medalist at the European Junior Championships. Then her partner was Anton Sikharulidze. In the next two competitions of this level, the pair again and again outpaced the rivals with enviable constancy. Then a discord arose in the pair, Masha changed her partner - Pulin Teimuraz became them for two years. The pair clearly became weaker, although they won some awards.
A new breakthrough in the sports career of Maria Petrova happened in 1998, when figure skater Alexei Tikhonov became her partner, who later became her husband. Already 4 months after the pairing, she won a gold medal in Germany.
The triumph of the pair of Figure Skaters Tikhonov-Petrov continued for 9 years. They have achieved such achievements as
- 7 gold medals,
- 5 silver medals,
- place in the top three Europeans,
- place in the 5 best figure skaters in the world.
In 2007, the couple had to leave the "big sport". Maria Petrova's partner Alexei Tikhonov pulled the groin and suffered a double fracture of the big toe during training. Sports doctors strongly recommended that he postpone intensive training, or even give up figure skating altogether. Masha followed her common-law husband and abandoned her career.
Work in TV shows and performances on ice
Despite the fact that her sports career was over for Maria Petrova, she did not leave the rink and continued to amaze fans with her skating. The talented figure skater was invited to take part in all the television shows where this sport was popularized. Maria Igorevna took part in projects such as
- "Glacial period",
- "Stars on Ice"
- "Ice and Fire"
- "Professional Cup".
The most striking performance of this plan was Maria Petrova's exits on the ice paired with actor and showman Mikhail Galustyan. He never skated, was awkward and kindly funny, but Maria managed to literally "grow" a real skater out of Mikhail.
Figure skating has become a real direction of art, and Petrova's merit in this sense is undeniable. She became an ice ballet dancer, performed and performs leading dance roles in the performances Miracles on New Year's Eve, Kid and Carlson on Ice, Bolero, Carmen, Odnoklassniki and many others.
Personal life of skater Maria Petrova
Almost immediately after meeting Tikhonov, Maria realized that he was her very “only” man. The young man had exactly the same feelings for her. After a short period of time, they became not only a couple in figure skating, but also civil spouses.
In 2010, a girl was born to a couple of Tikhonov-Petrov. They named their daughter Polina. The baby spent all her childhood at the rink. Watching how her parents work and how much they enjoy their profession. It is not surprising that Polina Tikhonova tried on skates early, she is actively training and shows great promise as a figure skater.
Representatives of the press who are "unclean at hand" have tried more than once to separate Tikhonov and Petrova, and have published entire newspaper pages dedicated to this "duck". But Masha and Alexei never thought to disperse. They are happy in a civil marriage, they have a beloved and loving daughter, they are successful in the profession even after the end of their sports career.
