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Gleb Smolkin

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Gleb Smolkin
Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin at the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final
Full nameGleb Borisovich Smolkin
Native nameГлеб Борисович Смолкин
Born (1999-08-27) August 27, 1999 (age 25)
St. Petersburg, Russia
HometownAlexandria, Virginia,
United States
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Figure skating career
Country Georgia (since 2023)
 Russia (2018–23)
DisciplineIce dance
PartnerDiana Davis (since 2018)
CoachMarie-France Dubreuil
Romain Haguenauer
Patrice Lauzon
Pascal Denis
Josée Piché
Began skating2003
Medal record
Representing  Russia
Russian Championships
Silver medal – second place 2022 Saint Petersburg Ice dance

Gleb Borisovich Smolkin (Russian: Глеб Борисович Смолкин, born 27 August 1999) is a Russian ice dancer who currently represents Georgia. Representing Russia with his partner, Diana Davis, he is the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup champion and the 2022 Russian national silver medalist.

On the junior level, Davis/Smolkin are the 2020 Russian junior national bronze medalists, finished in the top five at the 2020 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, and competed at the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Personal life

[edit]

Smolkin was born on 27 August 1999 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He is the son of Russian actor Boris Smolkin [ru] and his wife Svetlana. He has one half-brother, Vladimir. As of 2022, Gleb is married to his skating partner Diana Davis.

During a hiatus from figure skating in 2014, Smolkin briefly played professional beach soccer as a member of the BSC Lokomotiv Moscow team.[1]

Career

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Early years

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Smolkin began learning how to skate in 2004. He competed as a single skater until the 2014–15 season when he took a year-long hiatus from the sport. He returned to figure skating in November 2015 to compete as an ice dancer with his first partner, Ekaterina Mironova. The team competed together until spring of 2016 before parting ways. During the 2016–17 season Smolkin teamed up with Svetlana Lizunova, but the partnership was short-lived and lasted only a season before Smolkin began competing with his current partner, Diana Davis, coached by Svetlana Alexeeva and her team in Moscow.[1]

2018–19 season: Junior international debut

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Davis/Smolkin made their junior international debut in September 2018 at the 2018 JGP Croatia. The team finished third overall at the event behind Russian teammates Khudaiberdieva/Nazarov in first and Georgian competitors Kazakova/Reviya in second, but despite their podium placement did not receive a second JGP assignment.[2]

The team competed three more times internationally during the season, finishing third in the junior event at the 2018 Volvo Open Cup and second at both the 2018 Tallinn Trophy (junior) and the 2018 Russian-Chinese Youth Winter Games. At the 2019 Russian Junior Figure Skating Championships in February, they finished ninth.[2]

2019–20 season

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In the summer before the start of the season, Davis and Smolkin relocated their training base from Moscow to Novi, Michigan to work with Igor Shpilband and Pasquale Camerlengo. The team opened their season in August at the 2019 JGP United States where they won the silver medal behind American training-mates Nguyen/Kolesnik. At their second assignment, 2019 JGP Russia, the team again finished second overall, this time behind fellow Russian competitors Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy, and with 26 qualifying points they advanced to the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final. The team competed just once more before the Junior Grand Prix Final, taking the junior title at the 2019 Volvo Open Cup.[3]

At the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final, Davis/Smolkin entered the competition as the bottom seeded team and had a disappointing outing, finishing sixth in both segments of competition and sixth overall. However, they regrouped in the interim between the Final and the 2020 Russian Junior Championships and managed to earn the bronze medal at junior nationals, earning a spot on Russian team for the 2020 World Junior Championships. Competing at Junior Worlds, Davis/Smolkin scored personal bests in both segments of competition as well as overall, and finished in fifth.[3]

2020–21 season

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After Davis sustained an ankle fracture in July 2020, her long-term recovery and a subsequent illness delayed Davis/Smolkin's return to full-time training.[4] They did not compete at the 2021 Russian Junior Championships in January, but planned to return to Russia for the Russian Cup Final in March.[5] At the Russian Cup Final, Davis/Smolkin placed first in both the rhythm dance and the free dance to take the junior title by a margin of about 5 points over silver medalists Kaganovskaia/Angelopol. They retained their Aristocats rhythm dance from the season prior, but debuted a new free dance to selections from the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge!.

2021–22 season: Senior international debut and Beijing Olympics

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Davis/Smolkin received their first senior-level Grand Prix assignment to the 2021 Skate Canada International, which was not without controversy in Russia as both they and the Morozov/Bagin, another team with political pull with the Russian Figure Skating Federation, received invitations, while other teams with higher rankings did not.[6] In order to guarantee admission to Canada during the pandemic, both were vaccinated with the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine in addition to having previously received Russia's own Sputnik V vaccine.[7] The team debuted their programs for the Olympic season at the 2021 senior Russian test skates in September.[8]

Davis/Smolkin made their senior international debut the week after test skates at the 2021 U.S. International Classic in Norwood, Massachusetts. At the event, the team won the silver medal behind American team Hubbell/Donohue.[3] Going on to the Grand Prix, they placed fifth at Skate Canada International with new personal bests in both segments and overall.[9] 

Following their stint on the Grand Prix circuit, Davis/Smolkin competed at back-to-back ISU Challenger Series events in November. At the 2021 CS Cup of Austria, they finished just off the podium in fourth and set new personal bests in both segments of competition, as well as overall. Davis/Smolkin then competed at the 2021 CS Warsaw Cup, where they won their first international title. They upgraded their three new personal bests previously set at Cup of Austria the week before to take the gold medal ahead of Japanese team Muramoto/Takahashi in second, and American team Green/Parsons in third.[3]

At their first senior Russian Championships in December, Davis/Smolkin controversially placed third in the rhythm dance ahead of longtime Russian number three team Zahorski/Guerreiro, outscoring them in the segment by over five points. In the free dance, Davis/Smolkin were able to capitalize on the withdrawal of top Russian team Sinitsina/Katsalapov due to injury and advance to second in the segment. They took the silver medal behind new national champions Stepanova/Bukin. Their placement was, again, not without controversy, with even bronze medalist Egor Bazin questioning the fairness of the scoring. As a result of their placement, Davis/Smolkin were assigned to the 2022 European Championships as one of three dance teams representing Russia.[10]

Davis/Smolkin made their European Championships debut in January in Tallinn, Estonia. They placed eighth in the rhythm dance and seventh in the free dance to place seventh overall. When asked about the controversies surrounding their national placements, Smolkin remarked "after the Russian nationals, we stopped paying attention to all that. We let the redundant things go."[11]

Davis/Smolkin were officially named to the Russian team for the 2022 Winter Olympics on 20 January.[12] Competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics dance event, they placed fourteenth in the rhythm dance. Afterward the team rebuffed queries from reporters about a burgeoning doping scandal involving Kamila Valieva, a student of Davis' mother Eteri Tutberidze.[13] Davis/Smolkin held their standing of fourteenth place in the free dance to finish fourteenth overall in their Olympic debut.[14]

Release from Russia and transition to representing Georgia

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Davis/Smolkin, along with their Russian compatriots, were barred from international competition indefinitely by the International Skating Union on 1 March 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The team chose to remain in the United States rather than return to Russia to compete domestically during the 2022–23 season, sparking rumors that they planned to transition to representing the U.S. as Davis is a dual citizen. Speculation was further fueled by the revelation that Davis and Smolkin wed on 18 March 2022, and were working towards attaining a green card for Smolkin.[15] The team, along with Russian Figure Skating Federation spokesperson Olga Ermolina, denied that they would discontinue representing Russia.[16] However, this changed on 5 June 2023 when it was announced that Davis/Smolkin had been released by the Russian Figure Skating Federation and would continue their ice dance career representing Georgia.[17] Davis is of Georgian heritage through her maternal grandparents.

2023–24 season: Debut for Georgia

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Davis/Smolkin began their career under the Georgian flag with a victory at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International. On the Challenger circuit, they won the silver medal at the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial, before taking gold at both the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial and the 2023 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.[3]

Making their European Championship debut for Georgia at the 2024 edition in Kaunas, coming eighth.[18] They went on to finish twelfth at the 2024 World Championships.[3]

2024–2025 season

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Davis and Smolkin started their season at the 2024 Skate America. They scored 73.16 in the rhythm dance and ranked in third place. They ranked fourth in the free dance and fourth overall, missing the podium by 4.56 points. One week later they won the silver at the 2024 Nepela Memorial. Going on to compete at the 2024 Cup of China, the team finished the event in eighth place.[19]

Programs

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With Davis

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Season Rhythm dance Free dance Exhibition
2024–25
[20]
2023–24
[21]
2021–22
[22]
2020–21
2019–20
[23]
2018–19
[24]

Competitive highlights

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Ice dance with Diana Davis (for Georgia)

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Competition placements at senior level [19]
Season 2023–24 2024–25
World Championships 12th
European Championships 8th
GP Cup of China 8th
GP Skate America 4th
CS Budapest Trophy 1st
CS Denis Ten Memorial 1st
CS Golden Spin of Zagreb 2nd
CS Nepela Memorial 2nd 2nd
Lake Placid Ice Dance 1st

Ice dance with Diana Davis (for Russia)

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Competition placements at senior level [25]
Season 2021–22
Winter Olympics 14th
European Championships 7th
Russian Championships 2nd
GP Skate Canada 5th
CS Cup of Austria 4th
CS Warsaw Cup 1st
U.S. Classic 2nd
Competition placements at junior level [25]
Season 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21
World Junior Championships 5th
Junior Grand Prix Final 6th
Russian Championships 9th 3rd
JGP Czech Republic 3rd
JGP Russia 2nd
JGP United States 2nd
Russian–Chinese Winter Youth Games 2nd
Russian Cup 2nd 1st
Tallinn Trophy 2nd
Volvo Open Cup 3rd 1st

Detailed results

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Ice dance with Diana Davis

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ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE System [19]
Segment Type Score Event
Total TSS 201.87 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
Rhythm dance TSS 80.32 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
TES 45.88 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
PCS 34.44 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
Free dance TSS 121.55 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
TES 68.25 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
PCS 53.30 2024 CS Nepela Memorial

For Georgia

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Results in the 2023-24 season [19]
Date Event RD FD Total
P Score P Score P Score
Aug 1–2, 2023 United States 2023 Lake Placid Ice Dance International 2 74.35 1 117.47 1 191.82
Sep 28–30, 2023 Slovakia 2023 CS Nepela Memorial 2 77.62 4 111.32 2 188.94
Oct 13–15, 2023 Hungary 2023 CS Budapest Trophy 1 75.21 1 116.63 1 191.84
Nov 1–4, 2023 Kazakhstan 2023 CS Denis Ten Memorial Challenge 1 76.56 1 116.11 1 192.67
Jan 10–14, 2024 Lithuania 2024 European Championships 7 76.33 8 113.13 8 189.46
Mar 18–24, 2024 Canada 2024 World Championships 12 74.46 14 113.88 12 188.34
Results in the 2024-25 season [19]
Date Event RD FD Total
P Score P Score P Score
Oct 18-20, 2024 United States 2024 Skate America 3 73.16 4 113.89 4 113.89
Oct 24-26, 2024 Czech Republic 2024 CS Nepela Memorial 2 80.32 2 121.55 2 201.87
Nov 22–24, 2024 China 2024 Cup of China 8 70.53 7 111.79 8 182.32
Dec 4–7, 2024 Croatia 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb 3 70.62 2 107.97 2 178.59

For Russia

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Senior level
2021–22 season
Date Event RD FD Total
February 12–14, 2022 2022 Winter Olympics 14
71.66 		14
108.16 		14
179.82
January 10–16, 2022 2022 European Championships 8
73.32 		7
113.29 		7
186.61
December 21–26, 2021 2022 Russian Championships 3
83.99 		2
123.71 		2
207.70
November 17–20, 2021 2021 CS Warsaw Cup 1
81.30 		1
118.60 		1
199.90
November 11–14, 2021 2021 CS Cup of Austria 4
73.37 		4
111.25 		4
184.62
October 29–31, 2021 2021 Skate Canada International 7
70.66 		5
109.91 		5
180.57
September 15–18, 2021 2021 U.S. International Classic 2
75.21 		2
115.42 		2
190.63
Junior level
2020–21 season
Date Event RD FD Total
Feb. 26 – Mar. 2, 2021 2021 Russian Cup Final 1
74.22 		1
112.16 		1
186.38
2019–2020 season
Date Event RD FD Total
March 2–8, 2020 2020 World Junior Championships 5
66.53 		5
98.69 		5
165.22
February 4–8, 2020 2020 Russian Junior Championships 3
70.91 		3
110.06 		3
180.97
December 5–8, 2019 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final 6
59.89 		6
92.32 		6
152.21
November 5–10, 2019 2019 Volvo Open Cup 1
68.00 		1
99.17 		1
167.17
September 11–14, 2019 2019 JGP Russia 2
64.79 		3
93.45 		2
158.24
August 28–31, 2019 2019 JGP United States 2
62.12 		2
98.05 		2
160.17
2018–2019 season
Date Event RD FD Total
Jan. 31 – Feb. 4, 2019 2019 Russian Junior Championships 9
60.31 		9
93.78 		9
154.09
February 20–23, 2019 2018 Russian-Chinese Youth Winter Games 1
61.15 		2
94.05 		2
155.20
Nov. 25 – Dec. 2, 2018 2019 Tallinn Trophy 2
62.16 		2
89.00 		2
151.16
November 6–11, 2018 2018 Volvo Open Cup 3
61.78 		3
92.65 		3
154.43
September 26–29, 2018 2018 JGP Czech Republic 3
56.55 		3
92.07 		3
148.62

References

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  1. ^ a b "Глеб Борисович Смолкин" [Gleb Borisovich Smolkin] (in Russian). fskate.ru. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Gleb SMOLKIN". Rink Results.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: Competition Results". International Skating Union.
  4. ^ "2021 Russian Junior Championships". International Figure Skating Magazine. 21 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Дочь Тутберидзе с партнером планируют выступить в финале Кубка России" [Tutberidze's daughter and partner plan to compete in the final of the Cup of Russia]. Sport24 (in Russian). 27 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Жук и Свинин поддержали фигуристов Шевченко и Еременко" [Zhuk and Svinin supported the skaters Shevchenko and Eremenko] (in Russian). RSport. July 3, 2021.
  7. ^ "Дочь Этери Тутберидзе привилась двумя вакцинами от коронавируса: российской и американской" [Daughter of Eteri Tutberidze took two vaccines against coronavirus: Russian and American] (in Russian). Championat. September 12, 2021.
  8. ^ "КОНТРОЛЬНЫЕ ПРОКАТЫ. ЧЕЛЯБИНСК. 2021" [CONTROL RENTALS. CHELYABINSK. 2021] (in Russian). fsrussa.ru. 13 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  9. ^ Slater, Paula (October 31, 2021). "Gilles and Poirier win second consecutive Skate Canada title". Golden Skate.
  10. ^ Flade, Tatjana (December 24, 2021). "Stepanova and Bukin win second national title after Sinitsina and Katsalapov drop out". Golden Skate.
  11. ^ Slater, Paula (January 15, 2022). "Sinitsina and Katsalapov defend European title". Golden Skate.
  12. ^ Velichko, Maria (20 January 2022). "Мозалев, Дэвис и Смолкин, Щербакова, Трусова, Валиева вошли в состав сборной России по фигурному катанию на Олимпиаду в Пекине" [Mozalev, Davis and Smolkin, Shcherbakova, Trusova, Valieva became part of the Russian figure skating team for the Beijing Olympics] (in Russian). sports.ru.
  13. ^ Ho, Sally (February 12, 2022). "Russia's Davis mum on mom's role in Olympic doping case". ABC News.
  14. ^ Penny, Brandon (February 13, 2022). "How the free dance transpired and determined Olympic ice dance medalists". NBC Sports.
  15. ^ "Gleb Smolkin: "When what happened in February happened, we immediately applied for my green card"". FS Gossips. December 1, 2022.
  16. ^ Radnofsky, Louise (August 7, 2022). "The Question Gripping Figure Skating: Will the Daughter of Russia's Notorious Coach Come in From the Cold?". Wall Street Journal.
  17. ^ "Чайковская сообщила, что фигуристам Дэвис и Смолкину разрешили перейти в сборную Грузии" [Chaikovskaya announced that figure skaters Davis and Smolkin were allowed to move to the Georgian national team] (in Russian). TASS. June 5, 2023.
  18. ^ Slater, Paula (January 13, 2024). "Guignard and Fabbri win second consecutive European title". Golden Skate. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  19. ^ a b c d e "GEO–Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin". SkatingScores.com.
  20. ^ "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: 2024/2025". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 6 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: 2023/2024". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023.
  22. ^ "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021.
  23. ^ "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: 2019/2020". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020.
  24. ^ "Diana DAVIS / Gleb SMOLKIN: 2018/2019". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 19 March 2019.
  25. ^ a b "RUS–Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin". SkatingScores.com.
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