Roman Zaretsky

Personal life

Roman Zaretsky was born in Minsk, Belarus SSR, Soviet Union. The Zaretsky family was Jewish and made aliyah in 1990. Roman Zaretsky was seven years old at the time. He was raised in Metula, Israel where his parents work as coaches. He completed his army service just before the 2005–2006 season began. He speaks fluent Hebrew, Russian, and English.

In October 2008, the Zaretskys and their coach Galit Chait filed a lawsuit against the Ice House training rink in Hackensack, New Jersey, alleging that rink officials discriminated against them on the basis of their Israeli nationality by denying them prime training time and threatening to ban them from the rink.

Career

Roman Zaretsky began skating at the age of four. He originally skated as a single skater, winning medals for his age group. When he wanted to switch to ice dancing, his sister was the only available girl at the rink, so their parents put them together. He was 11 and she was 7.

The Zaretskys were originally coached by their parents. They were later coached by Irina Romanova and Igor Yaroshenko in Wilmington, Delaware. They switched to Evgeni Platov in January 2005. They went back to being coached by their parents when Roman's army service kept them in Israel. In the summer of 2006, the Zaretskys briefly trained in Moscow because Platov was taking part in a skating reality show and then returned to Montclair, New Jersey. They eventually switched coaches to Galit Chait and trained at the Ice House in Hackensack, New Jersey.

The Zaretskys are the first Israelis to medal at the Junior Winter Olympics as well as the first Israeli figure skaters to medal internationally on the junior level. In the 2005–2006 season, they debuted at the senior level, and were required to finish at least 15th at the 2006 European Championships in order to be sent to the Olympics as Israel's second team. They accomplished this and were sent to Torino, where they placed 22nd.

After the 2005–2006 season, Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovski retired, and the Zaretskys became the top Israeli ice dancing team. They won the bronze medal at the 2006 Nebelhorn Trophy, a senior "B" international, and finished just off the podium at the 2006 Cup of China. They finished 11th at the 2007 Europeans and 14th at the 2007 World Championships.

The Zaretskys competed at the 2007 Skate America and 2007 Cup of China Grand Prix competitions, repeating their 4th-place finish in China. They finished 8th at the 2008 Europeans and 9th at the 2008 World Championships. They then had an up and down season in 2008–2009, winning their first international event, the 2009 Universiade, but placing lower at both the 2009 Europeans and 2009 World Championships than they had the previous year.

The Zaretskys rebounded in 2009–2010. After a 5th-place finish at the 2009 Cup of China, the two won their first Grand Prix medal at the 2009 Skate America, where they were second in the free dance, and were named alternates for the Grand Prix Final. They won their next event, the Golden Spin in Zagreb, and skated to a 7th-place finish at the 2010 Europeans, their best result yet at that event.

Based on their top-ten finish at the Europeans, the Zaretskys met the national criterion for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There, in February 2010 they performed to music from Schindler's List in the free dance, having chosen the music in part to honor 27 family members who died in Minsk during the Holocaust. They finished tenth, setting new personal best scores in the free dance and overall. They went on to finish 6th at the 2010 Worlds, again setting personal bests in the free dance and overall.

In June 2010, the Zaretskys announced their retirement from competitive skating, citing a lack of support from their federation as the reason. They currently coach at Ice Skate USA in Houston, Texas.

Programs

(with Alexandra Zaretsky)

Competitive highlights

(with Alexandra Zaretsky)