Forget about traditional skating—Alexandra “Sasha” Trusova of Russia has changed the rules and gone viral in the process. Over the past three years, the Olympic silver medalist’s incredible performance at Skate Canada has received an astounding 12 million views annually on YouTube, and it’s easy to understand why.
Trusova is a trailblazer, not just a skater. Quadruple leaps have historically been dominated by males, but Sasha broke the mold and made them mandatory for women’s figure skating as well. In the past, a single jump could cause a lot of controversy. American skater Theresa Weld, for example, faced criticism almost a century ago for showing some knee movement during a jump. As we go forward to the present, Trusova is winning medal after medal and nailing quads with ease.
In significant contests, including the World Junior Championships, Sasha has already won three golds, two silvers, and four bronzes at the age of just twenty. And the best is probably yet to come.
Sasha was born in Ryazan, Russia, in 2004. She has three siblings, including two younger brothers, Ivan and Egor. By 2015, she had relocated to Moscow to begin serious training after hitting the ice at the age of four. Two years later, her incredible short program score of 73.25 was shattering junior world records.
Fans, however, can’t stop watching her incredible 2019 Skate Canada performance. Wearing a costume reminiscent of Cruella DeVil and sporting black and white hair, she walked onto the ice, gave the judges a cheeky “tired” head tilt, and then performed a dance so accurate and impactful that it almost deserved a standing ovation.
Seeing Sasha glide over the ice is an absolute delight, even if you have no interest in figure skating. Are you not convinced? See her perform in Skate Canada, or even better, see her at her best during the Olympics. Additionally, follow this skating sensation on Instagram to get a behind-the-scenes look at her life.
