Yulia Lipnitskaya (5 June 1998)

Yulia Vyacheslavovna Lipnitskaya ( born 5 June 1998) is a Russian former competitive figure skater. She was part of the Russian team to win the 2014 Winter Olympics team trophy. Individually, Lipnitskaya is the 2014 World silver medalist, the 2014 European champion, the 2013–14 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, and a two-time Russian national silver medalist (2012 & 2014). Competing as a junior, Lipnitskaya won the 2012 World Junior Championships, 2011–12 JGP Final, and 2012 Russian Junior Championships. She retired from the professional sport in 9 september 2017 due to complications with ligaments of the legs and hip joints.

Lipnitskaya is the youngest Russian athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.Within the ladies' singles category, she is the youngest gold medalist at the European Championships. She is also the youngest women figure skater to win a gold medal at the Olympics under modern rules. Lipnitskaya was 15 years, 249 days old when Russia won the team trophy.

Yulia Lipnitskaya at Sochi Winter Olimpics, 2014

Yulia Lipnitskaya was born on 5 June 1998 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Lipnitskaya was raised by a single mother, Daniela Leonidovna Lipnitskaya, who gave her own surname to Yulia. Lipnitskaya's father, Vyacheslav, was drafted into the Russian army while her mother was pregnant, and he chose not to return to the family afterwards. Lipnitskaya's grandmother, Evgenia Koklova, engaged in acrobatics, skating, and sailing in her youth.

Yulia Lipnitskaya at Sochi Winter Olimpics closing gala, 2014

Lipnitskaya began training at age four, when her mother convinced the experienced skating coach Elena Levkovets to accept her as a student. She skated in Yekaterinburg until 2009, and moved to Moscow with her mother where Lipnitskaya joined Eteri Tutberidze's group in March 2009.

Lipnitskaya became age-eligible for junior international competition in the 2011–12 season. She debuted on the Junior Grand Prix series at the JGP Baltic Cup in Gdańsk, Poland, winning both programs to take the gold medal. 

Lipnitskaya became age-eligible for some senior events but not the World or European Championships. She made her senior debut at the 2012 Finlandia Trophy where she won the gold medal. 

In the 2013–14 season, Lipnitskaya became age-eligible for all senior ISU events. She began her season by winning the gold medal at the 2013 Finlandia Trophy. Her first 2013–14 Grand Prix event was the 2013 Skate Canada International. 

Lipnitskaya was selected for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and she became the youngest Olympic gold medalist under modern rules, being six days younger than American Tara Lipinski was when she won the 1998 Winter Olympics at 15 in Nagano, Japan. 


Lipnitskaya selected all the music for her programs by herself. For the 2013–14 season, she chose Mark Minkov's You Don't Give Up On Love (Russian: Не отрекаются, любя) for her short program, because she loves the song. She chose the theme from Schindler's List for her free skate after she had watched the film many times.

​On 28 August 2017, Lipnitskaya's mother, Daniela, told TASS that her daughter had decided to retire in April, and had informed the Russian Figure Skating Federation of her decision following a return home from continental Europe, where she underwent three months of medical treatment.
Lipnitskaya has suffered from anorexia, for which she had been treated for a long time in an Israeli clinic.