Margarita Drobiazko
Drobiazko and Vanagas in 2024
Born	(1971-12-21)21 December 1971 (age 53) Moscow,Russian SFSR,Soviet Union
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Lithuania
Partner	Povilas Vanagas
Skating club	Sports School Baltu Ainiai
Began skating	1977
Retired	2002, 2006
Medal record Figure skating Ice dancing Representing Lithuania World Championships 2000 Nice Ice dancing European Championships 2006 Lyon Ice dancing 2000 Vienna Ice dancing Grand Prix Final 2001–2002 Kitchener Ice dancing 2000–2001 Tokyo Ice dancing 1999–2000 Lyon Ice dancing

Margarita Aleksandrovna Drobiazko (Russian:Маргарита Александровна Дробязко; born 21 December 1971) is a Russian retiredice dancer. She began competing for Lithuania in 1992 when she teamed up withPovilas Vanagas. With Vanagas, she is the2000 World bronze medalist, a three-timeGrand Prix Final bronze medalist, a two-timeEuropean bronze medalist (2000, 2006), the1999 Skate Canada champion, and competed in fiveWinter Olympics, finishing as high as 5th.

Drobiazko began skating at age six – she became interested after seeing children learning to skate at an outdoor rink.^[1] She convinced her mother, who wanted her to become a ballerina, to let her try skating.^[1] At age 12, she took upice dancing and was coached first byNatalia Linichuk and thenNatalia Dubova.^[1] She initially competed with Oleg Granionov for Russia.^[2][3]

Drobiazko was paired with Lithuanian skaterPovilas Vanagas byTatiana Tarasova in Moscow.^[1] After the breakup of the Soviet Union, they decided to representLithuania. Vanagas said, "It was difficult at the beginning because there was a lot offriction between Russia and Lithuania. Since Rita is Russian, it caused many problems."^[1] They moved toKaunas, Lithuania and began training with Elena Maslennikova.^[1] In 1995, they began working also in England withBetty Callaway,Jayne Torvill, andChristopher Dean.^[1]

In 1999, Drobiazko and Vanagas began spending time withElena Tchaikovskaia in Moscow, while continuing to work with Maslennikova in Kaunas.^[1] They were also coached by Lilija Vanagiene and Anatoliy Petukhov.^[2][4] Drobiazko and Vanagas retired from competition following the 2001–2002 Olympic season, but returned to competition in 2005 to compete at their fifth Olympics.^[5] In preparation for the 2005–2006 season, they worked with Maslennikova,Rostislav Sinicyn,Igor Shpilband,Marina Zueva, Gintaras Svistunavicius, and David Liu, in the United States, Germany, Russia, and Lithuania.^[5] Drobiazko and Vanagas became the first and only figure skaters to compete atfive Olympics. They retired again in 2006 following the World Championships.

Their choreographers included Elena Maslennikova,^[1][6]Jayne Torvill andChristopher Dean,^[1] Elena Tchaikovskaia,^[1] Tatiana Pomerantseva,^[4] Elena Kholina,^[4] Yuri Puzakov,^[4] Vasily Kleimenov,^[2] and Gintaras Svistunavicius.^[5][6]

She appeared in the 1-7 seasons of ice show contestIce Age.

Drobiazko was born inMoscow, but lived inMagadan, the Russian far north-east, until the age of six.^[2] Since the Olympics require citizenship of the country represented, Drobiazko obtained Lithuanian citizenship in 1993.^[7] She has been married to Vanagas since June 2000.^[6][8][9]

In the summer of 2022, during theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Drobiazko played a role in a balletSwan Lake on ice with Vanagas inSochi that was organized by former Olympic championTatiana Navka. On 10 August 2022, Lithuania's presidentGitanas Nausėda signed a decree stripping off theOrder of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas from both skaters.^[10]

On 15 September 2023, Lithuania's presidentGitanas Nausėda signed a decree stripping Margarita Drobiazko of her Lithuanian citizenship due to her "public support for theRussian Federation during the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine".^{[11][12][13][14]}

(with Povilas Vanagas)

(ice dance withPovilas Vanagas)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMargarita Drobiazko.

• Drobiazko & Vanagas – Official website
• Margarita Drobiazko / Povilas Vanagas at theInternational Skating Union
• Care to Ice Dance? – Drobiazko & Vanagas

• 1971 births
• Living people
• European Figure Skating Championships medalists
• Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics
• Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics
• Figure skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics
• Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics
• Figure skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics
• Lithuanian female ice dancers
• Lithuanian people of Russian descent
• Olympic figure skaters for Lithuania
• Figure skaters from Moscow
• World Figure Skating Championships medalists
• Winter World University Games medalists in figure skating
• FISU World University Games silver medalists for Lithuania
• Competitors at the 1993 Winter Universiade

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1 uses Russian-language script (ru)
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
• CS1 Lithuanian-language sources (lt)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages using infobox figure skater with unknown parameters
• Articles containing Russian-language text
• Commons category link is on Wikidata