Marina Vladimirovna Klimova (russian: Марина Владимировна Климова; born 28 July 1966) is a former competitive

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 ...

who competed for 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 ...

and the Unified Team. With skating partner and husband

Sergei Ponomarenko Sergei Vladilenovich Ponomarenko (russian: Серге́й Владиленович Пономаренко; born October 6, 1960) is a Russian former competitive Ice dancing, ice dancer who competed for the Soviet Union and the Unified Te ...

, she is the 1992 Olympic champion, the 1988 Olympic silver medalist, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist, a three-time World champion, and a four-time European champion.

Career

Klimova trained at Spartak 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 ...

. Early in her career, she skated with Oleg Gennadyevich Volkov. Klimova and Ponomarenko were fourth in their European Championships debut in 1983. Their breakthrough came the following season when they won the bronze medal at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

and 1984 European Championships. In 1985, they won their first

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 ...

medal, silver. They were four-time consecutive World silver medalists from 1985 to 1988. In 1988, they also won the Olympic silver medal, behind

Natalia Bestemianova Natalia Filimonovna Bestemianova or Bestemyanova (russian: Наталья Филимоновна Бестемьянова, born 6 January 1960) is a Soviet and Russian former competitive ice dancer who competed for the Soviet Union. With her par ...

and

Andrei Bukin Andrei Anatolyevich Bukin (russian: Андрей Анатольевич Букин, born 10 June 1957) is a Soviet and Russian former ice dancer who represented the Soviet Union in his competitive career. With his partner Natalia Bestemianova, he ...

. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, Klimova and Ponomarenko won the first of their four consecutive European titles. They also won the 1989 World Championships and followed that up with another World gold the following year. At the 1991 World Championships, they had a setback when they placed second to

Isabelle Duchesnay Isabelle Duchesnay (born December 18, 1963 in Aylmer, Quebec, Canada) is a retired ice dancer who represented France for most of her career. With her brother Paul Duchesnay, she is the 1991 World champion and the 1992 Olympic silver med ...

Paul Duchesnay Paul Duchesnay (born 31 July 1961 in Metz) is a retired ice dancer who represented France for most of his career. With his sister Isabelle Duchesnay, he is the 1991 World champion and the 1992 Olympic silver medalist. Career The Duchesnay ...

. Four months before the Olympics, they decided to leave coach Natalia Dubova. They re-established themselves as the top ice dancers in the world by winning another 1992 European title and then capturing the 1992 Olympic title. They ended their season with their third World title. They retired from eligible skating after the World Championships and turned to professional and show skating. In addition to winning three

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, ...

and four

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, Klimova and Ponomarenko are the first figure skaters in any discipline to have won Olympic medals in three different colors. They won the bronze medal at the

, the silver medal at the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

for the

and the gold medal at the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

for the Unified Team. Klimova and Ponomarenko were inducted into the

World Figure Skating Hall of Fame The World Figure Skating Hall of Fame serves as a repository for the sport of figure skating. The World Figure Skating Hall of Fame is where the greatest names in the history of the sport are honored. It is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, ...

in 2000. They coach young figure skaters at Sharks Ice in San Jose,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Personal life

Klimova and Ponomarenko married in September 1984. They now reside in the United States in

Morgan Hill, California Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...

. They have two sons, Tim Ponomarenko, born in 1998, and Anthony Ponomarenko, born on January 5, 2001, in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Anthony is a competitive ice dancer for the United States.

Programs

(With Ponomarenko)

Results

With Sergei Ponomarenko

Professional career

With Oleg Volkov

References

External links

Navigation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klimova, Marina 1966 births Living people Russian female ice dancers Soviet female ice dancers Olympic figure skaters of the Soviet Union Olympic figure skaters of the Unified Team Figure skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Sportspeople from Yekaterinburg Spartak athletes Figure skaters from San Jose, California Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists People from Morgan Hill, California Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics American female ice dancers Goodwill Games medalists in figure skating Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games 21st-century American women