Adelia Petrosian: From Moskvich Rink to Olympic Ice

In a week, the 25th Winter Olympic Games will begin in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d«Ampezzo. In women»s single figure skating, 18-year-old Adelia Petrosian from Moscow will compete. The athlete will go to the Games under a neutral status. MSK1.RU tells what is known about this Olympic hope in women«s single figure skating.

«I will perform, and you will applaud me all the time»

Adelia Petrosian was born on 5 June 2007 in Moscow to a Russian-Armenian family. When the girl was 2 years old, she told her parents she wanted to do figure skating. But they decided their daughter was not yet old enough for such a sport. Little Adelia was persistent, and at age 4, she was taken to the Moskvich ice rink.

«If I»m not mistaken, I once saw the show «Ice Age» on TV. Adults were performing, and I really liked how they skated and did lifts. And I wanted to try it too. My childish mind wanted it,« Adelia recalled in an interview on the YouTube channel »Dom Moskvy v Yerevane« (Moscow House in Yerevan).

Adelia«s first coach was Irina Strakhova. She gave the athlete a foundation and helped her master triple jumps. In an interview with The Voice Mag, Adelia admitted that as a child, she didn»t think about future success and medals. For a long time, she simply enjoyed skating on ice.

«And in that sense, I repeat, I had a great childhood.

But my mom and grandmother say that even at 3–4 years old, watching any performances on TV, I would say, «I will perform like that, and you will applaud me all the time,»« the athlete recalled.

In 2019, Adelia got a tryout with Eteri Tutberidze«s group. Adelia was accepted, and she had to adapt to the frenetic pace of work. She began to make progress and soon took third place at the Russian Cup Final in 2020 and second place at the Moscow Championships.

World record

In the 2021/2022 season, Adelia Petrosian stepped onto the international stage. At the third stage of the Junior Grand Prix in Košice, she took third place; at the fifth stage in Ljubljana — first place. At the fifth stage of the Russian Cup, she executed a quadruple Rittberger and took second place, losing to Sofia Muravieva. Petrosian became the first athlete in history to successfully perform two clean quadruple Rittbergers in one program at a competition.

Then, three more ultra-c elements appeared in Petrosian«s arsenal: the triple Axel, quadruple toe loop, and quadruple flip. At the Grand Prix stage in Sochi, Adelia took first place, overtaking Sofia Samodelkina and Sasha Trusova.

Petrosian missed the jumping competitions and the stage in Perm due to injury. At the Russian Championships, she placed fifth. In March 2023, she won the Russian Grand Prix. In December, she became the Russian champion, overtaking Kamila Valieva, who was the leader after the short program.

Preparation for the Olympics

In the 2024/2025 season, Adelia Petrosian showed herself as an undisputed leader, despite a groin muscle injury that sidelined the athlete from training for almost a month. In an interview with Okko, Eteri Tutberidze said that her student wanted to withdraw from the selection and give her spot to alternate Alina Gorbacheva.

«Adelya was full of doubts: »No, that«s it, I»m not ready, I can«t go in this condition.» She was told: «Why are you refusing, do you want to give this spot to the alternate girl?» She said: «Yes, if she is more deserving, let her go.» It just turned out that the girl who is the alternate is even less ready,« the coach said.

Nevertheless, in the season, Adelia won victories at the Grand Prix stages in Kazan, Moscow, and at the Russian Championships.

At the Grand Prix final in Krasnoyarsk, the athlete botched a triple Axel. Despite this, she took first place. But she did not «count» such a victory for herself.

«[The coaching staff] were in shock. They said they almost fell to the floor when they saw the waltz jump.

The preparation was difficult, some moments need to be worked on, thought through, and brought to result. I won«t consider such a victory,» she said on Channel One.

In December 2024, the International Skating Union (ISU) allowed Russian athletes to participate in the Olympics under a neutral status. The top entries were Adelia Petrosian and Petr Gumennik.

From 10 to 16 September, pre-Olympic training camps for figure skaters were held in Krasnoyarsk. From there, Petrosian flew to Beijing with representatives of the Russian Figure Skating Federation and a physiotherapist, but without her coach. Choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz, who was supposed to accompany Adelia, was not admitted to the qualifying tournament.

According to regulations, a neutral athlete can be accompanied by only one coach — no application was submitted to the ISU for Eteri Tutberidze. Nevertheless, she got the opportunity to be at the selection with her protege — Tutberidze flew to Beijing as the coach of the Georgian team.

Qualification in Beijing

Adelia Petrosian won the qualifying tournament in China and earned a named quota for the Olympics. For her short (performance to Michael Jackson compositions) and free (tango-style to the composition «Yo soy Maria» by Italian singer Milva) programs, she received 209.63 points, overtaking the tournament favorites — Anastasia Gubanova from Georgia and Loena Hendrickx from Belgium.

In the free program, Adelia had the following cascades planned: triple Lutz — double toe loop, triple Lutz — double Axel — double Axel — sequence, triple flip — triple toe loop, as well as triple Rittberger, double Axel, triple Salchow, and triple flip. There were no ultra-c elements (quadruple jumps and triple Axel) in the program.

Speaking about Olympic content, Eteri Tutberidze noted that «skating without ultra-c at the Olympics makes absolutely no sense.»

«Basically, our Axel — it»s such a, I would say, «visiting» jump. It visits us sometimes, and sometimes not. At the Russian Championships, in the short program it visited us, but in the free program — it visited, but took all the remaining strength for the toe loops. To be honest, we are thinking about some final content. It will depend on what looks more stable,« Tutberidze said in an interview with Okko in December 2025.

At the Olympics, Adelia Petrosian will skate in the first warm-up group with the first or second starting number in the short program, wrote the portal The Skating Session.

Adelia Petrosian will perform the short program in women«s single skating on Tuesday, 17 February (starting at 20:45 Moscow time). The free program will be on Thursday, 19 February (starting at 21:00 Moscow time).

Three-time Russian champion

Adelia«s last start before the Olympics was the Russian Championships, held in Saint Petersburg. Based on the results of the short and free programs, she scored 235.95 points, which allowed her to become a three-time Russian champion.

The title was not hindered by a fall on the first quadruple toe loop — she led after the short program and successfully executed other elements of the free program.

Earlier, we detailed all Russian athletes who will go to the 2026 Olympics under a neutral status.