Igor Shpilband

Personal life

Shpilband was born in Moscow on July 14, 1964, to a Jewish family. In 1990, he and several other Soviet skaters were part of a U.S. tour headlined by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean when one of them, Gorsha Sur, decided to defect; Shpilband, Veronica Pershina and Elena Krykanova decided to join him.

Shpilband got a coaching position in Detroit not long after. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 2000. With his former wife Veronica Pershina, he has a daughter, Ekaterina, a competitive figure skater for the United States. In 2006, he became engaged to skating coach Adrienne Lenda.

Competitive and coaching career

Shpilband was coached by Lyudmila Pakhomova from age 12 to 20. He and his partner, Tatiana Gladkova, won the silver medal at the 1982 World Junior Championships and then gold in 1983. Shpilband retired from competitive skating following Pakhomova's death in 1986.

Following his defection, he began working as a coach and choreographer at the Detroit Skating Club. Gorsha Sur recommended him as a coach to Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, who were among his first students. Shpilband formerly worked in collaboration with British coach Elizabeth Coates. He began coaching with Marina Zueva in 2001. In 2003, Shpilband began coaching at the Arctic Edge Arena in Canton, Michigan. On June 3, 2012, Shpilband confirmed that he had been fired from the Arctic Edge Arena. On June 12, it was announced that his new training site is the Novi Ice Arena in Novi, Michigan, and American ice dancers Madison Chock/Evan Bates confirmed that they would train with Shpilband in Novi. They were joined soon after by Isabella Tobias/Deividas Stagniūnas of Lithuania.

Shpilband is currently coaching the following skaters:

Shpilband has coached the following skaters:

Competitive highlights

(with Gladkova)