Q&A Sara HURTADO & Kirill KHALIAVIN
It was a season like no other for Spanish ice dancers Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin. Following a three-month lockdown in Moscow, where they are based, Hurtado suffered a serious shoulder injury just weeks after returning to training in July. The subsequent surgery and rehabilitation kept her off the ice until December, which forced them to miss the Grand Prix in Russia, their only event of the year.
The 2021 World Championships would be their only competition of the season.
Where were you when the pandemic first began in March 2020?
Hurtado: I had a sponsor event with an energy company in Spain that supports female sports, so I found myself in Pontevedra (a city in the northwest) celebrating International Women’s Day, out in the open with many people gathered around doing activities.
The next day I went to Moscow and straight into quarantine at my home. First I had to stay for 15 days since I came from a foreign country and then I got the timing “just right” to have to stay home when the whole country went into lockdown.
So, in the end, I was home from March 9 until early July. To recall it now, I never thought I would live through anything like that. It was definitely a challenge to stay home alone, away from my family. I got through it and stayed sane and healthy and I think it was my biggest achievement of the whole COVID situation.
My wife and me were in Moscow preparing to become parents. Also, at the ice rink we were thinking
