Anna Shcherbakova

Anna Stanislavovna Shcherbakova (Russian: Анна Станиславовна Щербакова; born 28 March 2004) is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2022 Olympic champion in women's singles, the 2021 World champion, the 2022 European champion, and a three-time Russian national champion (2019–2021).

Shcherbakova was the first female figure skater to land a quad Lutz in senior competition and the first woman to land two quad Lutz jumps in a single program. She was also the first to land a quad flip in combination with a triple jump, as well as the first to land two quad flips in one program. She remains the only Olympic champion in women's single to have performed quad jumps.

Shcherbakova is also the 2020 European silver medalist, the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, the 2019 Skate America champion, the 2019 Cup of China champion, the 2021 Internationaux de France champion, the 2021 Gran Premio d'Italia champion, the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy champion, the 2021 Budapest Trophy silver medalist, and the 2022 Russian national silver medalist. At the junior level, Shcherbakova was the 2019 World Junior silver medalist, the 2018 JGP Slovakia champion, the 2018 JGP Canada champion, the 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival champion, and the 2019 Russian junior national bronze medalist.

Anna Shcherbakova was born on 28 March 2004 in Moscow, Russia. Her father is a physicist and programmer, and her mother, Yulia, is a geologist-crystallographer. Her great-grandfather, Prokhor Shcherbakov, was a statesman of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. She has an older sister, Inna, and a younger sister, Yana. Shcherbakova's parents signed Inna and Anna up for skating lessons to keep them active. As a child, Shcherbakova was also enrolled in drawing, swimming, and music classes and took tennis lessons. Shcherbakova is fluent in English and also studied German.

Shcherbakova began skating at age three in 2007 with her first coach Oksana Bulycheva at the Khrustalnyi rink of the Olympic Reserve Sports School No. 37 (later absorbed into the "Sambo 70" sports school) in Moscow. Bulycheva would later describe Shcherbakova as a highly motivated skater who was advanced for her age. She parted ways with Bulycheva in November 2013 at age nine and began training in the elite group at the same rink, led by Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov. In a 2020 interview, Shcherbakova shared that after joining Tutberidze's group, she stopped viewing skating as just a hobby and took her training more seriously. In mid-July 2017, when she was 13, Shcherbakova broke her leg while performing a triple loop at a training camp. As a result of the accident she missed most of the 2017–18 season, including her planned Junior Grand Prix debut. She did recover enough to compete at the 2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships where she finished 13th at the Junior level and 5th at the 2018 Russian Youth Championships – Elder Age level. This injury would continue to affect her knees throughout the course of her career.

Shcherbakova returned to competition in January 2018 at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships, finishing thirteenth with a total score of 179.19. Then in February, she improved her total score by over 30 points at the 2017–18 Russian Cup Final to win the gold medal in the junior category.

Shcherbakova debuted internationally on the Junior Grand Prix circuit in August. She was assigned to events in Slovakia and Canada. At the 2018 JGP Slovakia, she placed first in both the short program and free skate, winning the gold medal by a margin of over 18 points over the silver medalist and fellow Russian competitor Anna Tarusina. At the time, her scores at the competition were the highest achieved in an international women's competition under the new +5/-5 GOE System. Her short program and combined total records were surpassed later in the Junior Grand Prix season by Alexandra Trusova, and the free program record was surpassed by Alena Kostornaia.

At the 2018 JGP Canada, Shcherbakova once again placed first in both the short program and free skate and won the gold medal by a margin of five points over the silver medalist, Anastasia Tarakanova. With two gold medals on the Junior Grand Prix, she qualified for the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final. In October, Shcherbakova competed at the 2nd stage of the 2018 Russian Cup and became the first woman skater to land a quad Lutz at a domestic event. At the Junior Grand Prix Final in December, Shcherbakova placed sixth in the short program and fifth in the free skate, resulting in fifth place overall. Later in December 2018, at the 2019 Russian Championships, she once again landed the quad Lutz and won the gold medal with a total score of 229.78. At 14 years and seven months old, she became the third-youngest Russian women's singles champion in history. Despite winning the Russian title, she was too young to compete in the European Championships or World Championships of that season, both of which required participants to have turned 15 before 1 July 2018.