Ekaterina Kurakova

Ekaterina Andreevna Kurakova (Екатерина Андреевна Куракова, Jekatierina Andriejewna Kurakowa, born 24 June 2002), nicknamed Katia, is a Russian-Polish figure skater who currently competes for Poland. She is a three-time Warsaw Cup champion (2019, 2022, 2023), the 2019 Mentor Toruń Cup champion, a six-time Four Nationals champion (2019–2024), and a six-time Polish national champion (2019–2024).

Personal life
Kurakova was born on 24 June 2002 in Moscow. She has an older brother named Alexander.

In October 2019, Kurakova became a Polish citizen. She was in a relationship with Polish ice dancer Filip Bojanowski.

Kurakova is able to speak Russian, Polish, and English fluently.

Early career
Kurakova began learning to skate in 2006 at the age of four. She was coached first by Natalia Dubinskaya at the Moskvich Olympic Reserve School and later by Inna Goncharenko at CSKA Moscow. Representing Russia, she competed internationally in the advanced novice category for two seasons beginning in 2013–14 and then as a junior for two seasons.

According to Kurakova, due to the level of depth in Russian women's skating, Russian coaches tried encouraging her to quit figure skating. Ultimately, in the summer of 2017, Kurakova wrote a letter to Marek Kaliszek, the chairman of the Polish Figure Skating Association, requesting that she represent Poland and her request was eventually accepted.

She soon began training in Toruń, coached by Sylwia Nowak-Trębacka. After receiving financial support from an unpublicized sponsor, she decided to move to Toronto to train under Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Club, beginning in December 2018. Later that month, she won the Four National Championships in Budapest, thus becoming the 2019 Polish national champion. However, due to the recent change of her country of representation, she could not compete in any ISU events until after June 2019.

2019–2020 season
On 1 July 2019, Kurakova received her clearance certificate, allowing her to officially represent Poland in international figure skating competitions and ISU championships.

In her international senior debut at the Minto Summer Skate in Ontario, Canada, she placed first, scoring 182.77 points overall. She then competed at two ISU Junior Grand Prix events, placing fifth in Riga and seventh in Gdańsk. In November, she won gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, ahead of Bradie Tennell. In December, she defended her national title at the Four National Championships in Ostrava.

Kurakova competed at her first European Championships in January, placing tenth. She finished the season at the 2020 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she placed seventh. Kurakova remarked afterward, "I'm so happy because we did hard work with Brian, and it was important for me to show what Brian made for me. I'm really grateful to my coaches and parents." She was scheduled to make her senior World Championship debut in Montreal, but the event's cancellation prevented this due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020–2021 season
Due to the pandemic, Kurakova could not return to Canada to train in Toronto. She temporarily began training in Egna, Italy under Lorenzo Magri while receiving virtual coaching from Orser. Kurakova was assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but withdrew on 7 October.

After winning the Four National Championships for the third consecutive year, Kurakova made her World Championship debut in March at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm. She placed thirty-second in the short program after falling on her triple Lutz in her planned opening triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination. She managed to tack on a double toe loop onto a triple loop later in the program, but her reduced technical content was not enough to advance her to the free skate.

Following the season, Kurakova decided to permanently relocate to Egna rather than relocate back to Toronto due to high costs and not wanting to be far away from friends and family, who reside in Poland and Russia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to Magri, Angelina Turenko became another coach of Kurakova.

2021–2022 season
Kurakova began the season at the 2021 CS Lombardia Trophy, where she won the silver medal. She next competed at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, seeking to qualify a berth for Poland at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She placed sixth in the short program after a combination error, but a second-place free skate saw her rise to the silver medal position, securing the second of six available Olympic spots.

Following the Challenger series, Kurakova made her Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate America, where she placed ninth. Returning to Poland to compete at the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup, she won the bronze medal, notably finishing first in the free skate. At her second Grand Prix, the 2021 Rostelecom Cup, Kurakova finished in ninth place.

Kurakova claimed her fourth consecutive Polish national title in December at the 2022 Four Nationals Championships and was therefore assigned to Poland's berth in the women's event at the 2022 European Championships. At Europeans, Kurakova debuted a new short program to Tchaikovsky's "Valse Sentimentale" and skated cleanly in that segment to set a new personal best. She executed another clean program in the free skate to earn personal bests in that segment, as well as overall and recorded a career-best placement at the event with a fifth-place finish. She cited breaking the 200-point mark as the most exciting result for her. While Kurakova was initially believed to have finished fourth in the free skate and fifth overall, in February 2024 the Court of Arbitration for Sport disqualified erstwhile champion Kamila Valieva for using a banned substance. As a result, Kurakova was moved up to fourth overall and third place in the free skate, and the Polish Figure Skating Association announced that she would receive a bronze small medal for the segment.

Named to the Polish Olympic team, Kurakova placed twenty-fourth in the short program of the women's event, narrowly qualifying for the free skate. Kurakova dramatically improved her position in the free skate, ranking twelfth in that segment and rising to twelfth overall. Posting on Instagram afterward, she exulted: "Life is not always easy. We all have to go through difficult times at times. But if you don't give up, you will be rewarded. This is what I try to convey during my program. Life is Beautiful." Kurakova finished the season with a thirteenth place at the 2022 World Championships.

2022–2023 season
Kurakova began the season with a bronze medal at 2022 CS Lombardia Trophy. Competing in the Grand Prix, she finished in fifth-place at both 2022 Skate America and 2022 MK John Wilson Trophy. Kurakova then won the 2022 CS Warsaw Cup, her second event title.

At the beginning of December, Kurakova was named to the Polish team for the 2023 Winter World University Games in Lake Placid. She then finished first overall at the 2023 Four National Championships, earning her fifth consecutive Polish national gold medal.

Kurakova finished fifth at the 2023 Winter Universiade. Weeks later she competed at the 2023 European Championships, where she came fifth in the short program. She rose to fourth place in the free skate. Speaking after, Kurakova admitted that she felt the post-Olympic season to be more difficult, contrary to her expectations. She came sixteenth at the 2023 World Championships.

2023–2024 season
In July 2023, it was announced by the Polish Figure Skating Association that Kurakova's coach, Angelina Turenko had moved from Egna to Assago to coach at the IceLab Skating Club and that Kurakova had moved there as well to continue training under Turenko. Additionally, it was announced that Kurakova would also receive support from former coach Brian Orser. Over the summer, Kurakova trained at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club under the guidance of Orser and Tracy Wilson. Beginning her season on the Challenger circuit, Kurakova finished fourth at both the 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy and the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial. After the latter event, she said she was pleased by her performance and believed she had improved over her first event of the year. She planned to train more in Toronto in advance of her lone Grand Prix appearance. She finished seventh at the 2023 Skate America. Kurakova was subsequently invited to attend a second Grand Prix, replacing Bradie Tennell at the 2023 Cup of China, where she was seventh again. Returning to Poland for the 2023 CS Warsaw Cup the following weekend, she won her third event title.

Kurakova claimed her sixth Polish national title with a first-place finish at the 2024 Four National Championships. At the 2024 European Championships in Kaunas, Kurakova struggled with her jumps in the short program and finished twenty-fifth in the segment, missing the cut for the free skate by one ordinal. She acknowledged that "it didn't work today, unfortunately," while thanking the crowd for their support.

Following the disappointment at the European Championships, Kurakova took two weeks to contemplate whether she wanted to continue, but ultimately said that "I realized that I love skating very much, even if it is difficult sometimes. Difficult experiences sometimes give us more because over time you realize what went wrong." She attended the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, where she placed fourteenth in the short program despite performing only a triple-double jump combination instead of her planned triple-triple. She rose to eleventh after the free skate, a personal best and the highest placement for a Polish skater since Anna Rechnio's sixth in 1999.

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