Alex Krasnozhon: Driven to Achieve

Alex Krasnozhon is an American success story. The Russian-born skater moved to Texas in 2014 to train after skating in Russia for nearly a decade and has since seen his hard work pay off. Despite injury, last year was a breakout season for the 2017 U.S. junior champion - he placed in the top 10 in his two Grand Prix assignments, the Helsinki Grand Prix of Figure Skating and Rostelecom Cup, and fifth at the U.S. Championships.
 
"For me, last season was a learning and transforming experience as far as moving up to (the) senior (level) and competing fully at a senior man. I learned a lot about how it feels to be on the senior level and how I need to train to be competitive on that level," he said. "I had some ups and downs in the season, but overall I was happy with how it went."
 
Krasnozhon started skating at age 5, became a student of Alexei Mishin, Tatiana Mishina, and Oleg Tataurov at age 7, and moved to Dallas at age 14. In summer 2015, Russia released him to compete internationally for the United States. The 19-year-old currently trains at the Dr. Pepper Starcenter in Plano, Texas, with coaches Olga Ganicheva and Alexei Letov.
 
Skating his last junior international performance in 2018, Krasnozhon realized this past season that transitioning from the junior level to the senior level required changes to his training and skating focus.
 
"For the junior level, I was very focused on consistency and wasn't paying attention to small details, it was about clean routines every time I step on the ice, but those clean routines didn't include the feeling I wanted to show on the ice," he said. "I realized that every move you do must have a meaning and it's not just about jumps or even performing the spins, the program had to convey a certain mood to the audience. More importantly, everything has to be almost perfect. The jumps need to have positive GOE and the spins have to be Level 4 and earn positive GOE."
 
Krasnozhon started his season with a bronze medal at the Philadelphia Summer International and fourth place at the 2019 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic. At Skate America, he placed in the top 10, and would have placed higher if not for a fall on his quadruple flip. Going into this season, he hopes to improve the consistency of his quad jumps.
 
"I would like to show two quads in the short program and two in the long program - I landed one clean quad loop in Salt Lake City and tried the flip at Skate America, but it wasn't good, so I'm going to give it another try in Russia. The true goal is to do flip and loop together at the U.S. Championships."
 
He is also excited about his new programs this season choreographed by Alexander Johnson.

The short program, an instrumental version of Kanye West's "Runaway" performed by Ramin Djawadi and Pharrell William's "Freedom," is significant because it reminds Krasnozhon of his quest for U.S. citizenship.
 
"This program signifies my move to the United States and all the difficulties that I faced during the process of immigration applying for the green card," he explained. "That last part, which is the footwork and the final spin, "freedom", is that I was finally given a green card and have this freedom, and I don't need to worry about it anymore."
 
His free skate, meanwhile, showcases his personality and enables him to portray the legendary vampire, Dracula, with several pieces of music including from the films Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview with the Vampire.
 
"(The program) allows me to show my personality and play with the audience and judges, showing that charismatic character of Dracula who is strong and has secrets yet is so charming. He's kind of everywhere, and that's how my personality is, I'm everywhere and I always want to be the center of attention. I'm here and there, and look what I can do," he said. "But at the same time, there is that darkness, that ambition that drives the character, that shows you how he is still driven to achieve something."
 
Like the Dracula character in his free skate, Krasnozhon is certainly driven to achieve, working hard to create a successful future in skating for himself, and he hopes to continue ascending in the skating ranks.
 
"My big goal is to one day become World champion, be on the World podium and obviously, try to make it to the 2022 Olympics."
 
He appreciates the opportunity to train in America and compete for the U.S., and feels the experience has been beneficial for his skating. 

"I think that training in the U.S. is different in the sense that you are more or less in charge of your own training and you really have to be responsible for everything," he said. "You have to be very thoughtful about what you do on the ice. Obviously, the plus is you have so much ice available, but you have to be productive and you have to know what you need and work with people that are available to you to make sure that you are becoming better."

Looking forward to Rostelcom Cup, he has definite goals.

"I want to place top five at Rostelcom Cup and land the quad flip in both programs."