Jelizaveta Žuková or Elizaveta Valeriyevna Zhuk (; born 2 November 2003) is a former Russian-Czech

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 ...

who competes for the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. With her skating partner,

Martin Bidař Martin Bidař (born 24 February 1999) is a Czech pair skater. With former partner Anna Dušková, they are the 2016 World Junior champions, 2016 Youth Olympic silver medalists (both individually and in the team event), and 2015 Junior Grand ...

, she is a two-time Czech national champion (2020–2021) and represented the Czech Republic at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

Personal life

Elizaveta Zhuk was born on 2 November 2003 in

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

, Russia. In December 2021, she became a Czech citizen. Her name changed to Jelizaveta Žuková, with a feminine suffix added to the Czech transliteration of her Russian name.

Career

Early career

Zhuk began learning to skate in 2007. Training in pairs, early partners included Maxim Miroshkin and Evgeniy Kostarev. She competed with Egor Britkov for three seasons, placing fourth at the 2017 Russian Junior Championships and winning a silver medal at the

2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb The 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb was the 50th edition of the annual senior-level international figure skating competition held in Zagreb, Croatia. It was held at the Dom sportova in December 2017 as part of the 2017–18 ISU Challenger Series. M ...

the following season.

2019–2020 season

On June 26, 2019, Zhuk announced a new partnership with Czech pair skater

, with plans to represent his country. They competed exclusively domestically in their first season together, winning the Czech national title.

2020–2021 season

With the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

limiting international opportunities, Zhuk/Bidař made their debut internationally at the 2020 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, one of only four pairs on the preliminary entry list. They were fifth in the short, fourth in the free, and fourth overall. They subsequently competed at the 2021 World Championships, placing fifteenth and, in the process, qualifying for a berth for a Czech pair at the

2021–22 season

In September, the Czech federation officially named Zhuk and Bidař to the Czech Olympic team. They made their debut at the 2021 Finlandia Trophy, where they placed ninth. They later competed at a second Challenger event, finishing twelfth at the 2021 Warsaw Cup. Zhuk opted to restyle her name as Jelizaveta Žuková in advance of the Olympics. Žuková and Bidař made their

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

debut in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, finishing in twelfth place. Žuková and Bidař began the

as the Czech entries in the pairs' Olympic team event, where they placed eighth of nine teams, earning three points for the Czech team. Team Czech Republic did not advance to the next stage of the competition and finished eighth overall. With two falls in the short program of the pairs event, they finished seventeenth and missed qualification for the free skate. Žuková sustained an ankle injury in training; as a result of which they did not compete at the 2022 World Championships. In March 2022, Žuková liked an Instagram post by

Evgeni Plushenko Evgeni Viktorovich Plushenko (, born 3 November 1982) is a Russian former figure skater. He is a four-time Olympic medalist (2006 gold, 2014 team gold, 2002 & 2010 silver), a three-time World champion (2001, 2003, 2004), a seven-time Europe ...

expressing support for the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. The president of the Czech Figure Skating Association noted that the federation strongly disagreed with her position and distanced itself. The president explained to Žuková the unsuitability of her conduct and asked her to apologize for her decision. Žuková apologized, stating that her decision was due to "youthful recklessness" and "misreading and misunderstanding" the post; the president deemed the apology sufficient.

2022–23 season

Žuková and Bidař placed eighth at the 2022 Nebelhorn Trophy to start the season before placing sixth at the

2022 Skate Canada International The 2022 Skate Canada International was the second event of the 2022–23 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, from ...

. In December 2022, it was announced that the pair had split.

Programs

Pair skating with Martin Bidař (for the Czech Republic)

Pair skating with Egor Britkov (for Russia)

Competitive highlights

Pair skating with Martin Bidař (for the Czech Republic)

Pair skating with Egor Britkov (for Russia)

Detailed results

Pair skating with Martin Bidař (for the Czech Republic)

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zukova, Jelizaveta 2003 births Living people Czech female pair skaters Russian female pair skaters Figure skaters from Yekaterinburg Naturalized citizens of the Czech Republic Russian emigrants to the Czech Republic Figure skaters at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters for the Czech Republic 21st-century Russian sportswomen