Marina Klimova
Klimova and Ponomarenko in 1989
Full nameMarina Vladimirovna Klimova
Born (1966-06-28) 28 June 1966[1]
Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)[2]
Figure skating career
Country Soviet Union
 Unified Team
Retired1996
Medal record
Figure skating
Ice dancing
Representing  CIS ( Unified Team)
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1992 AlbertvilleIce dancing
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1992 OaklandIce dancing
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1992 LausanneIce dancing
Representing  Soviet Union
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1988 CalgaryIce dancing
Bronze medal – third place 1984 SarajevoIce dancing
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1989 ParisIce dancing
Gold medal – first place 1990 HalifaxIce dancing
Silver medal – second place 1985 TokyoIce dancing
Silver medal – second place 1986 GenevaIce dancing
Silver medal – second place 1987 CincinnatiIce dancing
Silver medal – second place 1988 BudapestIce dancing
Silver medal – second place 1991 MunichIce dancing
European Championships
Gold medal – first place1989 BirminghamIce dancing
Gold medal – first place1990 LeningradIce dancing
Gold medal – first place1991 SofiaIce dancing
Silver medal – second place1985 GothenburgIce dancing
Silver medal – second place1986 SarajevoIce dancing
Silver medal – second place1987 SarajevoIce dancing
Bronze medal – third place1984 BudapestIce dancing
Marina Klimova
Medal record
Figure skating
Representing the  Soviet Union
Silver medal – second place 1988 Calgary Ice dancing
Bronze medal – third place 1984 Sarajevo Ice dancing
Representing the  Unified Team
Gold medal – first place 1992 Albertville Ice dancing

Marina Vladimirovna Klimova (Russian: Марина Владимировна Климова; born 28 June 1966) is a former competitive ice dancer who competed for the Soviet Union and the Unified Team. With skating partner and husband Sergei Ponomarenko, she is the 1992 Olympic champion, the 1988 Olympic silver medalist, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist, a three-time World champion, and a four-time European champion.

Career

Klimova trained at Spartak in Moscow. Early in her career, she skated with Oleg Gennadyevich Volkov. Klimova and Ponomarenko were fourth in their European Championships debut in 1983. Their breakthrough came the following season when they won the bronze medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and 1984 European Championships. In 1985, they won their first World medal, silver. They were four-time consecutive World silver medalists from 1985 to 1988. In 1988, they also won the Olympic silver medal, behind Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin.

In 1989, Klimova and Ponomarenko won the first of their four consecutive European titles. They also won the 1989 World Championships and narrowly won another World gold in 1990 on the strength of their compulsories and their original dance, and even though they lost the free dance to Isabelle Duchesnay and Paul Duchesnay from France. In 1991, their free dance was choreographed to music from the film Lawrence of Arabia; figure skating writer Ellyn Kestnbaum states that the program "escapes gendering by representing different elements of nature",[3] with Klimova representing the wind and Ponomarenko representing the sands of the desert. Klimova wore a blue unitard without a skirt and billowing panels set in the sides of her legs that signified her as the wind. Her movements throughout the program also evoked the wind. Kestnbaum states that their free dance "replicates classical gender positions".[3] Kestnbaum also states their the relationship Klimova and Ponomarenko present "is not gendered stereotypically, but it is figured as difference, as opposing elements".[4]

At the 1991 World Championships, they had a setback when they placed second to the Duchesnays. Four months before the Olympics, they decided to leave coach Natalia Dubova.[5] They re-established themselves as the top ice dancers in the world by winning another 1992 European title and then capturing the 1992 Olympic title. They ended their season with their third World title. They retired from eligible skating after the World Championships and turned to professional and show skating.

In addition to winning three World Championships and four European Championships, Klimova and Ponomarenko are the first figure skaters in any discipline to have won Olympic medals in three different colors. They won the bronze medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics, the silver medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics for the Soviet Union and the gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics for the Unified Team.

Their free skate program at the 1992 Winter Olympics, entitled "A Man and a Woman: From the Mundane to the Sublime," "returned to the images of difference and woman as other".[6] Klimova and Ponomarenko's costumes were both black and gray: she wore a black unitard with gray chiffon-like webbings or wings between her arms and legs and a spiderweb across her chest, and wore her red curly hair loose over her shoulders, while he wore a loose shirt and trousers, with a sash around his waist.[6] Kestnbaum called their program "a highly eroticized duet to music by J.S. Bach".[6] Kestnbaum also reported that the program displayed Kimova's beauty and flexibility and Ponomarenko's strength, stating that their movements, spider imagery, and costumes depicted that "the man is normative and the woman an exotic danger".[6]

Klimova and Ponomarenko were inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.[7] They coach young figure skaters at Sharks Ice in San Jose, California. They were known as "traditionalists with a light elegant touch"[3] and for excelling both technically and artistically.

Personal life

Klimova and Ponomarenko married in September 1984. They now reside in the United States in Morgan Hill, California. They have two sons, Tim Ponomarenko, born in 1998, and Anthony Ponomarenko, born on January 5, 2001, in San Jose, California.[8] Anthony is a competitive ice dancer for the United States.[8][9]

Programs

(With Ponomarenko)

Season Original set pattern
/ Original dance		 Free dance Exhibition
1992–1996
  • Clowns March to Sousa
  • Masquerade Waltz
    by Aram Khachaturian
1991–1992
1990–1991
1989–1990
1988–1989
1987–1988
1986–1987
1985–1986
1984–1985
1983–1984
1982–1983

Results

With Sergei Ponomarenko

International
Event 80–81 81–82 82–83 83–84 84–85 85–86 86–87 87–88 88–89 89–90 90–91 91–92
Olympics3rd2nd1st
Worlds4th2nd2nd2nd2nd1st1st2nd1st
Europeans4th3rd2nd2nd2nd1st1st1st1st
Goodwill Games1st
Fujifilm Trophy1st
Moscow News3rd1st2nd1st1st1st
Nebelhorn1st1st
Golden Spin2nd
St. Gervais1st1st
National
Soviet Champ.8th6th5th1st1st1st1st1st
Spartakiada3rd

Professional career

Event 1994–95 1995–96
World Professional Championships2nd2nd

With Oleg Volkov

National
Event 1977–78 1978–79
Spartakiada3rd J
USSR Cup1st J1st J
J = Junior level

References

  1. ↑ Biography of Marina Klimova (in Russian)
  2. ↑ "Marina Klimova". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Kestnbaum, Ellyn (2003). Culture on Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning. Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan Publishing Press. p. 234. ISBN 0-8195-6641-1.
  4. ↑ Kestnbaum, p. 235
  5. ↑ Vaytsekhovskaya, Elena (1991). Марина Климова, Сергей Пономаренко: "ЗА ВСЕ НАДО ПЛАТИТЬ САМИМ. ЗА ОШИБКИ ТОЖЕ" [Klimova & Ponomarenko interview] (in Russian). Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kestnbaum, p. 238
  7. ↑ "Hall of Fame Members". World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  8. 1 2 "Christina CARREIRA / Anthony PONOMARENKO". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014.
  9. ↑ Whetstone, Mimi (September 15, 2012). "Feng and Ponomarenko, Kang nab novice gold". Ice Network.


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