FACTOIDS
Full Name: Aliona Savchenko
Nickname: Aliona
Birthday: January 19, 1984
Height: 5’0”
Hometown: Kiev, Ukraine
Sports: Figure Skating
Profile
For the first time since the retirement of 1997 World pairs champions Mandy Wotzel and Ingo Steuer from competitive skating, Germany has a top pairs team which can compete for the medals at the European Championships. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy reached fourth place at the 2004 European Championships in Torino, Italy in January. This was their first ISU championship competition together since Savchenko just became eligible to compete for Germany this season after moving from the Ukraine to Germany in 2003.
But Savchenko is no stranger to the podium at international competitions. With her former partner, Stanislav Morozov, she won the 2000 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in pairs. The duo also finished as high as sixth at Europeans in 2001, ninth at Worlds in 2001, and 15th at the Olympics in 2002. Szolkowy was not quite as successful on the international scene with his previous partners. He finished ninth at World Juniors with Claudia Rauschenbach in 2001, but never competed at Europeans or Worlds before teaming with Savchenko.
After her partner retired in 2002, Savchenko wanted to continue skating and sought another partner. "I always wanted to skate in Germany," Savchenko said. "So I told a German journalist that I was looking for a new partner. He asked some German coaches and told me about Robin. I knew him already from the Junior Worlds where I came first and he came tenth. So I told my mother there was a dark boy in Germany that wanted to skate with me and I knew him and thought it might be a good match" Szolkowy had thought his pairs career was over after his partner left and was actually skating synchro when he got the offer to try out with Savchenko.
