Gennadi Karponosov


Gennadi Mikhailovich Karponosov is an ice dancing coach and a former competitive ice dancer for the Soviet Union. With Natalia Linichuk, he is the 1980 Olympic champion and a two-time World champion.

Competitive career

Gennadi Karponosov began skating because Alexei Ulanov was his neighbor. He initially competed with Elena Zharkova under coach Tatiana Tarasova but had greater success with his second partner, Natalia Linichuk.
Linichuk and Karponosov were coached by Elena Tchaikovskaia at Dynamo in Moscow. They won the World Universiade in 1972, and won the bronze medal at the 1974 and 1977 World Championships. They were fourth at the 1976 Winter Olympics, the year ice dancing was introduced as an Olympic sport.
They won the bronze medals at the European Figure Skating Championships from 1974 through 1977 and a silver medal in 1978. Linichuk and Karponosov won the world championship in 1978 and 1979 and the European Championships in 1979 and 1980.
Linichuk and Karponosov won the 1980 Olympics, but failed to defend their World title, making them the only team ever to unsuccessfully defend a World title after winning the Olympics. In 1981, Linichuk and Karponosov retired from competition.

Coaching career

After coaching in Moscow, Linichuk and Karponosov accepted an offer to coach in the U.S. They moved with their students in June 1994 and coached at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. In September 2007, they moved to the Ice Works Skating Complex in Aston, Pennsylvania.
Their current and former senior-level students include:
Their current and former junior-level students include:
Karponosov studied international relations at the Public Institute Moscow. Linichuk accepted Karponosov's proposal after they retired from competition. They were married on 31 July 1981. Their daughter, Anastasiya Karponosova, was born in February 1985. The couple initially lived in Moscow and then moved to the United States in the early '90s. In 2001, Karponosov, who is Jewish, was admitted to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Competitive highlights

With Linichuk

With Zharkova

Navigation