Alexei Sviatchenko

Alexei Vadimovich Sviatchenko (Алексей Вадимович Святченко; born 24 March 1999) is a Russian pair skater who currently competes for Hungary. With his current skating partner, Maria Pavlova, he is the 2023 Skate Canada International silver medalist, the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo bronze medalist, the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy bronze medalist, and a two-time Hungarian national champion (2023-24).

Personal life
Sviatchenko was born on 24 March 1999 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He speaks fluent Russian and is learning Hungarian.

Early years and career for Russia
Sviatchenko began learning how to skate in 2006. He became interested in the sport upon first seeing skaters at an ice rink and asked his mother to put him in lessons. He trained first as a single skater in Kolpino, a suburb of St. Petersburg, and at the age of 12 took up pair skating at the Figure Skating Club of St. Petersburg coached by Alexei Sokolov.

Sviatchenko competed with his first partner, Daria Kvartalova, until 2019. The team competed at four junior international events together, most notably finishing third at the 2018 JGP Canada. Following his split with Kvartalova, Sviatchenko had two more short-lived partnerships for Russia, one with Anastasia Balabanova during the 2020–21 season, and another with Nadezhda Labazina the following year. Labazina/Sviatchenko had one international start together before parting ways, finishing ninth at the 2021 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.

2022–23 season: Debut of Pavlova/Sviatchenko
Sviatchenko had his first tryout with his current skating partner, Maria Pavlova, in March of 2022 at what is now their current training base in Sochi. The duo chose to move forward as a new team for Hungary not long after, coached by Pavlova's staff consisting of Dmitri Savin, Fedor Klimov, Sofia Evdokimova, and Gurgen Vardanjan.

Pavlova/Sviatchenko made their competitive debut late in the 2022–23 season at the 2022 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they finished ninth. Weeks later, the team claimed their first Hungarian national title at the 2023 Four Nationals Championship, the combined national championship event for Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Due to their placement at the event, Pavlova/Sviatchenko were named to the Hungarian teams for the 2023 European Championships in January, and the 2023 World Championships in March.

At the European Championships, Pavlova/Sviatchenko placed sixth in the short program and fourth in the free skate to finish fifth overall, the best placement for a Hungarian team at the event in many years. In preparation for the World Championships, the team competed at two senior B events, the 2023 Bavarian Open and the 2023 Challenge Cup, where they placed first and second respectively.

Pavlova/Sviatchenko capped their season at Worlds, hosted in Saitama, Japan. There, the duo set new personal bests in both segments of competition, placing eighth in the short program and seventh in the free skate for seventh place finish overall, another landmark placement for a Hungarian pair team at the competition in recent memory.

2023–24 season
Pavlova/Sviatchenko opened their second season together in September at the 2023 CS Nebelhorn Trophy where they finished fifth. They followed up this placement with a third place finish at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy, and a silver medal in the Challenger ineligible pairs event at the 2023 CS Budapest Trophy. The team made their ISU Grand Prix series debut in late October at the 2023 Skate Canada International, held in Vancouver. Pavlova/Sviatchenko placed fourth in the short program, and rose to second in the free skate to finish second overall between Canadian gold medalists Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps and Italian third-place finishers Beccari/Guarise. Their placement marked the first medal for Hungary in pairs at a Grand Prix event. Following the free skate, Pavlova remarked, "We're really happy with our performance and we're going to improve every time and we have a lot of things to work on. Our federation is happy for us. We're giving good results for our country and we will continue to do that." They were again fourth in the short program at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo, but another second-place free skate won them the bronze medal.

The team's results on the Grand Prix initially had them finishing as first alternates to the Grand Prix Final. They were called up to compete at the Beijing event following the withdrawal of German team Hocke/Kunkel, and came in fourth at the event.

Pavlova/Sviatchenko competed next at the 2024 European Championships, finishing fourth in the short program, less than two points back of third place. They came third in the free skate, winning a bronze small medal, but remained fourth overall, 1.66 points behind bronze medalists Ghilardi/Ambrosini of Italy. They expressed dissatisfaction with the judging of their performances, with Pavlova saying "our motivation goes down every time we keep getting these scores."

Finishing the season at the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, Pavlova/Sviatchenko came sixth in the short program. They moved up to fourth after the free skate, which she called "very motivating for next season."

Competitive highlights
GP: Grand Prix, CS: Challenger Series, JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Detailed results
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.