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Maya Valentinovna Usova (; born 22 May 1964) is a Russian former Ice dancing. With Alexander Zhulin, she is a two-time Olympic medalist (1994 silver, 1992 bronze), the 1993 World champion, and the 1993 European champion. They also won gold medals at Skate America, NHK Trophy, Nations Cup, and Winter Universiade. They represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Russia.
After being third again at the 1991 European Figure Skating Championships, they looked poised for the big breakthrough, for the first time leading their teammates Klimova & Ponomarenko after the compulsories, then leading both the Duchesnays and Klimova & Ponomarenko into the free dance at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships. However the top 3 teams were so close the final finish of the free dance order would determine the final results. Maya Usova & Alexander Zhulin skated a strong free dance that seemed to ensure the title, but had drawn first in the final flight, and received a wide spread of marks from the judges. Despite receiving four first place ordinals in the free dance, a strange ordinal situation caused them to place third in the free dance and drop from first to third in the end. They later described their 1991 free dance as "being about Paganini and his muse". Usova wore a short, Empire style beige dress and according to writer Ellyn Kestnbaum, represented both a muse and inanimate object. Kestnbaum also reported that they skated their program with "intense emotion" and created "an overall aura of Romanticism and uncanniness", using little runs and turns on their toepicks, knee slides, and "sensuous flowing and intertwining movements" that were enhanced by their billowing costumes.
In the 1991–92 season, Usova/Zhulin won silver at the 1992 European Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland and then captured their first Olympic medal, bronze, at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Usova/Zhulin ended their season with a controversial silver at the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, California despite a fall in the free dance. They moved with Dubova from Moscow to Lake Placid, New York in September 1992.
In the 1992–93 season, Usova/Zhulin won the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki and the 1993 World Championships in Prague. This was a commanding victory as they won all four phases of the competition at both events, and received straight first place ordinals, apart from losing two first place ordinals to the up-and-coming Russians Anjelika Krylova & Vladimir Fedorov at Worlds.
Usova and Zhulin's free skate during the 1991-1992 season, set to music from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, centered on the theme of statues coming to life, was full of images of symmetry, parallelism, and equality. Figure skating writer Ellyn Kestnbaum described their program in this way: "It is not about sexual difference, but it does convey sexual attraction. These are passionate, eroticized statues, and the skaters' gazes are focused centripetally into the relationship, at each other's bodies and into each other's eyes".Kestnbaum, p. 237
The next season, they were third at the 1994 European Championships in Copenhagen, behind Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean and Oksana Grishuk / Evgeni Platov. They appeared to have the gold medal won as they entered the free dance tied for first with Torvill & Dean, and Grishuk & Platov were mathematically out of contention for the gold medal entering the free dance. However the free dance of Grishuk & Platov which handily won that phase changed the ordinals, and Usova & Zhulin were pushed to third in the free dance behind Torvill & Dean and dropped to third overall. They were heavily criticized for their new free program which was said by critics to lack speed and be too far a departure from their usual sensual and elegant style of dancing.
At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, they won the silver medal behind Grishuk/Platov. They entered the free dance tied for first with Torvill & Dean, with Grishuk & Platov in third, but with all 3 teams in contention for the gold by winning the free dance. They lost gold by the majority rule, Grishuk & Platov having the five first place ordinals they needed to win the free dance. After the loss Usova & Zhulin withdrew from the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships, where they had planned to end their amateur career and immediately went professional. Usova and Zhulin were known for excelling technically and artistically and according to writer Ellyn Kestnbaum, "leaned toward drama and passion".
Usova/Zhulin skated together professionally from 1994 to 1997. They toured with Champions on Ice and won the World Professional Championships. From 1998 to 2000, Usova performed with former rival, Evgeni Platov. Their career started out with mixed results, with marks as low as 4.5 at the Canadian Open, but also an upset win at the World Professional Championships. After last-place finishes in nearly all events in 1999 and 2000, Usova & Platov ceased competing.
From 2002 to 2004, Usova was an assistant coach to Tatiana Tarasova and Platov, working with Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovsky and Shizuka Arakawa. She has coached at the Igloo in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey and Odintsovo, near Moscow. She is an International Technical Specialist for Russia.
Usova and Oksana Grishuk had one of the most infamous and widely covered rivalries in figure skating. Usova punched Grishuk and smashed her head into a counter at a Spago restaurant in Los Angeles in 1992, when she caught Grishuk dining with her husband and partner Zhulin.
Usova is remarried to a Russian professor in medicine, Anatoly Orletsky. In 2010, she gave birth to their daughter, Anastasia. Off the ice, she has appeared in several Marlboro advertisements in Russia.
Personal life
Usova and Zhulin were married in 1986 but later divorced. Zhulin claimed that their marriage was a sham to get a free apartment from the Soviet government, though Usova denied this claim. Zhulin apologized in a subsequent article.
Programs
With Zhulin
by Sting
(from the Thomas Crown Affair)
(from Love Story)
(from Summer of '42)
by Sergei Rachmaninoff
from The Sandpiper
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
by Ástor Piazzolla
With Platov
Results
Amateur career
With Zhulin for the Soviet Union (URS), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Unified Team at the Olympics (EUN), and Russia (RUS):
2nd 3rd
Post-eligible career
1st
External links
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Categories: 1964 Births, Living People, Russian Female Ice Dancers, Soviet Female Ice Dancers, Sportspeople From Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Emigrants To The United States, Olympic Figure Skaters For The Unified Team, Olympic Figure Skaters For Russia, Figure Skaters At The 1992 Winter Olympics, Figure Skaters At The 1994 Winter Olympics, Olympic Silver Medalists For Russia, Olympic Bronze Medalists For The Unified Team, Olympic Medalists In Figure Skating, World Figure Skating Championships Medalists, European Figure Skating Championships Medalists, Medalists At The 1992 Winter Olympics, Medalists At The 1994 Winter Olympics, Winter World University Games Medalists In Figure Skating, Goodwill Games Medalists In Figure Skating, Fisu World University Games Gold Medalists For The Soviet Union, Competitors At The 1985 Winter Universiade, Competitors At The 1987 Winter Universiade, Competitors At The 1990 Goodwill Games, 20th-century Russian Sportswomen
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