Any pressure of being the son of two decorated Olympic champions has not fazed Morgan Hill’s Anthony Ponomarenko—who together with ice dancing partner Christina Carreira won the junior national title at last weekend’s 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose.
“We set this goal at the beginning of the season and we strived to be national champions, and we’re happy that it worked out well,” said Anthony, whose parents, Sergei Ponomarenko and Marina Kimova, are considered one of the best ice dancing teams in Olympic history. “It was a great event, great audience, great people (in San Jose).”
Thursday’s victory, which came one day before Anthony’s 17th birthday, placed Ponomarenko and Carreira into the 2018 World Junior Championships, which will be held this March in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“We’re really happy we were able to make it happen. We’ve been working really hard,” Carreira said in the team’s post-skate interview Jan. 4. “There’s still a little shakiness that we need to work on. We want to improve our footwork, make our twizzles more together. We still have a lot of things to work on before Junior Worlds.”
The Ponomarenko family knows how to take it to the next level. Anthony’s parents who now live in Morgan Hill procured gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals skating for the former Soviet Union and Unified Team. In 1984, the pair won a bronze medal for the Soviet Union at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; a silver at the 1988 games in Calgary, also for the Soviet Union; and a gold in 1992 at the Albertville games, for the Unified Team.
“I felt like (Thursday’s performance) was very clean but not very emotional. We need to step up our game emotionally if we want to be in that top rank at Junior Worlds,” said Anthony, a 2017 U.S. silver medalist. “That’s something we’ll work on back at home and hopefully go to Junior Worlds ready.”
Anthony is from Morgan Hill, grew up locally, and his parents and brother still live in the area. Sergei and Marina, who were inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000, coach young figure skaters at Sharks Ice in San Jose. However, Anthony relocated to train in Novi, Mich., with world-renowned ice dance coach Igor Shpilband in 2014, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
“The overall performance needs to be in its ‘A’ game for Junior Worlds,” Anthony said. “I feel like if we do that, skate our best, we have a good chance at getting first place.”
We set this goal at the beginning of the season and we strived to be national champions, and we’re happy that it worked out well.
