Ilia Izyaslavich Averbukh (russian: Илья Изяславич Авербух, correctly spelled "Ilya"; born 18 December 1973) is a Russian

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 ...

. With his then-wife

Irina Lobacheva Irina Viktorovna Lobacheva (russian: Ирина Викторовна Лобачёва; born 18 February 1973) is a Russian former competitive ice dancer. With partner and former husband Ilia Averbukh, she is the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, the ...

, he is the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, the 2002

World champion 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 the 2003 European champion. With

Marina Anissina Marina Vyacheslavovna Anissina (russian: Марина Вячеславовна Анисина; born 30 August 1975) is a Franco-Russian ice dancer. Competing with Gwendal Peizerat for France, she is the 2002 Olympic champion, the 1998 Olympic ...

, he is the 1990 and 1992 World Junior champion.

Early life

Averbukh is Jewish, and was born in Moscow.

Career

Averbukh started skating at the age of 5. He initially competed with

. They won two World Junior Championships (1990 and 1992). Averbukh teamed up with

in 1992. After the Goodwill Games in the summer of 1994 their coaches moved with many of their students to the United States to train at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

. Lobacheva and Averbukh joined them the next year. In September 2001, Lobacheva injured her knee in training, causing them to miss the Grand Prix season. They won the silver medal at the 2002 Olympics behind

Gwendal Peizerat Gwendal Peizerat (born 21 April 1972) is a French former competitive ice dancer. With Marina Anissina, he is the 2002 Olympic champion, the 1998 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2000 World champion, and a six-time French national champion. Per ...

. Lobacheva / Averbukh won gold at the 2002

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 at the 2003

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, ...

. They retired from competition at the end of the 2002–2003 season.

Post-competitive career

Following his retirement from competitive skating, Averbukh became a producer of skating shows and tours. Among his projects are ''Ice Symphony/Ice Age''; ''City Lights''; ''Bolero'' (a television show pairing skaters with prima ballerinas); and ''Small Stories of a Big City'', an ice show during the 2012 Olympics in London. In January 2013, Averbukh was named an ambassador for the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympi ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents i ...

. Averbukh works as a choreographer. His past and current clients include: *

Ksenia Makarova Ksenia Olegovna Makarova (russian: Ксения Олеговна Макарова, born 20 December 1992) is a retired Russian, later an American, figure skater. She is the 2010 Skate Canada International silver medalist, 2009 Cup of Nice champion ...

* Nelli Zhiganshina/

Alexander Gazsi Alexander Gazsi (born 6 October 1984) is a German ice dancer. With partner Nelli Zhiganshina, he is a six-time German national champion (2007, 2011–2015) and has won twelve international medals. They have placed as high as 6th at the European ...

* Yulia Lipnitskaya * Sergei Voronov * Elena Ilinykh/

Ruslan Zhiganshin Ruslan Nailevich Zhiganshin (russian: Руслан Наильевич Жиганшин; born 25 September 1992) is a retired Russian ice dancer. With partner Elena Ilinykh, he is the 2015 Russian national champion. With former partner Victori ...

* Elena Radionova * Evgenia Medvedeva * Maxim Kovtun * Niina Petrõkina *

Sofia Samodurova Sofia Vyacheslavovna Samodurova (pronounced ''Sah-moh-DOO-roh-vah''; russian: Софья Вячеславовна Самодурова; born 30 July 2002) is a Russian retired figure skater. She is the 2019 European champion, the 2019 CS Ice ...

* Dmitri Aliev *

Alexandra Stepanova Alexandra Nikolayevna Stepanova (russian: Александра Николаевна Степанова; born 19 August 1995) is a Russian ice dancer. With her skating partner, Ivan Bukin, she is a four-time European medalist (silver in 2019, br ...

Ivan Bukin Ivan Andreyevich Bukin (russian: Иван Андреевич Букин; born 16 September 1993) is a Russian ice dancer. With his skating partner, Alexandra Stepanova, he is a four-time European medalist (silver in 2019, bronze in 2015, 2018 ...

* Mikhail Kolyada *

Evgeni Semenenko Evgeni Stanislavovich Semenenko ( rus, Евгений Станиславович Семененко, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj sʲɪmʲɪˈnʲenkə; born 26 July 2003) is a Russian figure skater. He is the 2021 Skate Canada bronze medalist and the ...

Programs

(with Lobacheva)

Results

With Lobacheva

With Anissina

Hall of Fame

Averbukh was elected to the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...

's induction class of 2015.

Other sports

Averbukh will play a role in the opening ceremony of the

2016 Bandy World Championship Bandy World Championship 2016, the XXXVI Bandy World Championship, was held with Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, as host region. Most of the games was played at the Volga-Sport-Arena in Ulyanovsk. Because of its higher spectator capacity, the group sta ...

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http://mosaica.ru/news/sport/2015/09/08/ilya-averbuh-ustroit-v-ulyanovske-grandioznoe-shou-na-chm-2016-po-hokkeyu-s]

Personal life

Lobacheva and Averbukh married in 1995. Their son, Martin, was born in 2004. They divorced in 2007. Since December 20, 2020, he has been married to the Russian actress Liza Arzamasova, Elizaveta Arzamasova. On August 14, 2021, the couple had a son.

References

External links

*
Official website of Lobacheva and Averbukh

Jews in Sports bio

Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh divorce
{{DEFAULTSORT:Averbukh, Ilia 1973 births Russian male ice dancers Jewish Russian sportspeople Olympic figure skaters of Russia Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics Living people Olympic silver medalists for Russia Figure skaters from Moscow Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Universiade medalists in figure skating Goodwill Games medalists in figure skating Season-end world number one figure skaters Universiade gold medalists for Russia Competitors at the 1995 Winter Universiade Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games