After Turbulent Year, Smirnova and Siianytsia Head to U.S. Championships with Confidence and Momentum

In December, at the Golden Spin of Zagreb, Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia made an uncharacteristic mistake in their free skate.
 
Smirnova fell during the setup of a throw, sliding across the ice. But Siianytsia picked her up, and even though they were backed into a corner and only had room for a double, still did a throw.
 
Despite the mistake, their performance was still good enough for first place in the free skate, and they ultimately took gold in Zagreb – their first senior international medal.
 
It's a situation that describes Smirnova and Siianytsia's year in a nutshell: catastrophe, picking each other up, forging ahead and still somehow ending up on top.
 
This year, Smirnova and Siianytsia have gone through struggles that are almost beyond belief. They both tested positive for COVID-19 before the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships and had to withdraw from what would've been their senior debut. Siianytsia was then out of commission for another few months as he got the flu, bronchitis and long COVID. All the while, the two natives of Dnipro, Ukraine, had to watch from afar as their homeland was invaded and worry about the health and safety of their families.
 
Then came a bad fall in the spring that kept Smirnova off the ice for a month. Then Siianytsia pulled his groin two weeks before they were set to make their senior Grand Prix debut at Skate America.
 
And on and on and on.
 
"At some point, it sounds like, 'Don't come near us, because one thing happens after another after another,'" coach Trudy Oltmanns said. "You can't make it up. It's been a really rough year."
 
However, looking at their competitive results, you wouldn't be able to tell.
 
Despite months of illness and worry, Smirnova and Siianytsia competed at the 2022 World Junior Championships.
 
"My mindset was definitely, 'I don't think we should go, and I don't think we will be able to compete,'" Siianytsia said. "But we kind of talked about it and changed our mind, and still went and competed it."
 
They were in third place after the short program but placed fifth in the free skate after failing to get a lift up, finishing fourth overall.
 
"I think that, to everyone else, that looked like kind of a big failure, and he got off the ice and one of the first things he said was, 'Wow, you can't really train for a week and then expect to run a long program,'" Oltmanns said, laughing. "So I think that they picked themselves up."
 
Smirnova was injured in a fall just a few weeks later, so they took a few months off and didn't even start putting programs together until August. Their first competition of the year was Finlandia Trophy, where they placed seventh – not bad for a senior international debut, regardless of when a team began training for the season.
 
They had to withdraw from Skate America due to Siianytsia's pulled groin, and finally made their senior Grand Prix debut back in Finland at Grand Prix Espoo.
 
It was then that making the leap to senior competition finally sunk in.
 
"For me it's probably mentally harder because you see the other pairs and you think, 'Am I good enough or not?'" Smirnova said. "You start asking yourself, and it's mentally hard to focus on what you're doing and not judging yourself."
 
Again, the pair had a strong showing in the short program, finishing second, before slipping in the free skate and placing fourth overall.
 
"We were thrilled with the short program, and then unfortunately the free skate wasn't what we wanted and it wasn't the placement we were going for," Siianytsia said. "So maybe a little bit of disappointment, but overall, there were some positive things from it, some negative things. I think we still were pretty happy with it."
 
Then came Golden Spin, and their first senior gold medal.
 
"It's our first senior competition, and senior international competition, that we placed at the top, which is definitely so exciting," Siianytsia said. "It was a pretty big competition. There were quite a few pair teams. Overall, I would say that it's really boosting our confidence."
 
All told, their successes this season earned them a nomination for the ISU Skating Award for Best Newcomer. They are one of five athletes/teams nominated in the category.
 
They will make their long-awaited U.S. Championships senior debut at the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California. Senior pairs compete on Jan. 26 and 28.
 
They will have had six weeks to train for the U.S. Championships, which is – almost unbelievably – the longest stretch of training they've had all year.
 
But they've continued moving forward, continued following the steps set out by their coaching team and managed to have some success while fighting through more obstacles than they care to count.
 
Once they get some real training under their belts, the sky might just well be the limit.
 
"We had a really late start, which wasn't ideal," Siianytsia said. "And then the mistakes that we made in our first few competitions really were kind of not what we wanted. But don't think it's a reason to get down on yourself, right? We still had a pretty good skate. We had a medal at our second or third international this season. And this is our first senior year. So I guess it's really motivating to have it right now, looking forward to nationals. And so far, I think it's going great."
 
Follow Smirnova and Siianytsia at they make their senior debut at the U.S. Championships by following along on the event's competition central page. Fans can also vote for Smirnova and Siianytsia for the  ISU Skating Awards 2023 through Dec. 31 here.