Kira Ivanova

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Olympic medal record
Women's Figure skating
Bronze	1984 Sarajevo	Singles

Kira Valentinovna Ivanova (Russian: Кира Валентиновна Иванова) (January 10, 1963 — December 21, 2001) was a figure skater from the former Soviet Union whose senior international career ran from 1979 to 1988. While she had won medals at several international events, such as World Junuior Championships, Enia Challenge Cup, and Moscow News Trophy, her true breakthrough on the international skating scene came with a bronze medal at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. She also won a silver medal at the 1985 World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo.

Her life was turbulent both on and off the ice. When another teenager, Elena Vodorezova, then-current Soviet champion who had placed 5th in the World in 1978, was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, Ivanova became Soveiet Union's best hope for the 1980s. Sure enough, Ivanova showed some promise. For example, her short program at the 1981 World Campionships was good enough to place her 4th in the competition, and she won the Moscow News Trophy in 1983, completing a triple-triple combination jump. At the same time, she gained a reputation for having poor attitude. For example, Ivanova was known to routinely abandon performances midway when she missed jumps. At the same time, Ivanova, then 17, reportedly got romantically involved with her co-coach, Vladimir Kovalev, then in his late 20s, and they had some public outbursts that interfered with her training. Allegedly due to these problems, the Russian Skating Federation banned her from competing outside of the Soviet Union for two years, beginning in the fall of 1981. Thus, she was barely allowed to participate in the Sarajevo Games, where she won the Bronze for the Soviet Union. However, there have been speculations that the Soviet Union banned Ivanova and her coach from going overseas because they were considered high risk for defecting to the West.

In the beginning of her career, Ivanova was known as a good free skater with triple jumps and strong ballet training; then, she later become to be known as the "queen of compulsory figures" who was an inconsistent free skater. At the 1988 Winter Olympics, for example, she finished first in the compulsory figures, beating the defending Olympic champion Katarina Witt, but skated poorly in both the short and long programs, which took her out of medal contention. Her free skating performance there was typical; she missed some key elements in the beginning, and she eased up the rest of the program as though she had already given up her hopes for a medal. After her amateur career ended she skated professionally in an ice-show and went into coaching.

Kira died at the age of 38. Her body was found by her neighbours in her Moscow apartment on 21 December 2001. She had apparently died of stab wounds inflicted by a butcher's knife.

She was the only female free skater ever to win an Olympic medal for the USSR.