Tamara Moskvina

Tamara Moskvina
Moskvina in 2009
Personal information
Full name	Tamara Nikolayevna Moskvina
Alternative names	Tamara Nikolayevna Bratus
Country represented	Soviet Union
Born	June 26, 1941 (1941-06-26) Leningrad, Soviet Union
Former partner	Alexei Mishin Alexander Gavrilov
Former coach	Igor Moskvin Ivan Bogoyavlenski
Medal record Competitor for Soviet Union Pairs' Figure skating World Championships Silver 1969 Colorado Springs Pairs European Championships Bronze 1969 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Pairs Silver 1968 Västerås Pairs

Tamara Nikolayevna Moskvina (Russian:  Тама́ра Никола́евна Москвина́​ ), née Bratus (Братусь) is a Russian pair skating coach and former competitive skater. In pair skating with partner Alexei Mishin, she was the 1969 World silver medalist and Soviet national champion. In ladies singles, she was a five-time (1962–1966) Soviet national champion. She later became a successful coach, leading pair teams to the following titles:

• Irina Vorobieva & Igor Lisovsky – 1981 World and European champions
• Elena Valova & Oleg Vasiliev – 1984 Olympic champions, 1988 Olympic silver medalists, and 1983, 1985, & 1988 World champions
• Natalia Mishkutenok & Artur Dmitriev – 1992 Olympic champions, 1994 Olympic silver medalists, and 1991 & 1992 World champions
• Elena Bechke & Denis Petrov – 1992 Olympic silver medalists
• Oksana Kazakova & Artur Dmitriev – 1998 Olympic champions
• Elena Berezhnaya & Anton Sikharulidze – 2002 Olympic champions, 1998 Olympic silver medalists, and 1998 & 1999 World champions
• Kyoko Ina & John Zimmerman – Three-time U.S. champions and 2002 World bronze medalists
• Yuko Kawaguchi & Alexander Smirnov – 2009 & 2010 World bronze medalists, 2010 European champions, 2008, 2009 & 2010 Russian national champions

Moskvina coached at least one pair to an Olympic medal in six consecutive Winter Olympics from 1984 to 2002. She twice coached the gold and silver medal-winning pairs, in 1992 and 1998. Moskvina is based in Saint Petersburg, Russia at the Yubileyny Sports Palace. She is married to Igor Moskvin.

Early life

Tamara Nikolayevna Bratus was born on June 26, 1941, in Leningrad. During the Siege of Leningrad in World War II, she was evacuated to a small village in the Ural Mountains where her mother had relatives. Her father's side of the family was from Kiev. Moskvina is only 4'10" due to childhood malnutrition during the war years.

The family returned to Leningrad in 1948. She began skating at the age of 10, after her father got used skates for her and her two sisters. Her father died suddenly at the age of 47, though he had never been ill before.

Career

As a skater

Moskvina skated at the Iskra and Dinamo rinks, the latter of which was on a tennis court. She was first coached by Ivan Bogoyavlensky. In 1957, she began training with coach Igor Moskvin. They married in 1964. She won the Soviet ladies' title five times during the early 1960s. Her best finish at an international competition in singles was 14th at the 1965 European Championships. Moskvina may have been the first to perform what is now called a Biellmann spin. She was inspired after seeing a gymnastics competition and began attempting it on the ice. She included the spin at the 1960 European Championships.

At Moskvin's suggestion, she decided to try pair skating. As he later explained, the leading women's coach in those years was Tatiana Granatkina-Tolmacheva, who worked in Moscow and led a group of girls of the same age as Moskvina. Her husband Alexander Tolmachev headed the Figure Skating Federation of Moscow, so Mosvkina, who did not train under Tatiana Tolmacheva, had little chance to stay in the team. Her first partner was Alexander Gavrilov, with whom she won the 1965 Soviet national title. After he retired, she teamed up with Alexei Mishin whom she had trained alongside when they were both singles skaters. She and Mishin won the 1969 USSR Championships, defeating both the two-time Olympic gold medallists Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov, and the future champions Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov. They went on to win silver at the 1969 World Championships. At the European Championships, they won won a silver (1968) and bronze (1969).

They did not compete the following season because Moskvina was expecting a baby.

As a coach

Moskvina decided to retire to concentrate on a coaching career. She earned her doctorate in educational psychology from the Leningrad Academy of Physical Culture.

During her own skating career, both in singles and in pairs, Moskvina was known for including unusual flexibility moves in her programs. She has passed this on in the choreography for the various pair teams she has coached, inventing many unique pair skating elements in which the man and woman, although performing different movements, still work together as a unit. This style of choreography is sometimes referred to as "opposition choreography," as opposed to shadow or mirror skating, when the two partners perform similar movements in unison together.

Moskvina has had a long career in coaching pairs. She has coached multiple successful pair teams at the Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was one of the first Soviet coaches to collaborate with the skating world outside the Soviet Union and its satellites. She contributed a report on the 1970 European Championships to the American publication Skating magazine, which at that time required clearance through the central news agency in the Soviet Union. She co-authored the International Skating Union's judging handbook for pair skating in 1984. In 1999, she moved to Hackensack, New Jersey's Ice House and spent several years coaching there. In 2001-2002, Moskvina returned to Yubileyny where she continues to coach.

Moskvina has coached some pairs in collaboration with her husband, Igor Moskvin (Kyoko Ina / John Zimmerman). Former students Artur Dmitriev and Oksana Kazakova have also coached in collaboration with Moskvina at Yubileyny. Her pairs have worked with various choreographers, including Alexander Matveev, Tatiana Druchinina (until 2011), Valeri Pecherski, Igor Bobrin, and Peter Tchernyshev. Former student Oleg Vasiliev coached Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin to an Olympic gold medal after Moskvina sent them to him.

Moskvina works mostly with Russian pairs. She has also worked with an American team, Ina / Zimmerman who won the World bronze medal in 2002, and a Japanese team, Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Markuntsov who became the first Japanese pair to medal at an ISU Championship when they won silver at the 2001 World Junior Championships).

Moskvina plans to retire after the 2014 Olympics but will continue to advise pairs and will also write a book on her coaching experiences.

Personal life

Tamara Moskvina is married to fellow coach Igor Moskvin. They have two daughters, Olga and Anna. One daughter is an economist who graduated from Columbia University, the second is a linguist who graduated from a Saint Petersburg university.

Competitive highlights

Pair skating with Alexei Mishin

Event	1965–66	1966–67	1967–68	1968–69
Winter Olympics			5th
World Championships		6th	4th	2nd
European Championships		6th	2nd	3rd
Soviet Championships	3rd	2nd	2nd	1st
Prize of Moscow News		1st		1st
Winter Universiade	3rd

(with Alexander Gavrilov)

Event	1965
Soviet Championships	1st

Ladies singles

Event	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966
European Championships		27th		19th	20th		14th
Soviet Championships	9th	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st

Awards

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

Moskvina was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2005.

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class (27 February 1998) - for outstanding athletic achievement at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in 1998
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1984)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1988)
• Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (22 April 1994) - for services in the development of physical culture and sports and the great personal contribution to the preparation and conduct of XVII Winter Olympic Games in 1994
• Honoured Worker of Physical Culture of the Russian Federation (2002)
• Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR (1969)
• Honoured coach of the USSR
• Honoured Coach of Russia
• Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (May 5, 2003) - for the successful preparation of athletes and high achievements in sports at the Games XIX Olympic Games in Salt Lake City
• Honorary citizen of St. Petersburg
• Best in sports in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg Government, 2 February 2010)
• Honorary Diploma of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg (2002)