Nikita Starostin

Nikita Maximovich Starostin (Никита Максимович Старостин; born 13 June 2002) is a Russian-German figure skater, who represents Germany internationally.

Personal life
Starostin was born on June 13, 2002 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Prior to becoming a figure skater, Starostin also participated in swimming and football as a child.

Starostin's stepfather is German, which factored into his decision to represent Germany.

His figure skating idols are Deniss Vasiljevs and Shoma Uno.

Early career
Starostin began figure skating in 2009 after being encouraged by his mother, a former figure skater, to give it a try. According to Starostin, it was difficult for him to initially find someone to coach him in Russia due to him only having started skating at seven years old. Eventually though, Starostin was able to train in a group coached by Alexei Mishin and soon, Svetlana Knorr became his coach.

Representing Russia, he won the bronze medal on the junior level at the 2016 Tallinn Trophy.

In 2018, Starostin would ultimately decide to represent Germany.

2018–19 season
Prior to the season, Starostin moved to Valmiera, Latvia to be coached by Julia Kulibanova. He would begin his season by winning gold at the 2018 NRW Trophy. He made his international debut on the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix series, placing twelfth at 2018 JGP Slovenia. He then won bronze at both the 2018 Alpen Trophy and the 2018 Tallinn Trophy.

At the 2019 German Junior Championships, Starostin placed seventh. Starostin went on to finish fourth at the 2019 Mentor Toruń Cup and fifth at the 2019 Bavarian Open.

He ended his season with a twenty-fourth place finish at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

2019–20 season
Starostin started his season with a sixteenth-place finish at the 2019 JGP Russia. He went on to win the 2019 Santa Claus Cup.

At the 2020 German Junior Championships, Starostin won the silver medal. He closed the season with a fifth-place finish at the 2020 Bavarian Open.

Following the season, Starostin left coach, Julia Kulibanova, and began working with Adam Solya in Eindhoven, Netherlands. In 2023, Starostin said that he credits Solya for having always believed in him, stating, "He saw a talent in me that others didn't. We started working together and I decided to move to live in Europe. It turned out to be the right idea – I felt that I had no future in Russia. People didn't believe that I could do more People didn't believe that I could do more. And Adam knows that I can do more."

2020–21 season
Starostin was unable to compete internationally this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021–22 season
Prior to the season, Starostin relocated to Belgium to train and in addition to Adam Solya, Jorik Hendrickx became one of his coaches. He began the season with twelfth-place finishes at the 2021 CS Lombardia Trophy and the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy. He went on to finish eighth at the 2021 CS Cup of Austria and win bronze at the 2021 NRW Trophy.

At the 2022 German Championships, Starostin won the bronze medal behind Paul Fentz and Kai Jagoda. He was ultimately selected to compete at the 2022 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia and the 2022 World Championships in Montpellier, France.

Starostin then competed at the 2022 International Challenge Cup, placing seventh. At the European Championships, Starostin placed thirteenth after placing fourteenth in the short program and twelfth in the free skate. Debuting at the World Championships, Starostin placed twenty-third in the short program and twenty-second in the free skate, finishing twenty-second overall.

2022–23 season
Starostin began the season with three assignments on the Challenger series, finishing ninth at the 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, fifteenth at the 2022 CS Finlandia Trophy, and winning the bronze medal at the 2022 CS Ice Challenge. He later won gold at the 2022 NRW Trophy, and placed sixth at the 2022 Santa Claus Cup.

At the 2023 German Championships, Starostin won his first national title. He went on to compete at the 2023 European Championships in Espoo, Finland where he placed tenth in the short program and seventeenth in the free skate, finishing in fifteenth place overall.

At the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, Starostin finished in nineteenth place overall after placing sixteenth in the short program and nineteenth in the free skate.

2023–24 season
Starostin started the season by finishing sixth at the 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy. In his second Challenger appearance, he was ninth at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy. He then made a third Challenger appearance, coming seventh at the 2023 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge. Starostin was invited to make his Grand Prix debut at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo, placing seventh.

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


 * For Germany


 * For Russia

Detailed results
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.