Alexei Krasnozhon

Alexei Dmitriyevich Krasnozhon (Russian: Алексей Дмитриевич Красножон; born 11 April 2000) is a Russian figure skater who competes for the United States. He is the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy silver medalist, 2017 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and 2017 U.S. national junior champion. He skated for Russia earlier in his career, making his last international appearance in December 2013.

Krasnozhon was born on April 11, 2000 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His mother, Natalia, is an endocrinologist and his father, Dmitri, is an oncologist. He has two younger sisters, named Dana and Sofia.

In 2014, Krasnozhon moved to Dallas, Texas. He lived for a few months with a Russian family who he had known from his childhood and then with Peter and Darlene Cain for five years. His parents visited him often. He enrolled in a private online high school and expressed interest in a business degree from Georgetown University or SMU. In March 2018, he said that he planned to apply for U.S. citizenship. Krasnozhon became a green card holder in 2019.

In Russia

Krasnozhon began skating as a five-year-old. At age seven, he became a student of Alexei Mishin, as well as his wife Tatiana Mishina and their assistant coach Oleg Tataurov. He competed for Russia at the Volvo Open Cup in January 2013, winning gold on the advanced novice level, and placed twelfth at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships.

Krasnozhon won the junior silver medal at the Denkova-Staviski Cup in December 2013. He missed much of the season due to a back injury.

Switch to the United States

In March 2014, Krasnozhon announced that he planned to compete for the United States and would be coached by Peter Cain and Darlene Cain in Euless, Texas. He qualified for the 2015 US Championships on the junior level and won the pewter medal.

On July 1, 2015, the Russian Figure Skating Federation released Krasnozhon so that he could compete internationally for the United States. While training in Moscow, Krasnozhon performed full run-throughs of his programs about once a week, but he began doing them daily after moving to Texas.

2015–2016 season

Making his Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut, Krasnozhon won the bronze medal in August 2015 in Riga, Latvia. He then placed fifth in Torun, Poland. After receiving the junior gold medal at the Midwestern Sectionals, he closed his season by winning the junior bronze medal at the 2016 U.S. Championships, finishing behind Tomoki Hiwatashi and Kevin Shum.

2016–2017 season

Competing in the 2016 JGP series, Krasnozhon won silver in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and then gold in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He qualified to the Junior Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France, where he finished fifth. At the 2017 U.S. Championships, he won the junior men's title. He qualified to the free skate at the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan.

2017–2018 season

Making his senior international debut, Krasnozhon placed fourth at the Philadelphia Summer International in early August 2017. Competing in the Junior Grand Prix series, Krasnozhon won gold medals in Brisbane, Australia, and Zagreb, Croatia, which qualified him for the Final for a second time.Competing at his first Challenger event, and he won a silver medal at the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy.Krasnozhon then won gold at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan.He outscored the silver medalist, Camden Pulkinen, by more than 19 points and set a new personal best total score, 236.35 points, at the competition.

Krasnozhon competed in the senior ranks at the 2018 U.S. Championships, placing eighth in the short program, thirteenth in the free skate, and tenth overall. In March, he placed first in the short program at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. While attempting a quad salchow during his free skate, he sustained a Grade 2 sprain of all three major ligaments in his right ankle, causing him to withdraw.

Krasnozhon changed coaches during the off-season, deciding to train under Olga Ganicheva and Alexei Letov at the Dr. Pepper Starcenter in Plano, Texas.

2018–2019 season

Krasnozhon started his season off at the 2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, where he placed fifth overall. Krasnozhon was invited to two senior Grand Prix events, the 2018 Grand Prix in Finland and 2018 Rostelecom Cup. Making his Grand Prix debut, Krasnozhon placed sixth at the 2018 Grand Prix in Finland and eighth at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup. Krasnozhon withdrew from the 2018 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb in December 2018.

At the 2019 U.S. Championships, Krasnozhon placed fifth. He said "this was a big step forward for me, I need quads, triple jumps and better endurance. For each quad, it’s a different approach, and I just need to listen to my coach."Assigned to compete at the 2019 World Junior Championships, he placed fifth in the short program, making a minor error on his Lutz-loop combination. In March 2019, he won gold medal at the Egna Spring Trophy.

2019–2020 season

In early August, Krasnozhon received the bronze medal at the Philadelphia Summer International.Krasnozhon next placed fourth at the 2019 CS U.S. Classic.In the free skate, he landed the quad loop for the first time. At his first Grand Prix of the year, 2019 Skate America, he placed tenth in the short program after underrotating and falling on an attempted quad flip, a new jump for him.In the free skate, he had a "hard, painful" fall on his quad flip attempt, but executed the rest of his planned triple jumps successfully, and rose to ninth place overall.He was tenth at the 2019 Rostelecom Cup. three week later he finished ninth at the 2019 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb.

Competing at the 2020 U.S. Championships, Krasnozhon placed sixth in the short program, attempting only triple jumps.In the free skate he underrotated an attempted quad loop and put a hand down on a triple Axel, but remained in sixth place.

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: ISU Junior Grand Prix

For the United States

For Russia

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.