Stephen Gogolev

Stephen Gogolev (born December 22, 2004) is a Canadian figure skater. He is the 2023 CS Autumn Classic bronze medalist and the 2019 Canadian national silver medalist.

Gogolev is the 2018 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2018 JGP Slovakia champion, the 2019 JGP U.S. silver medalist, the 2020 Bavarian Open junior champion, and the 2017 Canadian junior national champion.

He has set five junior world record scores. He holds the Canadian record total score for junior men, as well as the national historical record total scores for pre-novice and novice men.

Personal life
Gogolev was born on December 22, 2004, in Toronto, Ontario, to Irina Gogoleva and Igor Gogolev. He comes from an athletic family; his parents were both gymnasts, and his mother was also a figure skater. He has an older brother, Peter Gogolev, who was a competitive kayaker. Gogolev holds dual Canadian and Russian citizenship. His hobbies include cars, mountain biking, surfing, and tennis. He has a YouTube channel featuring his mountain biking videos. Gogolev is a university student at the University of California, Irvine, majoring in political science.

Early years
Gogolev began skating at the age of six in 2010. He began skating in Yekaterinburg, ultimately choosing it over skiing. In Russia, he learned the triple toe loop, triple Salchow, and double Axel. While competing in Russia, he was coached by Alexander Tarasov at DYUSSH No. 8 Lokomotiv. During this time he came to train annually in the summers at The Granite Club.

After moving to Canada, he began training at the Thornhill Figure Skating Club. He later joined Brian Orser and Lee Barkell at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in Toronto.

2014–2015 season
Competing at the pre-novice level, Gogolev won every competition he entered, including the Central Ontario sectional and Canadian national pre-novice titles as well as the gold medal at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, where he was the youngest competitor. He earned a historical record score while winning the pre-novice title at the 2015 Skate Canada Challenge. A video of Gogolev landing a triple Axel at age ten was shared by his club in January 2015, followed by a video of him landing a quad Salchow in May 2015.

2015–2016 season
Moving up to the novice level, Gogolev again had a golden season. He won the Central Ontario sectional, the 2016 Skate Canada Challenge, and the 2016 Canadian novice titles. He earned another historical record score at the 2016 Challenge. At Nationals, he landed a triple Axel in his free skate and won by over 20 points. After Nationals, Orser spoke about Gogolev landing a quad Salchow in practice, and that he had been working on a quad toe loop while being mentored by fellow skater Javier Fernández. In his international debut in March 2016, he won the advanced novice men title at the 2016 Coupe du Printemps.

2016–2017 season
Competing at the junior level, Gogolev won every event in which he competed in Canada. He won the Central Ontario sectional, the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge, and the 2017 Canadian Championships junior titles. At Nationals, he came from behind to win the title over Conrad Orzel by a margin of four points. In February 2017, he won the advanced novice men title at the 2017 Bavarian Open. He attempted a quad Salchow for the first time in international competition at this event, having included it in his free skate this season.

2017–2018 season
Gogolev competed exclusively at the senior level this season. He won the inaugural Skate Ontario senior men provincial title. At the 2018 Skate Canada Challenge, Gogolev ranked seventh in the short program and fourth in the free skate to finish fourth overall. He was eleventh in the short program and ninth in the free skate at the 2018 Canadian Championships, and ended up tenth overall. Gogolev competed with a quad Salchow in his short and free programs and landed a quad toe loop for the first time in competition. Orser confirmed that he was able to land all the quadruple jumps. He was a member of Skate Canada's NextGen Team this season.

2018–2019 season
Gogolev was once again chosen to be part of Skate Canada's NextGen Team. In May 2018, he worked with choreographers Marie-France Dubreuil and Samuel Chouinard on an exhibition program for the upcoming season. He was assigned to compete at JGP Bratislava and JGP Canada. At the JGP Bratislava, Gogolev skated a clean short program to take the lead with a score of 77.67. In the free skate, he landed a quad Lutz, quad toe loop, and quad Salchow/triple toe combination to score 148.96 points. He was first in the free skate and won the gold medal. Gogolev became the first Canadian skater as well as the youngest skater to land a quad Lutz in competition. In his second JGP event in Richmond, Gogolev was less successful, finishing in fifth place while struggling with his jumps. He was named the first alternate to the Junior Grand Prix Final.



On November 4, 2018, Gogolev won another senior provincial title at the 2019 Skate Ontario Sectional Championships. Following the withdrawal of Andrew Torgashev from the Junior Grand Prix Final on November 12, Gogolev was added to the entry list as the sixth competitor. Gogolev placed second in the short program at the Final. In the free skate, he set a new junior world record score of 154.76 points, taking first place in the free skate to win the gold medal. His score of 233.58 points was also a new junior world record. He was the youngest winner of the men's competition at the Junior Grand Prix Final.

At the 2019 Canadian Championships, Gogolev, skating as a senior, performed a clean short program to take the lead with a score of 88.77 points. In the free skate, he popped his quad Lutz, but landed a clean quad toe loop as well as a quad Salchow in combination to earn a score of 164.79 points. He took the silver medal.

On January 20, 2019, Skate Canada announced that Gogolev was selected to represent Canada at the 2019 World Junior Championships. He skated cleanly in the short program, albeit with two jumping passes he described as "a little bit shaky", placing tenth. In the free program, he doubled his planned quad Lutz and fell on a triple Axel but scored 143.66 points, winning a small bronze medal in the free skate and moving up to fifth overall. He ended his competition season with a performance at the exhibition gala.

On March 14, Gogolev was added as a guest star in the Toronto and Hamilton shows of the 2019 Stars on Ice Canada tour.

2019–2020 season
In 2019, Gogolev began representing the Granite Club with coach Lee Barkell, while training in Irvine, California with Rafael Arutyunyan.

On July 2, 2019, it was announced that Gogolev became a member of Skate Canada's 2019–20 National Team. He was also included in the list of skaters forming Skate Canada's 2019–20 NextGen Team posted on July 15, 2019. Gogolev began his season with a win at the 2019 Glacier Falls Summer Classic. He was assigned to compete at 2019 JGP Lake Placid and 2019 JGP Croatia Cup.

Gogolev earned a new personal best short program score in Lake Placid. He came fifth in the free program after taking two falls. He won the silver medal.

At JGP Croatia Cup, Gogolev skated a clean short program to score 72.12 points and place sixth. In the free skate, he landed a quadruple Salchow and two triple Axels, one in combination, but singled two of his jumps. He scored 140.34 points to place fifth in the free skate and ranked fifth overall. Gogolev ended the Junior Grand Prix season with a final ranking of eighth and was named as the second alternate to the Junior Grand Prix Final.

Gogolev was named as one of Toronto's top 20 under 20 in the activists and athletes category by Post City's Streets of Toronto website.

Gogolev withdrew from the 40th Volvo Open Cup in October 2019. Subsequently, he withdrew from the 2020 Canadian Championships due to an injury on his right ankle. He had also experienced a growth spurt. On January 19, 2020, he was selected to represent Canada at the 2020 World Junior Championships. He was also assigned to the 2020 Bavarian Open, where he won the junior men's event.

At the 2020 World Junior Championships, Gogolev popped his planned triple Axel in the short program into a single, resulting in a score of 67.27 and a placement of eighteenth. In the free skate, he started off strong in the first half of his program, but had some trouble with the jumps in the second half, missing two combinations. He later explained that the tongue of his boot broke as he went to do the planned triple Lutz, prohibiting him from properly performing his remaining jump elements. He placed fourteenth in the free skate to move up to seventeenth overall.

2020–2021 season
Gogolev was named to Skate Canada's 2020–21 NextGen Team in May. On October 1, he was assigned to compete at 2020 Skate America, but he withdrew on October 7 due to an injury. Gogolev did not compete this season as he faced issues related to a growth cycle.

2021–2022 season
Gogolev was assigned to compete at the 2021 Warsaw Cup, his senior international debut. He placed fourteenth in the short program, eighth in the free program, and eleventh overall. In December, he won the 2022 Skate Canada Challenge senior men's title, placing first in both the short and free programs. On January 6, 2022, he withdrew from the 2022 Canadian Championships after testing positive for COVID-19.

Gogolev was assigned to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships on January 14. Scheduled to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, the championship was subsequently delayed from early March to mid-April and then relocated to Tallinn, Estonia, due to Bulgarian pandemic measures. Gogolev skated a clean short program, scoring 78.75 points and placing sixth. In the free skate, he scored 145.74 points and placed fifth.

2022–2023 season


On July 22, 2022, it was announced that Gogolev had been assigned to two Grand Prix events: 2022 Skate Canada International and 2022 NHK Trophy. He was named to the Canadian national team on July 25. He began his season at the 2022 Glacier Falls Summer Classic, where he debuted a new short program that he skated cleanly, scoring 88.68. He was assigned to the 2022 CS U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, where he placed sixth. At his Grand Prix debut in Mississauga at the 2022 Skate Canada International, Gogolev made errors in his short program and placed eleventh. He rallied back with a strong free skate, where he placed fifth, moving up to seventh overall. At 2022 NHK Trophy, Gogolev finished ninth in the short program, but came back in the free skate with a score of 152.01, placing seventh. He moved up to eighth with a season's best total score of 221.02.

At the 2023 Canadian Championships, Gogolev struggled with his short program, scoring 49.97 and placing seventeenth. He returned in the free skate, scoring 170.16 and placing first in the segment, rising to fourth overall. On January 15, he was assigned to compete at the 2023 Four Continents Championships. Gogolev invalidated a spin in the short program, scoring 72.82 and placing eleventh. In the free skate, he scored 136.94 and placed eleventh finishing thirteenth overall.

Gogolev was named to the Canadian team for the 2023 World Team Trophy in Tokyo. He finished twelfth of twelve skaters in the short program, making errors on all three jumping passes. He popped two jumps in the free skate, finishing eleventh in that segment, and said he had "mixed feelings" about the competition. Gogolev hoped to improve consistency going forward.

2023–2024 season
On July 5, Gogolev was named to the Canadian National team for 2023–2024. On August 18 he began his season at a Skate Ontario sectional event in Waterloo, debuting his new short program. He was added to the entry list for 2023 Autumn Classic International on August 21. He skated a clean short program in Montreal, earning a new personal best short program score of 86.25. He placed fifth in the free skate with a score of 147.01. His total score of 233.26 earned him a bronze medal, his first senior international medal.

Gogolev was assigned to two Grand Prix events this season. At 2023 Skate America he skated to seventh place in the short program, eleventh in the free skate, and eleventh overall. He was also assigned to 2023 Grand Prix de France the week of the event. In Angers he skated a clean short program, placing fifth with a score of 86.14. He placed tenth in the free skate with score of 142.60, placing seventh overall with a score of 228.74.

Programs

 * Program details mentioned at first occurrence

Competitive highlights

 * GP – Event of the ISU Grand Prix Series
 * JGP – Event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series
 * CS – Event of the ISU Challenger Series
 * WD – Withdrew from event
 * Medals at team events are awarded for the team results only. Individual placements at team events are listed in parentheses.