Sofiia Nesterova ( uk, Софія Нестерова; born 21 August 2003) is a retired Ukrainian

pair skater Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

. With her former partner,

Artem Darenskyi Artem Andriyovych Darenskyi ( uk, Артем Андрійович Даренський; born 7 July 2001) is a Ukrainian pair skater who currently competes with Sofiia Holichenko. With his former skating partner, Sofiia Nesterova, he is a two- ...

, she is a two-time Ukrainian national senior champion. The pair has competed in the final segment at two World Junior Championships, finishing within the top eight at the 2019 edition.

Career

Early years

Nesterova began learning to skate in 2006. In February 2017, she won the Ukrainian junior ladies' title ahead of Anastasia Arkhipova and Anastasia Hozhva. She was too young to compete as a junior internationally. Before 2016, she also trained in pair skating with Denys Strekalin.

2017–2018 season

Nesterova became age-eligible for junior international events at the start of the season. Coached by Maryna Amirkhanova in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, she competed at two

ISU Junior Grand Prix The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...

assignments, placing 8th in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

, Belarus, and then 12th in

Egna Neumarkt (literally "new market"; ; it, Egna ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about south of the city of Bolzano. Geography As of 30 November 2010, it had a population of 5,001 and an area of .All de ...

, Italy. Around November 2017, Nesterova teamed up with

to compete in pairs, coached by Lilia Batutina in

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

. Their training was limited due to a leg injury sustained by Nesterova but the pair decided to compete at the Ukrainian Championships in December. Nesterova/Darenskyi's international debut came in early February 2018 at the

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in Poland. They won bronze and obtained the minimum technical scores required to compete at the 2018 World Junior Championships in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. At the March event in Bulgaria, they qualified to the final segment and went on to finish 14th overall.

2018–2019 season

Nesterova/Darenskyi competed at two

events in September, placing fifth in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

, Austria, and eighth in

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

, Czech Republic. In December, they won their second senior national title. Ranked eighth in both segments, they finished eighth at the 2019 World Junior Championships in March in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, Croatia.

2019–2020 season

Nestrova/Darenski placed twelfth and tenth at their two JGP events. They were fifth at the

Volvo Open Cup Volvo Open Cup is a figure skating competition held in Riga, Latvia. It was part of the ISU Challenger Series in the 2014–15 season. The competition may include men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing at various levels. ...

in November. In December, they were nineteenth at the

2019 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb The 2019 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb was held in December 2019 in Zagreb, Croatia. It was part of the 2019–20 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance Ice d ...

. They placed third at Nationals. They were chosen to compete at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games. Their Junior Pairs result became disqualified, though they were part of the bronze-medalling winning team in the Team Event. They were disqualified at the 2020 European Championships. On March 20, it was announced that Nestrova and Darenski were splitting up, as Nestrova had retired.

Programs

Pairs with Darenskyi

Ladies' singles

Competitive highlights

''CS: Challenger Series; JGP:

Junior Grand Prix The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...

Pairs with Darenskyi

Ladies' singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nesterova, Sofiia 2003 births Ukrainian female pair skaters Living people Sportspeople from Dnipro Figure skaters at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics