Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun (Russian: Максим Павлович Ковтун; born 18 June 1995) is a retired Russian figure skater. He is a three-time European medalist (silver in 2015 and 2017, bronze in 2016) and four-time (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019) Russian national champion. On the junior level, he is the 2012 JGP Final champion. Kovtun has successfully landed two quad jumps in a short program, and three quads in a free program.
On 23 April 2019, Kovtun announced his retirement from competition.[1]
Personal life
Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun was born 18 June 1995 in Yekaterinburg.[2] His two older brothers formerly competed in figure skating and his father, Pavel, is a skating coach and former pair skater.[3][4] He was in a relationship with a gymnast Chilita Bagdzhi from 2015 until 2016. He has been dating a Russian group rhythmic gymnastEvgeniia Levanova since 2019.[5]
Taken to the ice rink by his father, Kovtun began skating at age four in Yekaterinburg and was coached mainly by Maria Voitsekhovskaia in his early years.[4] He also trained in ice hockey but chose skating at age ten.[6]
2011–12 season: JGP and senior debuts
In the spring of 2011, Kovtun began training with Nikolai Morozov. He debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) circuit in the 2011–12 season, winning gold at his first event in Romania and then silver in Estonia. He qualified for the 2011–12 JGP Final where he finished fourth. At the 2012 Russian Championships, Kovtun finished twelfth on the senior level and won the bronze medal on the junior level. He was assigned to the 2012 World Team Trophy—his first senior international event—following Sergei Voronov's injury-related withdrawal.[7] He finished twelfth at the event.
2012–13 season: Gold at JGP Final
In the summer of 2012, Kovtun switched coaches to Elena Buianova (Vodorezova).[6][8] He began the 2012–13 season by winning a pair of gold medals at JGP events in Croatia and Germany. In Croatia, he scored a personal best 80.00 points in free skating TES.[9] Kovtun qualified for the JGP Final in Sochi, Russia, where he won gold by eleven points over silver medalist Joshua Farris.[10] At the event, he scored 149.78 points for his free skate which included a 4T-3T, 3A-3T and 3A.[11]
Kovtun said he would try two quads in his free program at the 2013 Russian Championships.[12] Although he finished fifth on the senior level, he was named in the Russian team to the 2013 European Championships because Russian regulations guaranteed berths only to the top two finishers while a committee had the right to choose the third entry.[13] In his European debut, Kovtun placed seventh in the short program, fourth in the free skate, and fifth overall with a total score of 226.57 points. In the free skate, his fourth combination (3S-2T) was deemed invalid. Kovtun finished seventeenth in his first World Championships, held in London, Ontario, Canada. He was eighth in the men's event at the 2013 World Team Trophy and Team Russia finished fourth.
2013–14 season: First senior national title
Kovtun found his short program for the 2013–14 season very challenging, stating, "When we [began training the program], it was just hell. [...] I needed half an hour to learn one step, so it took a very long time to put this all together."[14] He made his senior Grand Prix debut at the 2013 Cup of China. He placed second in the short—landing a 4S-3T, 4T and 3A—and first in the free skate, in which he landed a 4S, 4S-2T, 3A-2T and 3A. Kovtun won the silver medal overall behind China's Han Yan. He won another silver medal at the 2013 Rostelecom Cup. The results qualified him to his first senior Grand Prix Final. He finished fifth at the event in Fukuoka, Japan.
At the 2014 Russian Championships, Kovtun placed second in the short program and first in the free skate. He was awarded the gold medal ahead of three-time Olympic medalist Evgeni Plushenko. After Kovtun again placed fifth at the European Championships, Russia received a sole spot in the men's event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which was assigned to Plushenko despite Kovtun placing higher. Plushenko skated earlier in the Olympics in helping win gold in the team competition. On Thursday 13 February 2014, Plushenko decided to withdraw from the men’s singles competition following his pre-short program warm up during which he sustained a back injury. However, Plushenko's withdrawal was after the Sunday deadline to name a replacement which left Russia without an entry in men's singles. [15][16]
Kovtun was sent to the 2014 World Championships in Saitama, Japan. He placed seventh in the short program, fifth in the free skate, and finished fourth overall behind Spain's Javier Fernández.
2014–15 season: Silver at Europeans
For the 2014–15 Grand Prix season, Kovtun was assigned to compete at the Cup of China and Trophée Bompard.[14][17] He placed first in both segments to win the gold medal in China, ahead of the Olympic champion, Yuzuru Hanyu, and Richard Dornbush.[18] He then won the gold medal in France[19] ahead of Tatsuki Machida and Denis Ten. Kovtun qualified to the Grand Prix Final as the only skater that won both of his assignments. He placed third in the short program, skating last, and then fifth in the free skate, finishing fourth overall behind his teammate Sergei Voronov.
In late January, Kovtun was awarded the bronze medal at the 2016 European Championships in Bratislava, having placed second in the short and sixth in the free. He finished 18th at the 2016 World Championships in Boston. On 16 May 2016, Buyanova announced that Kovtun had left her group and joined Inna Goncharenko.[21]
Kovtun withdrew from the 2017 Finlandia Trophy and his first Grand Prix assignment, 2017 Skate Canada, due to a back injury.[23] Kovtun competed in the short program at 2017 Skate America, placing twelfth, and withdrew as a result of continued back and knee problems. At the 2018 Russian Championships, he placed sixteenth in the short program, and again withdrew. Commenting afterward on his disappointing result, Kovtun said it was a "novel experience" and that he "was physically unable to train, simply because I could not bend down to tie my laces and then straighten up again."[24] He resumed training in February 2018.[25]
At the 2019 European Championships, Kovtun placed fifth in the short program. He had serious problems in the free skate, popping several of his planned quad and triple jumps, and as a result placed sixteenth in the free and dropped to fourteenth overall.[27]