Maria Levushkina
Maria Levushkina is a Bulgarian figure skater. She is a two-time Bulgarian [Figure Skating Championships|Bulgarian junior national] champion and competed in the final segment at the 2020 [World Junior Figure Skating Championships|2020 World Junior Championships].
Personal life
Levushkina was born in Varna, Bulgaria and has a brother who played hockey. The family moved to Moscow when she was four for her parents' work, though they continued to spend summers in Bulgaria.Career
Levushkina began skating in Moscow when she was young. She continued to train in Moscow as well as in Sofia.In 2018, Levushkina competed in her first ISU Junior Grand Prix series. She competed at the stages in Yerevan and Linz and finished in 10th place in both. The next season, on the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix series, her first Grand Prix assignment was in Riga; she was 9th after the short program, but she skated a clean free skate and improved her free skate personal best by 20 points to end in 7th. At her second assignment in Chelyabinsk, she placed 9th. In October, she competed at the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge in won bronze in the junior women's category.
Levushkina hoped to compete at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics after winning one of the four country quotas available through performance on the Junior Grand Prix series. However, although she represented Bulgaria, she did not have Bulgarian citizenship. She applied in August, and the Bulgarian [Olympic Committee] and the Bulgarian Skating Federation attempted to help her receive a passport before the deadline in December. Ultimately, Ivelina Baycheva was given the spot instead.
Levushkina competed at the 2020 World Junior Championships in March, where she reached the free skate and finished in 23rd place.
The 2020 Junior Grand Prix and many other competitions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in February 2021, Levushkina competed in the Bulgarian Championships as a senior and won the bronze medal. In December, she competed at the 2021 CS [Golden Spin of Zagreb|Golden Spin of Zagreb], where she finished 17th.