 Valova and Vasiliev in 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Oleg Kimovich Vasiliev | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1959-11-22)22 November 1959 (age 66) Leningrad,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] – 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Figure skating career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Soviet Union Russia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Oleg Kimovich Vasiliev (Russian:Олег Кимович Васильев; born 22 November 1959) is a Russian formerpair skater who competed internationally for theSoviet Union. With his then-wifeElena Valova, he is the1984 Olympic champion, 1988 Olympic silver medalist, and three-time World Champion (1983, 1985, 1988). Their coach throughout their career wasTamara Moskvina. After retiring from competition, Vasiliev became a coach, leading the pair ofTatiana Totmianina /Maxim Marinin to the 2006 Olympic title.
Vasiliev was born inLeningrad (modern-day Saint Petersburg),Russian SFSR, to parents Ludmila Konstantinovna Vasilieva, a nurse, and Kim Mikhailovich Vasiliev. He graduated from the Institute for Physical Culture in Saint Petersburg.[3]
Vasiliev moved toChicago,Illinois in December 1997.[3][2] He was married to Valova from 1984 to 1992.[1] He later married a Saint Petersburg resident named Valentina (divorced in 2000), with whom he has a daughter, Katia.[4][2] His first daughter was born circa 1994.[5]
Around 2013, Vasiliev married his third wife, Natalia,[5] who is from Moscow.[6] As of August 2016, the couple lives in Moscow with their daughter Varvara (born circa 2014).[5]
Vasiliev's parents decided to introduce him to skating when he was five because he had had pneumonia several times as a child and his doctor recommended an outdoor activity.[3][2] As a single skater, Vasiliev won a Junior national title.
CoachTamara Moskvina invited Vasiliev to switch topair skating several times before he agreed, at age 18.[3][2] Initially, he was physically ill-suited for the discipline and had much work to develop his muscles.[2] He and his first partner,Larisa Selezneva, argued incessantly and split after three months.[2] Moskvina then paired him withElena Valova, with whom he continued to train in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg).[3][2]
Valova/Vasiliev's breakthrough came in the 1982–83 season. They won bronze at thePrize of Moscow News, gold at the1982 Skate America, and then silver at the1983 European Championships. The pair concluded their season by winning theirfirst World title. They missed the 1983 national championships due to Vasiliev's broken jaw.[2]
In 1984, Valova/Vasiliev won theirfirst European title and then took gold at the1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The deaths of several Soviet government officials, including one during the Olympics, cast a pall over the Soviet team and the athletes were told not to show too much joy.[2] The pair took silver at their final event of the season, the1984 World Championships.
In 1985, the pair won gold at both theEuropean andWorld Championships but 1986 saw the emergence of the young Moscow pairEkaterina Gordeeva /Sergei Grinkov. Although Valova/Vasiliev were awarded gold at the1986 Europeans, they finished second to the Muscovites at both the1986 and1987 Worlds.
In their final amateur season, Valova/Vasiliev took silver at the1988 Winter Olympics behind Gordeeva/Grinkov but then prevailed over the reigning Olympic champions at the1988 World Championships. After winning their third World title, Valova/Vasiliev retired from ISU competition. After performing for a year inIgor Bobrin's ice theatre, they signed a U.S. contract – the first Soviets to do so without losing their citizenship.[2] The pair performed together in various shows and events until the end of 1997.[3][2]
Vasiliev was awarded theOrder of Friendship of Peoples.[7]
Vasiliev initially had no interest in coaching but changed his mind.[2] He coached one season for the Latvian federation and then about two years for the French federation nearParis.[2] Since 1998, Vasiliev has coached inChicago andSaint Petersburg.[2] During his time in the United States, he worked at the Oakton Ice Arena inPark Ridge, Illinois.[8] He has coached the following skaters:
He appeared in the sixth season of ice show contestIce Age.
(with Valova)
| Season | Short program[11][12] | Free skating[11][12] | Exhibition[11][12] |
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| 1987–88 |
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| 1986–87 | Georgian folk: |
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| 1985–86 |
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| 1984–85 |
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| 1983–84 |
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| 1982–83 |
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| 1981–82 | |||
| 1980–81 |
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| 1979–80 |
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| Programs[11][12] |
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| International[1][13] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 79–80 | 80–81 | 81–82 | 82–83 | 83–84 | 84–85 | 85–86 | 86–87 | 87–88 |
| Winter Olympics | 1st | 2nd | |||||||
| World Champ. | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | |||
| European Champ. | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 2nd | ||||
| Skate America | 3rd | 1st | |||||||
| NHK Trophy | 1st | ||||||||
| Nebelhorn Trophy | 1st | ||||||||
| Moscow News | 6th | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | ||||
| St. Gervais | 2nd | ||||||||
| National[14][15] | |||||||||
| Soviet Champ. | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | ||||||
| Event | 89–90 | 90–91 | 91–92 | 92–93 | 93–94 | 94–95 | 97–98 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Professional Champ. | 2nd | 4th | 4th | 4th | 3rd | ||
| World Challenge of Champions | 2nd | 5th | 4th | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| US Open | 5th | 2nd | 5th | ||||
| Masters Miko | 3rd | ||||||
| Canadian Professional Champ. | 4th | ||||||
| Legends | 2nd |
Media related toOleg Vassiliev at Wikimedia Commons
