Sofia Dmitrievna Akateva (Russian: Софья Дмитриевна Акатьева, born 7 July 2007) is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2021 JGP Russia champion, the 2021 JGP Poland champion, a two-time Russian junior national champion (2021, 2022), and currently holds the junior women's world records for the highest total and free skate scores.

Sofia Akateva
Akateva in 2020
Personal information
Native name	Софья Дмитриевна Акатьева (Russian)[1]
Full name	Sofia Dmitrievna Akateva
Alternative names	Akatyeva, Akatieva
Country represented	Russia
Born	(2007-07-07) July 7, 2007 (age 15) Moscow, Russia
Home town	Moscow
Height	1.51 m (4 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Coach	Eteri Tutberidze Sergei Dudakov
Former coach	Oksana Bulycheva
Choreographer	Daniil Gleikhengauz
Skating club	Sambo 70 (Khrustalny)
Training locations	Moscow Novogorsk
Began skating	2011
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	233.08 (JWR) 2021 JGP Russia
Short program	75.89 2021 JGP Russia
Free skate	157.19 (JWR) 2021 JGP Russia

Akateva is the 11th woman to land a quad jump, and the 14th to land a triple Axel in international competition. She is the second woman after American skater Alysa Liu to successfully land a quad jump and a triple Axel in one program.

Personal life

Akatieva was born in Moscow on 7 July 2007. She has a younger brother, Aleksandr. Sonya (Russian: Соня) is a Russian diminutive form of Sofia, so she is affectionately nicknamed Super Sonik by her fans and teammates for her strong technical ability.

Career

Early years

Akatieva began learning to skate in 2011 as a four-year-old at Sambo 70. She transitioned into the Khrustalnyi rink under her current coach Eteri Tutberidze's group within the Sambo 70 training complex in 2017.[2]

Akatieva began training her first quadruple jump, the quad toeloop, with the support of a harness in December 2018, and the triple Axel in January 2019. She landed her first attempts of both jumps independently in March and April of 2019 respectively.[3]

As a novice and domestic junior skater under Tutberidze, Akatieva placed second at the 2019 Russian Younger Age Championships (Russia's equivalent of a novice national championship) behind her teammate Kamila Valieva. In 2020, she won the silver medal at the 2020 Russian Junior Championships, again behind Valieva, and won her first junior national title the following year at the 2021 edition. During the domestic Cup of Russia series held during the 2020–21 season, Akateva was lauded as the first female skater to land a triple Axel and two quadruple jumps in a program during her free skate.

2021–22 season: International junior debut

Akatieva made her junior international debut at the 2021 JGP Russia held in Krasnoyarsk in mid-September. At the event, she surpassed teammate Kamila Valieva's junior world record scores for the free program and total combined score, and came close to matching teammate Alena Kostornaia's junior world record for the short program to take the title by a comfortable 27 point margin ahead of silver medalist Anastasia Zinina. Across her two programs, Akatieva landed two triple Axels, one in combination, and three quad jumps, the toeloop and the Salchow, two in combination. She is the first woman to land three quads and a triple Axel in one program.

At her second JGP assignment, the 2021 JGP Poland, Akatieva skated two clean programs, again executing two triple Axels and three quad jumps over the course of the competition to claim the title ahead of compatriot Elizaveta Kulikova and South Korean competitor Shin Ji-a. Due to her results over her two events, Akatieva qualified to the 2021–22 Junior Grand Prix Final as the top-seeded competitor in the junior women's event. Akatieva's results also automatically qualified her a spot in the senior-level 2022 Russian Championships, but she was barred from competing there by the Russian Figure Skating Federation as her birthday fell after age-eligibility cutoff date.[4]

In February 2022, Akatieva handily won her second consecutive junior national title at the 2022 Russian Junior Championships. She placed first in both segments of competition to take the gold medal by an over 23-point margin ahead of silver medalist Sofia Samodelkina.

Programs

Competitive highlights

JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Records and achievements

Junior world record scores

Akatieva is currently the junior world record holder for the women's free program and total combined score.

• Akatieva is the first woman to land a triple Axel and three quadruple jumps in one program.

Detailed results

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. Personal bests highlighted in bold.

Senior level

Junior level

References

External links

• Sofia Akateva at the International Skating Union

World Junior Record Holders
Preceded by Kamila Valieva	Women's Junior Free Skating 18 September 2021 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Kamila Valieva	Women's Junior Total Score 18 September 2021 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent

На других языках

[ru] Акатьева, Софья Дмитриевна