Oksana Domnina
Domnina began skating at the age of six in Kirov and took up ice dancing two years later due to her height. Early in her career, she competed with Ivan Lobanov and Maxim Bolotin.
When she was six her parents took her to an open rink, but only three months later she was selected to take ice skating lessons on artificial ice, and was immediately admitted into the ice dancing group. She learned the basics on her own, and after two years she was paired with Anton Rjabov. Together with her next partner, Ivan Lobanov, she placed 8th at Senior Russian Nationals and 9th at Junior Russian Nationals. But at the end of the season the couple split up: Oksana was invited to skate in Moscow by Alexei Gorshkov, while Ivan remained in Kirov where he started skating with Olga Gmyzina. Oksana's first partnership in Moscow was with Maxim Bolotin.
