Daniel Samohin

Daniel Samohin at the2019 Internationaux de France
Personal information
Native name	דניאל סמוכין
Born	(1998-03-12)March 12, 1998 (age 27) Tel Aviv, Israel
Home town	San Diego, California, United States
Height	1.76 m (5 ft9+1⁄2 in)
Figure skating career
Country	United States (since 2023)  Israel (2013–22)
Discipline	Men's singles
Coach	Igor Samohin
Skating club	Ice Holon Israel
Began skating	2003
HighestWS	16th (2016–17)
Medal record
Representing Israel Israeli Championships 2015 Holon Singles 2019 Holon Singles 2016 Holon Singles 2017 Holon Singles 2020 Holon Singles 2022 Holon Singles World Junior Championships 2016 Debrecen Singles

Daniel Samohin (Hebrew:דניאל סמוכין; born 12 March 1998) is an Israelifigure skater who currently competes for the US. He is the2016 World Junior champion, and has won twoISU Challenger Series medals, including a gold medal at the2015 U.S. International Classic. Samohin is one of the few skaters to have landed two quad jumps in a short program, three quads in a free program, and five quads in one competition. He was a member of theIsraeli delegation to the2018 Winter Olympics inPyeongchang, South Korea.

Samohin was born on March 12, 1998, inTel Aviv, Israel, is Jewish, and speaks two languages.^[1][2] His parents – Irina, a formerrhythmic gymnast, and Igor Samohin, a former figure skater who had competed internationally in pairs for the Soviet Union and who as a figure skating coach coached Israel's national team for five years in the 1990s – had arrived in Israel from Russia in 1996.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} He has a grandfather who lives in Russia, and a grandmother who lives in Israel.^[6] His brother, Stanislav, is7+1⁄2 years older and competed in figure skating for both Russia and Israel.^[8] When he was3+1⁄2 years old, Samohin moved with his mother to California in the United States, joining the rest of the family, who had moved earlier.^[3][5] His hometown isSan Diego, California.^[9]

Samohin began skating in 2003.^[1] His club is Ice Holon Israel.^[5] His father is his coach, and his mother has worked as his choreographer, as haveOlga Volozhinskaia andNikolai Morozov.^[5]

Samohin made his international debut in September 2013 at anISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) event in Mexico. He ranked sixth in the short program, and placed third in the free skate and was awarded the bronze medal, outscoring Canada'sNam Nguyen by 1.85 points. He finished fourth at his second JGP assignment, inOstrava, Czech Republic. In March 2014, he finished 12th at the2014 World Junior Championships inSofia, Bulgaria, having placed 17th in the short program and 10th in the free.

During the2014 JGP series, Samohin placed 8th inLjubljana, Slovenia and 16th inZagreb, Croatia. In September 2014, he debuted on the senior international level, finishing 11th at theNebelhorn Trophy, anISU Challenger Series (CS) event. After placing fourth at another CS event, theVolvo Open Cup, he took silver at a regular senior international, theTallinn Trophy, behind fellow IsraeliOleksii Bychenko. Ranked 12th in the short and 5th in the free, he finished 8th overall at the2015 World Junior Championships inTallinn, Estonia.

Samohin withdrew from a seniorGrand Prix event, the2015 Cup of China, in order to continue competing on the junior level. Competing in September at theJunior Grand Prix inColorado Springs, Colorado, he placed 7th in the short and second in the free; he won the silver medal, finishing almost 30 points behindNathan Chen of the United States and 3.49 ahead of Japan'sSota Yamamoto. Later that month, he won his first CS medal, outscoringKeiji Tanaka by 11.33 points to take gold at theU.S. International Classic.

After winning a silver medal at his second JGP event inLogroño, Spain, Samohin qualified for theJGP Final. His second CS medal, silver, came in October at the2015 Mordovian Ornament, where he scored 1.24 points less thanMaxim Kovtun. Samohin finished fifth at theJGP Final. His next event was the2016 European Figure Skating Championships, where he set a new personal best in the short program and finished 7th overall.

In March, Samohin won a gold medal at theWorld Junior Championships inDebrecen, Hungary, winning the Single Skating Championship.^[10] He ranked 9th in the short program, but moved up to win the title after a personal-best free skate in which he landed threequadruple jumps. Samohin was the first Israeli skater to medal at Junior Worlds, and the first to win anISU championship.^[11][12]

Samohin started his season off at the 2016 CS Autumn Classic International. He placed sixth overall. He then competed at the 2016 CS Finlandia Trophy where he finished thirteenth.Making his Grand Prix debut, Samohin placed 5th at the2016 Skate Canada International and 8th at the2016 Cup of China. In December, he won the silver medal behindOleksii Bychenko at the2016 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, having ranked first in the short program and 7th in the free skate.

Samohin's luggage containing his skates was mislaid by the airline and did not arrive with him at the2017 European Championships inOstrava, Czech Republic, so he tried a borrowed new pair of skates four hours before the short program.^[13][14][15] He placed 33rd in the short, and did not advance to the free skate. His skates were found two and a half weeks later.^[13] He ranked 16th in the short program, second in the free skate, and sixth overall at the2017 World Junior Championships inTaipei, Taiwan. He said that he was working on additional quads – loop, flip, and Lutz – but that they were not yet consistent for him.^[13]

In March 2017 he won the bronze medal at theCup of Tyrol inInnsbruck, Austria.^[9] He also won a bronze medal in the ISU CSMinsk Arena Ice Star 2017, inMinsk, Belarus.^[9]

Samohin withdrew from the2017 Skate America in November 2017, afterdislocating his left shoulder when he fell on a quad Salchow.^[16]

He competed forIsrael at the 2018 Winter Olympics inMen's Singles Figure Skating inPyeongchang, South Korea, at the age of 19.^[17] He came in 13th, with 251.44 points, additionally setting a personal best score of 170.75 in the free skate.^[18]

He finished 20th at Worlds after scoring 20th in the short program and 18th in the free skate.

Samohin started his season off at the2018 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy. Placing 7th in the short program and 6th in the free skate, he placed 6th overall, He then competed at the2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy where he finished 6th. He withdrew from the2018 CS Finlandia Trophy. In hisGrand Prix events, he placed 8th at2018 Skate Canada International and 10th at2018 Internationaux de France.^{[citation needed]}

Samohin began the season with a fifth-place finish at the2019 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, before placing tenth at the2019 Internationaux de France. Samohin withdrew from the2019 Rostelecom Cup after placing eleventh in the short program, citing injury.^[19] He won the silver medal at the Israeli championships, concluding his season.

With thecoronavirus pandemic leading to the ISU assigningGrand Prix events based primarily on training location, Samohin was assigned to the2020 Skate America following the withdrawal ofStephen Gogolev.^[20] He placed twelfth of twelve skaters at the event.^[21]

Samohin began the international season with two minor events, a fifth place finish at theSkating Club of Boston'sCranberry Cup before coming in seventh at the2021 U.S. International Classic. On theChallenger series, he placed eighteenth at the2021 CS Cup of Austria and twenty-third at the2021 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb.^[22]

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only atISU Championships. Previous ISU world best highlighted inbold.

• Personal best highlighted inbold.

Media related toDaniel Samohin at Wikimedia Commons

• Daniel Samohin at theInternational Skating Union
• Daniel Samohin atOlympics.com
• Daniel Samohin atOlympedia
• Daniel Samohin onInstagram

• 1998 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Israeli Jews
• Sportspeople from Tel Aviv
• Israeli male single skaters
• Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent
• Figure skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics
• Olympic figure skaters for Israel
• Jewish Israeli sportspeople
• World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists
• Israeli expatriates in the United States
• 21st-century Israeli sportsmen

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Hebrew-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019
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