Former coach Elena Ivanova Began skating 2002 Name Deniss Vasiljevs Height 1.58 m Coach Alexei Urmanov Country represented Latvia | Former choreographer Ingrida Snieskiene Combined total 207.83
2015 JGP Poland Role Figure skater Career start 2013 Choreographer Benoit Richaud | |
Born 9 August 1999 (age 25) ( 1999-08-09 ) Daugavpils, Latvia Skating club Daugavpils SC
COC Courbevoie Short program 78.63
2015 Tallinn Trophy Former training locations Paris, Courbevoie, Chamonix |
Minsk Ice Star 2018 Deniss Vasiljevs FS
Deniss Vasiļjevs (born 9 August 1999) is a Latvian figure skater. He is the 2017 Cup of Tyrol champion, the 2015 CS Tallinn Trophy bronze medalist, and a two-time Latvian national champion. He finished in the top ten at the 2017 European Championships.
Contents
- Minsk Ice Star 2018 Deniss Vasiljevs FS
- Personal life
- Career
- 201314 season Junior Grand Prix debut
- 201415 season
- 201516 season Senior international debut
- 201617 season
- Competitive highlights
- References

Earlier in his career, Vasiļjevs won two medals at the 2016 Youth Olympics (silver in men's singles and bronze in the team event) and two silver medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series. He is the first Latvian skater to make the podium at a JGP event.

Personal life

Deniss Vasiļjevs was born on 9 August 1999 in Daugavpils, Latvia. His mother is a former dancer. In 2016, he began living in Champery, Switzerland, but remained a student at Daugavpils Russian Secondary School - Lyceum. He enjoys drawing and speaks three languages – Latvian, Russian and English.
Career

Vasiļjevs began skating in 2002. As he was often sick, his parents decided to involve him in a sport, first considering swimming and then skating. Around 2010, they arranged for him to train under the guidance of Lithuanian coach Ingrida Snieškienė in Paris, France. Due to his schooling, he spent part of the year training in Daugavpils. His figure skating role models include Stéphane Lambiel, Daisuke Takahashi, Patrick Chan, and Javier Fernández.
2013–14 season: Junior Grand Prix debut

Vasiļjevs debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit in 2013, placing 7th in Riga, Latvia and 10th in Gdańsk, Poland. He was named in Latvia's team to the World Junior Championships, held in March 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ranked 11th in the short program, he qualified for the free skate where he placed 7th, pulling him up to 8th overall.
2014–15 season
During the 2014–15 figure skating season, Vasiļjevs placed fourth at both of his Junior Grand Prix assignments, in Courchevel, France and Tallinn, Estonia. He won the silver medal at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, held in January 2015 in Dornbirn, Austria. He began working with Alexei Urmanov before the 2015 World Junior Championships, which took place in March in Tallinn, Estonia. He placed 8th in both segments and 7th overall.
2015–16 season: Senior international debut

Vasiļjevs began the 2015–16 season by winning silver at both of his JGP events, in Riga, Latvia and Toruń, Poland. He is the first Latvian skater to step on a JGP podium. Making his senior international debut, he placed 5th at the 2015 Mordovian Ornament before taking the bronze medal at the 2015 Tallinn Trophy.

In January 2016, Vasiļjevs was sent to his first senior ISU Championship – the 2016 Europeans in Bratislava, Slovakia. He finished 12th after placing 14th in the short program and 10th in the free skate. In February, he competed in Hamar, Norway at the 2016 Youth Olympics. Ranked third in the short program and first in the free skate, he finished second overall with a total score 1.09 less than gold medalist Sōta Yamamoto of Japan. His silver is Latvia's first Youth Olympic medal in figure skating. Vasiļjevs was assigned to compete in the mixed NOC team event as a member of Team Discovery. Placing first in his segment, he lifted his team to the bronze medal.
By 2016, Vasiļjevs was training almost full-time with Urmanov in Sochi, Russia. In March, at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, he won a small bronze medal for the short program and finished 8th overall. Later that month, he competed at the 2016 World Championships in Boston. He qualified for the free skate by placing tenth in the short program and went on to finish 14th overall.
2016–17 season
In spring 2016, Vasiļjevs had new programs choreographed by Stéphane Lambiel in Champéry, Switzerland. He was diagnosed with a tear in his left adductor muscle during the off-season and visited Toronto in late July 2016 for physiotherapy. On 25 August 2016, he announced that Lambiel had agreed to coach him in Champéry. He started practicing double jumps in early September. He also worked on developing his program details, steps, and spins.
Making his Grand Prix debut, Vasiļjevs placed 11th at the 2016 Rostelecom Cup and then 6th at the 2016 NHK Trophy. He ranked 6th in both segments and 7th overall at the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Competitive highlights
GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix