Maria PETROVA + Alexei TIKHONOV
Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov Captured more than medals and titles during their nine-year competitive career. Their warm and personable approach made them fan favorites around the globe, and more than a few tears were shed when the Russian duo announced they were hanging up their competitive skates in 2007.
Theirs was a pairing few expected would ever rise to the top of the world. When Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov teamed up in 1998 at ages 20 and 26, respectively, both had tasted success at various levels with different partners
Petrova’s career first blossomed in the junior ranks. Paired with Anton Sikharulidze in the early 1990s, the duo won back-to-back World Junior titles in 1994 and 1995. Sikharulidze ended the partnership in 1996 to skate with Elena Berezhnaia.
Tikhonov and his first partner, Irina Saifutdinova, claimed bronze at the 1989 World Junior Championships skating under the Soviet flag. The partnership ended when Saifutdinova decided to marry and leave the sport. With his next partner, Yukiko Kawasaki, Tikhonov won the 1993 and 1994 Japanese national titles, and a bronze medal at 1993 NHK Trophy. Although he loved the country, Tikhonov found it lonely living in Japan because he did not speak the language.
That partnership ended in 1994, and Tikhonov spent the next four years performing in Tatiana Tarasova’s ice theatre productions and touring with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s shows.
Dissatisfied with how his amateur career had ended, Tikhonov began looking for a new partner. In 1998, he teamed up with Petrova and
