59 Facts About Yulia Lipnitskaya

Yulia Vyacheslavovna Lipnitskaya is a Russian retired competitive figure skater.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was part of the Russian team to win the 2014 Winter Olympics team trophy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya retired from the professional sport on 9 September 2017 due to complications with ligaments of the legs and hip joints, as well as anorexia.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is the youngest Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is the youngest woman figure skater to win a gold medal at the Olympics under modern rules.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was 15 years, 249 days old when Russia won the team trophy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was born on 5 June 1998 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began training at age four, when her mother convinced the experienced skating coach Elena Levkovets to accept her as a student.

Yulia Lipnitskaya skated in Yekaterinburg until 2009, when she and her mother began to discuss her future, concluding that they should either relocate for the purposes of her skating career or leave the sport.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was fourth on the senior level the following season at the 2011 Russian Championships.

Yulia Lipnitskaya competed at the 2011 Russian Junior Championships but withdrew from the competition after the short program.

Yulia Lipnitskaya debuted on the Junior Grand Prix series at the JGP Baltic Cup in Gdansk, Poland, winning both programs to take the gold medal.

Yulia Lipnitskaya then won her second assignment in Milan, Italy, to qualify for the JGP Final.

At the JGP Final in Quebec, Yulia Lipnitskaya placed first in both segments to win the gold medal.

Yulia Lipnitskaya won silver on the senior level at the 2012 Russian Championships, having placed third in the short program and first in the free skate, and later took gold at the 2012 Russian Junior Championships.

Yulia Lipnitskaya became age-eligible for some senior events but not the World or European Championships.

Yulia Lipnitskaya made her senior debut at the 2012 Finlandia Trophy where she won the gold medal.

Yulia Lipnitskaya had some boot problems early in the season.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed first in the short program and third in the free skate and won the bronze medal behind teammate Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.

Yulia Lipnitskaya returned to competition at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships and finished in 5th place.

Yulia Lipnitskaya then competed at the 2013 World Junior Championships where she won the silver medal with teammates Elena Radionova and Anna Pogorilaya taking the gold and bronze medals respectively.

Yulia Lipnitskaya selected all the music for her programs by herself.

Yulia Lipnitskaya chose the theme from Schindler's List for her free skate after she had watched the film many times.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began her season by winning the gold medal at the 2013 Finlandia Trophy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed second in the short program and first in the free skate, winning gold with 198.23 points in total.

Yulia Lipnitskaya won another gold medal at the 2013 Rostelecom Cup with a new personal best SP score of 72.24 points.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is Russia's youngest medalist at the Final since Irina Slutskaya.

Yulia Lipnitskaya won the silver medal behind Adelina Sotnikova at the 2014 Russian Championships, after placing second in the short and first in the free.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was selected for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed first in both segments to help team Russia win the gold medal.

Yulia Lipnitskaya became the youngest Olympic gold medalist under modern rules, being six days younger than American Tara Lipinski was when she won the 1998 Winter Olympics at 15 in Nagano, Japan.

The only skater younger than Yulia Lipnitskaya to have won gold is Maxi Herber who won Olympic pair skating gold at the 1936 Winter Olympics, however Herber would have been too young to skate at the Olympics under modern rules, so her record is impossible to beat.

On 10 February 2014, Yulia Lipnitskaya appeared on the cover of Time magazine in the European and Asian editions.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed third in the short with a new personal best score of 74.54 points after executing a clean short program.

Yulia Lipnitskaya landed a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination, a triple flip and a double Axel and earned level fours on all her spins and her steps sequence.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed second in the free skate earning 132.96 points, and won the silver medal at her first Senior World Championships appearance at the age of 15 years.

At the Cup of China, Yulia Lipnitskaya was first after the short program.

Yulia Lipnitskaya missed the medal ceremony after having left the rink to go to her hotel due to the stress of having a poor freeskate and having been unaware of the time of the ceremony.

Yulia Lipnitskaya had received a call from the event organizers, informing her of the ceremony and hurried back to the rink, but it had been too late to attend the ceremony.

Yulia Lipnitskaya won the silver medal at the Trophee Bompard behind compatriot Elena Radionova after placing second in both segments.

Yulia Lipnitskaya was not selected to compete at the 2015 European Championships, preventing her from defending her title, nor at the 2015 World Championships.

On 13 January 2015, after a meeting with FFKKR officials, Yulia Lipnitskaya stated that this season was over for her and that she would recover and train for the next season.

Yulia Lipnitskaya told that she intended to stay with her then-coaches.

In May 2015 Yulia Lipnitskaya started working with new choreographer Marina Zueva in Chicago to prepare her programs for new season.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began her season with a 2nd-place finish at 2015 Finlandia Trophy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya placed fifth at 2015 Skate America during the short program but dropped to seventh after struggles in the free skate, resulting in an overall 6th place.

Yulia Lipnitskaya competed at the 2016 Russian Cup Final, where she placed 1st in the short program, and 2nd in the freeskate, resulting in a silver medal finish behind compatriot Alena Leonova.

Yulia Lipnitskaya competed between 11 and 13 March at 2016 Cup of Tyrol in Insbruck, Austria, in which she won the gold medal, her first win at a competition in two years.

Yulia Lipnitskaya began her season by placing second at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial, to teammate Maria Sotskova.

Yulia Lipnitskaya opted to compete at her second Grand Prix assignment, the 2016 Rostelecom Cup.

Yulia Lipnitskaya then suffered one fall, and earned 79.21 points, making for a total score of 148.46, thereby finishing in 12th and last place.

Yulia Lipnitskaya has suffered from anorexia, for which she had been treated for three months in an Israeli clinic.

Yulia Lipnitskaya has performed leading roles in ice ballet shows such as Cinderella and The Nutcracker in 2019.

In December 2020, Yulia Lipnitskaya joined the coaching staff of Evgeni Plushenko's skating academy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is in a relationship with Russian skater Vladislav Tarasenko.

In June 2020, Yulia Lipnitskaya confirmed that they were expecting their first child together.

In 2022, her husband Vladislav Tarasenko, with Yulia Lipnitskaya's blessing, volunteered to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yulia Lipnitskaya appeared on the front cover of the May 2014 issue of Elle Girl Russia.

Yulia Lipnitskaya won the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for favorite Russian athlete in 2015, and signed a long-term contract with Adidas in the same year.