Name Ksenia Smetanenko Retired 1998 | Spouse Sergei Gonchar Role Olympic athlete | |
Alternative names Ksenia Gonchar
Xenia Smetanenko Born 26 March 1979 (age 45) ( 1979-03-26 ) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Former partner Samuel Gezalian, Igor Lukanin Similar People Sergei Gonchar, Boris Mironov, Andrei Kovalenko, Mikhail Shtalenkov, Sergei Fedorov | ||
Country represented Armenia, Russia | ||
Ksenia Smetanenko, married name: Gonchar (Russian: Ксения Гончар (Сметаненко), born 26 March 1979) is a former ice dancer who competed internationally for Russia and Armenia. With Samuel Gezalian, she is the 1997 Golden Spin of Zagreb champion and competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics for Armenia. Earlier in her career, she competed for Russia with Igor Lukanin.
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Career
Smetanenko originally competed for Russia. With Igor Lukanin, she placed third at the 1992 Russian National Junior Championships and tenth at the 1993 World Junior Championships for Russia. They also appeared twice at the German Championships.
In 1997, Smetanenko teamed up with Samuel Gezalian and began representing Armenia. Placing sixth at the 1997 Karl Schäfer Memorial, they qualified a spot for Armenia at the Olympics. Smetanenko/Gezalian then won gold at the 1997 Golden Spin of Zagreb and placed 20th at the 1998 European Championships before competing at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, where they placed 24th. They retired from competition at the end of the season.
Personal life
Smetanenko was born in Moscow. She married professional hockey player Sergei Gonchar of the Montreal Canadiens, whom she met at the 1998 Winter Olympics.