Andrei Olegovich Minenkov (russian: Андрей Олегович Миненков; born 6 December 1954) and Irina Valentinovna Moiseeva (russian: Ирина Валентиновна Моисеева; born 3 July 1955) are Russian retired

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

s who represented the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. They were the 1976 Olympic silver medalist, 1980 Olympic bronze medalist, and two-time world champions (

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

Career

Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov met at the rink when they were six years old and began skating together in 1967. They had their breakthrough during the 1974–1975 season. They were third at the Soviet Championships, behind

Lyudmila Pakhomova Lyudmila Alekseyevna Pakhomova (russian: Людмила Алексеевна Пахомова; 31 December 1946 – 17 May 1986) was an ice dancer who competed for the Soviet Union. With her husband Alexandr Gorshkov, she was the 1976 Olympic c ...

/ Aleksandr Gorshkov and

Natalia Linichuk Natalya Vladimirovna Linichuk (; born 6 February 1956) is a Russian ice dancing coach and former competitive ice dancer for the Soviet Union. With partner and husband Gennadi Karponosov, she is the 1980 Olympic champion and a two-time World cham ...

Gennadi Karponosov Gennadi Mikhailovich Karponosov (; born 21 November 1950) is an ice dancing coach and a former competitive ice dancer for the Soviet Union. With Natalia Linichuk, he is the 1980 Olympic champion and a two-time World champion. Competitive career ...

, and placed just off the podium at the 1975 European Championships. However, they then went on to capture their first World title at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, in the absence of Pakhomova/Gorshkov but moving ahead of a few teams ranked higher than them earlier in the season, including Linichuk/Karpanosov. The next season, Moiseeva and Minenkov were again ranked behind Linichuk/Karponosov at the Soviet Championships but edged past them in international competition to be second only to Pakhomova/Gorshkov. They won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, the first Games to include ice dancing. They also won silver at the

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

Championships. The 1976–1977 season was the most successful for Moiseeva and Minenkov. They won

and national titles. Their dominance began to wane over the following years, however, they won a total of eight consecutive World medals and seven European medals (including another gold in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

). They also won the bronze at the 1980 Olympics. The couple trained at VSS Trud in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. They were coached by

Tatiana Tarasova Tatiana Anatolyevna Tarasova (; born 13 February 1947) 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 h ...

, and Natalia Dubova. Tarasova coached them for ten years, beginning in 1969. They retired in 1983 because Moiseeva was expecting their daughter. Olympic champions

Torvill and Dean Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British Ice Figure and Dance Championships, British, European Figure Skating Championships, European, Figure skating at the Olympic Games, Olympic, and Wor ...

considered them one of their greatest influences.

Personal life

Moiseeva and Minenkov married in 1977 and had a daughter in 1983. In 1989, Minenkov graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Radiotechnics, Electronics and Automation and founded a company, Kholod, in 1993.

Results

with Moiseeva

References

External links

Moiseyeva and Minenkov at caretoicedance.com

Navigation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minenkov, Andrei Olympic figure skaters for the Soviet Union Figure skaters at the 1976 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1980 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Figure skaters from Moscow Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics