Nikolai Ugozhaev
Nikolai Mikhailovich Ugozhaev is a Russian figure skater. He is the 2024 Cup of Russia stage in Krasnoyarsk champion, 2025 Russian Jumping Championship champion, 2022 Russian Junior Championship silver medalist, 2024 Final Cup of Russia juniors bronze medalist.
Personal life
Ugozhaev was born on 11 April 2006 in Novosibirsk, Russia. His grandfather, Vladimir Ugozhaev, is a physicist. He invented rotationally tunable double-beam interferometer.Nikolai's height is 183 cm.
Career
Early years
Ugozhaev started figure skating at the age of 4. His first coach was Marina Yazovtseva. At the age of 10, Nikolai moved to St. Petersburg. Veronika Daineko became his coach at the skating club Star Ice. In 2017, Ugozhaev and Daineko moved to FS Sport Club of Tamara Moskvina. Later, Ugozhaev moved to coach Dmitri Khromin at the same club.2018–2019 season
In the 2018–19 season, Ugozhaev made his debut at the Russian Junior Cup stages and took 6th and 9th places. This result did not allow to qualify for the Russian Junior Championship and the Russian Junior Cup Final.2019–2020 season
Ugozhaev started his season with a silver medal at the Russian Junior Cup stage. At this tournament he landed combination Triple Axel - Triple Toe Loop. But he missed the rest of the season.2020–2021 season
In the 2020–21 season, Ugozhaev won the Russian Junior Cup stage for the first time. At another stage, he won a bronze medal and qualified for the Russian Junior Championship and the Russian Junior Cup Final. At his debut Russian Junior Championship, Ugozhaev took 5th place. At the Russian Junior Cup Final, Ugozhaev won a bronze medal. He was leading after the short program, but finished fourth in the free skate and dropped to third in the final standings.2021–2022 season
In the first part of the season, Ugozhaev won gold and silver at the Russian Junior Cup stages. He also made his international debut, finishing 4th at the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge among juniors. In February 2022, Nikolai won the Jégvirág Cup among juniors. At the Russian Junior Championships, Ugozhaev won a silver medal. But after that he performed poorly at the Russian Junior Cup Final and took only 11th place.2022–2023 season
In the 2022–23 season, Nikolai won silver and bronze at the Russian Junior Cup stages. At the Russian Junior Championships, Ugozhaev took 6th place and landed a Quad Toe Loop. At the Russian Junior Cup Final, he took 5th place and landed Quad Lutz.2023–2024 season
This season was Ugozhaev's last at the junior level. Nikolai won his first stage of the Russian Junior Cup in the 2023–24 season and landed Quad Flip. At another stage he won silver. 10th place at the Russian Junior Championships was the worst result in Ugozhaev's career. He was in 2nd place after the short program, but only finished 15th in the free skate. But at the Russian Junior Cup Final, Nikolai landed Quad Lutz, Quad Flip and two Triple Axels in his free program and won bronze with a score of 270.03 points.2024–2025 season
The first tournament of the season for Ugozhaev was the St. Petersburg Cup stage. He won gold and also landed two quads in the short program and three quads in the free skate. At the Panin-Kolomenkin Memorial, Nikolai landed cleanly 4 out of 5 quads in two programs and 1 quad landed with a small mistake, but did the other elements better, including three Triple Axels, and scored 303.45 points. In the free program, he landed three different quads, Toe Loop, Lutz and Flip for the first time. At the debut stage of the Russian Сup at the senior level, Ugozhaev took 5th place. After that, Nikolai won his second stage of the Russian Cup, scoring 292.56 points.Ugozhaev performed poorly at his debut Russian Championship, made many mistakes and finished in 14th place. But then he won the Russian Jumping Championship, beating Vladislav Dikidzhi, Evgeni Semenenko, Mark Kondratiuk, Petr Gumennik and other figure skaters from the Russian national team. At the Russian Cup final, Ugozhaev took 7th place.