Danylo Siianytsia
Danil or Danylo Siianytsia (; born September 9, 2000) is a Ukrainian-born pair skater who represents the United States. With his skating partner, Anastasiia Smirnova, he is the 2021 U.S. junior national champion, the 2020 U.S. junior national silver medalist, and finished in the top ten at two World Junior Championships. Personal life. Siianytsia was born on September 9, 2000 in Dnipro, Ukraine in a Russian-speaking family. He took a gap year between finishing high school and starting college to improve his English via lessons. Siianytsia came to the United States on the invitation of his current  coach, Trudy Oltmanns, in 2016 on a P-1 visa and hopes to gain U.S. citizenship. Siianytsia enjoys weightlifting and baking pecan pie. Career. Early career. Siianytsia began skating in 2003 in Dnipro. He competed at the national level in Ukraine, but never received an international assignment. After moving to the United States to learn pairs with Oltmanns, he continued in men's singles for several seasons, before expressing an interest in competing only in pairs. On switching nationalities, Siianytsia said: "I love representing the United States. I never got a chance to compete for Ukraine. But going out under Team  USA has been pretty awesome." Siianytsia's first pairs partner was Jasmine Wong, with whom he won the 2017 U.S. juvenile national bronze medalist. He skated in 2017–18 with Ariana LoPinto on the intermediate level, but did not qualify to the 2018 U.S. Championships. Siianytsia teamed up with Anastasiia Smirnova in mid-2018 after he found her profile on IcePartnerSearch and asked Oltmanns to arrange a tryout. She moved from Ukraine to train with Siianytsia under Oltmanns in Shakopee, Minnesota. In their first season together, they won the novice bronze medal at the 2019 U.S. Championships. 2019–20 season. Smirnova/Siianytsia made  their junior international debut at 2019 JGP Russia, where they finished seventh overall. They then competed at the 2019–20 U.S. Pairs Final and won the bronze medal, qualifying them to the 2020 U.S. Championships. At the 2019 Golden Spin of Zagreb in December, Smirnova/Siianytsia earned their first international medal, silver behind Georgia's Butaeva/Berulava. At the 2020 U.S. Championships, Smirnova/Siianytsia were third in the short program, but won the free skate to earn the silver medal behind Finster/Nagy. As a result, they were named to the 2020 World Junior Championships team. Smirnova/Siianytsia finished tenth at  the World Junior Championships. 2020–21 season. After the COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota caused their training rink to close, Smirnova/Siianytsia temporarily relocated with their coach to her old rink in Sioux Center, Iowa. The Junior Grand Prix, where they would have competed, was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and cancelled. In January, Smirnova/Siianytsia won the junior title at the 2021 U.S. Championships by over 20 points ahead of silver medalists Martins/Bedard, despite Smirnova suffering a high ankle sprain on her right leg in practice the day before competition began. Siianytsia reflected that they were "pretty excited" about  the win and "hopefully it won't be our last one." 2021–22 season. Smirnova/Siianytsia returned to international competition on the Junior Grand Prix. They were fourth overall in Poland despite placing third in each segment, and finished sixth in Austria. They also competed on the senior level for the first time, placing ninth at the Skating Club of Boston's Cranberry Cup. Both skaters contracted COVID-19 in December and withdrew from the 2022 U.S. Junior Championships. Despite their absence from the national championships, Smirnova/Siianytsia were named to the American team for the 2022 World Junior Championships, which had  been originally scheduled to be held in Sofia, but due to the pandemic were moved to Tallinn in mid-April. Due to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the International Skating Union banned all Russian athletes from competing at the event. This had a significant impact on the pairs field, long dominated by Russia. Smirnova/Siianytsia placed third in the short program, winning a bronze small medal, their only error being Smirnova underrotating and stepping out of her double Axel. However, the free program proved to be difficult, with Siianytsia falling on both jumps, Smirnova falling on their second throw  jump, and then their second lift aborted. They dropped to fourth place overall. Competitive highlights. "JGP: Junior Grand Prix. Pewter medals (4th place) awarded only at U.S. national, sectional, and regional events." Detailed results. "ISU Personal Best highlighted in bold."