Oleg Kimovich Vasiliev is a Russian pair skater who competed internationally for the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. With partner Elena Valova

Elena Valova

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, he is the 1984 Olympic Champion

Figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics

-Medal table:-Men:Referee:* Donald H. GilchristAssistant Referee:* Tjasa AndréeJudges: Vladimir Amsel Gerhard Frey Monique Georgelin Ida Tateoka Ingrid Linke Björn Elwin Tatiana Danilenko Oskar Urban Margaret Berezowski Tsukasa Kimura -Ladies:Katarina Witt became the first lady to repeat as...

, 1988 Olympic silver medalist, and three-time World Champion (1983, 1985, 1988). Their coach throughout their career was Tamara Moskvina

Tamara Moskvina

Tamara Nikolayevna Moskvina , née Bratus is a Russian pair skating coach and former competitive skater. In pair skating with partner Alexei Mishin, she was the 1969 World silver medalist and Soviet national champion. In ladies singles, she was a five-time Soviet national champion...

. After the pair ended their career, Vasiliev became a pair skating coach, leading the team of Tatiana Totmianina

Tatiana Totmianina

Tatiana Ivanovna Totmianina is a Russian pair skater. With partner Maxim Marinin, she is the 2006 Olympic Champion, two-time World Champion, and five-time European Champion...

 and Maxim Marinin

Maxim Marinin

Maxim Viktorovich Marinin is a retired Russian pair skater. With partner Tatiana Totmianina, he is the 2006 Olympic Champion, two-time World Champion, and five-time European Champion.- Career :...

 to the 2006 Olympic title.

Biography

Vasiliev was born in Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, to parents Ludmila Konstantinovna Vasilieva, a nurse, and Kim Mihailovich Vasiliev. He was a sickly child, and his doctor recommended he get exercise and fresh air. Thus he began skating at age five, and his health improved greatly.

As a single skater, Vasiliev won a Junior Nationals title. Later he became interested in pair skating

Pair skating

Pair skating is a figure skating discipline. International Skating Union regulations describe pair teams as consisting of "one lady and one man." The sport is distinguished from ice dancing and single skating by elements unique to pair skating, including overhead lifts, twist lifts, death spirals,...

. Coach Tamara Moskvina

Tamara Moskvina

Tamara Nikolayevna Moskvina , née Bratus is a Russian pair skating coach and former competitive skater. In pair skating with partner Alexei Mishin, she was the 1969 World silver medalist and Soviet national champion. In ladies singles, she was a five-time Soviet national champion...

 paired him with Elena Valova

Elena Valova

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. Vasiliev was 18 years old, Valova just 15. He represented the Armed Forces sports society

Armed Forces (sports society)

Central Sports Klub of the Army or is the Russian sports society and the successor of the Soviet CSKA.-Overview:The society was one of the largest sports societies in the USSR. In the Soviet era all CSKA and SKA teams that resided in the Soviet Union belonged to the Armed Forces sports society...

.

Valova and Vasiliev enjoyed success throughout their career, winning gold at the 1984 Olympics and silver in 1988, as well as the 1983, 1985 and 1988 world championship

World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...

 titles. They competed in the amateur ranks from 1979 to 1988, and as professionals until 1998. They were the first Soviet skaters to skate in professional events after retiring from eligible competition. Oleg Vasiliev was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples

Order of Friendship of Peoples

The Order of Friendship of Peoples was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons , organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in strengthening of inter-ethnic and international friendship and cooperation, for...

.
He coached the team of Tatiana Totmianina

Tatiana Totmianina

Tatiana Ivanovna Totmianina is a Russian pair skater. With partner Maxim Marinin, she is the 2006 Olympic Champion, two-time World Champion, and five-time European Champion...

 and Maxim Marinin

Maxim Marinin

Maxim Viktorovich Marinin is a retired Russian pair skater. With partner Tatiana Totmianina, he is the 2006 Olympic Champion, two-time World Champion, and five-time European Champion.- Career :...

, 2006 Olympic and two-time World champions (2004, 2005), and the team of Maria Mukhortova

Maria Mukhortova

Maria Vladimirovna Mukhortova is a Russian pair skater. With former partner Maxim Trankov, she is the 2008 European silver medalist and 2007 Russian National Champion. In her early career, she competed with Egor Golovkin and Pavel Lebedev...

 and Maxim Trankov

Maxim Trankov

Maxim Leonidovich Trankov is a Russian pair skater. With current partner Tatiana Volosozhar, he won the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships, their first major international competition together...

 (2008 European silver medalists), until the pair decided to split after the 2010 World championships.

Personal life

Valova and Vasiliev were married from 1984-1992. He later married a woman named Valentina and had a daughter, Katia (or Katenka in the familiar form), but they have since divorced.

Vasiliev moved to the United States in December 1997 and currently lives in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

Competitive highlights

Event	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88
Winter Olympics Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating...					1st				2nd
World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...				1st	2nd	1st	2nd	2nd	1st
European Championships European Figure Skating Championships The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...				2nd	1st	1st	1st	2nd
Soviet Championships Soviet Figure Skating Championships The Soviet Figure Skating Championships were a figure skating national championship held annually to determine the national champions of the Soviet Union...			3rd			2nd	1st
Skate America Skate America Skate America is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. It is organized by the United States Figure Skating Association. The location changes yearly...			3rd	1st
NHK Trophy NHK Trophy The NHK Trophy is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. Figure skaters compete in the disciplines of ladies' singles, men's singles, pair skating, and ice dancing....								1st
Nebelhorn Trophy Nebelhorn Trophy The Nebelhorn Trophy is an international senior-level figure skating competition organized by the Deutsche Eislauf-Union and held annually in Oberstdorf, Germany. The competition is named after the Nebelhorn, a nearby mountain....			1st
Prize of Moscow News Prize of Moscow News The Prize of Moscow News , also known as the Moscow Skate, Nouvelles de Moscou, and the Moscow News Trophy, was an international, senior-level figure skating competition held in the former Soviet Union from 1966 to 1990...	6th	3rd		3rd	1st
Grand Prix St. Gervais Grand Prix International St. Gervais The Grand Prix International St. Gervais was an annual senior-level international figure skating competition held in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France. For many years, beginning in 1969, it was paired with a similar competition in Germany, the Nebelhorn Trophy, to form a series called the Coupe des...			2nd

Other events

Event	1989–90	1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–95	1997–98
World Professional Championships	2nd	4th	4th	4th	3rd
World Challenge of Champions	2nd	5th	4th	2nd	3rd
US Open				5th	2nd		5th
Masters Miko					3rd
Canadian Professional Championships						4th
Legends							2nd

External links

• Poetry in Motion
• Pairs on Ice profile

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