Ekaterina Kurakova


Ekaterina Andreevna Kurakova is a Russian-Polish figure skater who currently competes for Poland. She is the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup champion, the 2019 Mentor Toruń Cup champion, a two-time Four Nationals champion, and a two-time Polish national champion.

Personal life

Kurakova was born on June 24, 2002, in Moscow. She became a Polish citizen in October 2019.

Career

Early career

Kurakova began learning to skate in 2006. She was coached first by Natalia Dubinskaya and later by Inna Goncharenko at CSKA Moscow. Representing Russia, she competed internationally in the advanced novice category for two seasons beginning in 2013–14 and then as a junior for two seasons.
In the summer of 2017, Kurakova decided to represent Poland and began training in Toruń, coached by Sylwia Nowak-Trębacka. After receiving financial support from an unpublicized sponsor, she decided to move to Toronto to train under Brian Orser at the Toronto Cricket Club, beginning in December 2018. Later that month, she won the Four National Championships in Budapest, thus becoming the 2019 Polish national champion. However, due to the recent change of her country of representation, she was unable to compete in any ISU events until after June 2019.

2019–2020 season

On July 1, 2019 Kurakova received her clearance certificate, allowing her to officially represent Poland in international figure skating competitions and ISU championships.
In her international senior debut at the Minto Summer Skate in Ontario, Canada she placed first, scoring overall 182.77 points. She then competed at two ISU Junior Grand Prix events, placing fifth in Riga and seventh in Gdańsk. In November, she won gold at the 2019 CS Warsaw Cup, ahead of Bradie Tennell. In December, she defended her national title at the Four National Championships in Ostrava.
Kurakova competed at her first European Championships in January, placing tenth. She finished the season at the 2020 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, where she placed seventh. Kurakova remarked afterward "I'm so happy, because we did hard work with Brian and it was important for me to show what Brian made for me. I’m really grateful to my coaches and parents." She was scheduled to make her senior World Championship debut in Montreal, but this was prevented by the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Programs

Competitive highlights

CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

For Poland

For Russia

Detailed results