Tatiana Tarasova


Tatiana Anatolyevna Tarasova is a Russian figure skating coach and national figure skating team adviser. Tarasova has been coach to more world and Olympic champions than any other coach in skating history. Her students have won a total of eight Olympic gold medals in three of the four Olympic figure skating disciplines, in addition to 41 gold medals at the European and World championships.
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Biography

Tatiana Tarasova was born on February 13, 1947 in Moscow, in the family of Anatoly Tarasov, a famed ice hockey coach, who introduced her to figure skating at the age of five.
She lived for more than a decade in Simsbury, Connecticut before moving back to Russia in 2006. She is the widow of Vladimir Krainev, who died in April 2011.

Competitive career

At the All-Union Junior Individual and Team Competition held in Kyiv in March 1961, 14-year-old Tatyana Tarasova, pair skating with Alexander Tikhomirov and representing the Trud sports society, placed second in the first-class category. The pair of Tatyana Tarasova and Georgi Proskurin was briefly coached by Elena Tchaikovskaia. With Proskurin, she was a two-time Soviet national medalist. They finished 7th at the [1965 World Figure Skating Championships|World Figure Skating Championships|1965 World Championships] and 4th at the [1966 European Figure Skating Championships|European Figure Skating Championships|1966 European Championships]. Shortly thereafter, she was forced to end her competitive career due to an injury at the age of 18.

Results

with Georgi Proskurin:

Later career

Tarasova started coaching at age 19, at her father's insistence. Her most notable students have been Alexei Yagudin, Ilia Kulik, Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin, Oksana Grishuk / Evgeni Platov, Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov, Marina Klimova / Sergey Ponomarenko, and Irina Rodnina / Alexander Zaitsev.
In 1974, she entered the Institute of Physical Culture, from which she graduated in 1979.
In the mid-1980s, Tarasova launched the Russian All-Stars, an ice ballet. She coached for ten years at Simsbury, Connecticut's International Skating Center before announcing her retirement from full-time coaching and moving back to Russia in 2006.
In 2001, Tarasova published an autobiographical book titled Beauty and the Beast.
In 2005, Tarasova was appointed consultant coach for the Figure Skating Federation of Russia.
She served as the head judge for several television shows on Channel One Russia, including Stars on Ice, Ice Age, and Ice and Fire. Since April 1, 2018, she has been the head judge of the television project Ice Age. Kids.
On March 21, 2008, during the World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg, Tarasova was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
In the summer of the same year, 2008 world champion Mao Asada of Japan began training under Tarasova’s guidance. Asada continued to train at her university base in Nagoya, visiting Tatyana Anatolyevna in Moscow periodically. Tarasova, in turn, occasionally visited the athlete in Japan and accompanied her to major competitions. After the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, where Mao won the silver medal, and the World Championships, which she won, their cooperation came to an end.
In the winter of 2011, under Tarasova’s direction, an ice theatre production based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Sleeping Beauty was staged.
As a coach, Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova has participated in every Winter Olympic Games, World, and European Figure Skating Championship since 1967. A notorious chain smoker, Tarasova was known for smoking cigarettes during her coaching sessions.
Until 2020, she provided commentary on figure skating events for Channel One Russia and the Match TV channel.

Students

Tarasova is assisted by choreographer Jeanetta Folle.

Views

In April 2001, Tarasova spoke out in support of the journalistic staff of the NTV television company, who were protesting against the appointment of new management.
In 2022, Tarasova reacted sharply and negatively to a proposal by State Duma deputy Roman Teryushkov, who suggested equating the change of citizenship by Russian athletes with treason, calling him "a piece of an idiot".
In March 2023, Tarasova lashed out at Canadian athletes who signed a petition calling for a continuation of the ban on Russian athletes amidst the Russo-Ukrainian War:

Family and personal life

Father — Anatoly Tarasov, Honored Coach of the USSR. Mother — Nina Grigoryevna Tarasova, instructor in athletics and skiing.
Sister — Galina Tarasova, teacher of Russian language and literature at Moscow schools.
Nephew — Alexey Igorevich Tarasov, president of the All-Russian Young Hockey Players’ Club "" named after A. V. Tarasov.
Grandnephews — Fyodor and Matvey.
Tatiana Tarasova was married three times; her husbands were:
She had no children.

Honours and awards