Anna Sidorova

Anna Vladimirovna Sidorova (Russian: А́нна Влади́мировна Си́дорова; born 6 February 1991 in Moscow) is a Russian curler.

As a junior, Sidorova represented Russia at four World Junior Curling Championships (2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012). She won the bronze medal as the skip of the Russian junior team in 2011 and 2012.

At the age of 19, Sidorovawas named late to the Russian Olympic Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as the team's third. Originally Olga Jarkova was named to the team; however, Jarkova was taken out at the last minute and Sidorova was added to the team. For the fifth match, against the USA, and the sixth match, against Switzerland, Sidorova replaced Ludmila Privivkova as skip. She also replaced Ludmila Privivkova in the 8th Game against China as the Skip. Sidorova thus became the youngest skip at the games, since British skip Eve Muirhead, while also 19 years old at the time, is ten months older.

In addition to playing third on the Russian Olympic Team, Sidorova has also skipped her own team on the World Curling Tour (with Olga Jarkova throwing second stones). She joined Privivkova's team in 2011. In 2012, Sidorova began skipping the team, with Privivkova at third. The team won a gold medal at the European Curling Championships in 2012 with their new lineup.

Sidorova was the skip of team Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics. She led the team to a 9th-place finish, with a 3-6 record. She also skipped Team Russia at the 2014 Ford World Women's Curling Championship held from 15 to 23 March in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Her team finished the round robin with an 8-3 record, earning the third seed in the playoffs. Team Russia lost to Team Korea in the 3-4 playoff game, but in a rematch the following day Sidorova and her teammates defeated Team Korea to win the bronze medal. It was the first medal for Russia in the history of the world women's curling championships.

She then followed up with bronze medals at both the 2015 and 2016 world women's curling championships, and a gold medal at the 2015 European Curling Championships in the meantime. She just narrowly missed playing for gold for the first time at the 2016 Worlds, losing to Team Japan on the very last shot of the semi-final. After defeating Canada's Chelsea Carey for her 3rd straight bronze, she spoke of feeling encouraged by getting closer to the gold or silver each time, and hoped that 2017 and 2018 would be her years. She made her first World Championship final at the 2017 Worlds, but settled for silver after losing to Canada's Rachel Homan 8-3 in the final.

Sidorova's rink was initially chosen to represent Russia at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but poor play during the 2017-18 season forced the Russian Curling Federation to hold a best-of-seven Olympic Trials against St. Peterburg's Victoria Moiseeva rink to see who would represent the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" team at the Olympics. Sidorova lost the series in five games.

Sidorova was the alternate for the Russian team at the 2018 Worlds, where the Russian team would take home the bronze medal. Sidorova represented Russia at three legs of the 2018–19 Curling World Cup. In the first leg she went 3-3, at the third leg she went 4-2 just missing the final by one point. At the Grand Final, she went 4-2 once again just missing the final.

In their first event of the 2019-20 season, Team Sidorova qualified for the playoffs at the 2019 Cameron's Brewing Oakville Fall Classic. They followed this up by making it to the final of the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard where they lost to Anna Hasselborg. Her team didn't qualify for the playoffs at the inaugural WCT Uiseong International Curling Cup and they had a quarterfinal finish at the Women's Masters Basel.

She was a figure skater until age 13, when a leg injury forced her to give up the sport. At that point, she took up curling. Sidorova is currently a student.

Sidorova's Russian rink had a fairly successful Grand Slam season in 2012–13, making it as far as the semi-finals at the 2012 Colonial Square Ladies Classic. She made it to her first Grand Slam finals at the 2015 Players' Championship, losing to Eve Muirhead.

Former events

2014 Sochi Olympic Games

Margarita Fomina, Third

Alexandra Saitova, Second

Ekaterina Galkina, Lead

Nkeirouka Ezekh, Alternate