The new dream couple

Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin have been skating together on the ice for barely a year and are already world class. The Berliner and the Russian are now starting as co-favorites in the Grand Prix finale.

When Nikita Volodin is tired of training with Minerva Fabienne Hase, he looks at the photo of Alyona Savchenko. It hangs in the Berlin ice rink in Hohenschönhausen. The image of the 2018 Olympic champion and multiple world and European champion in pair skating gives him the drive to stay on the road to success with Hase. After just a few months together on the ice, the Russian and the Berliner are already considered the new dream couple of German figure skating. Right away and as if out of nowhere, they made it into the Grand Prix final on Thursday in Beijing. And not only that: they are already one of the favorites to win.

»No one can replace Alyona Savchenko. We as a couple don’t want to be compared to her at all,” said the 24-year-old bunny. “We’re trying to make our own name in Germany and establish ourselves as an independent couple.” But it would be “a huge dream to become at least halfway as well-known.”

You could already see what great potential the duo has in their first season. Through the mediation of Russian coach Dimitri Sawin, Hase began working with Volodin, who is 19 days younger, in October 2022. They won four of the five competitions so far, including two from the Grand Prix series – in Espoo in Finland and in Osaka, Japan.

It quickly became apparent that their ideas about pair skating complement each other and that they harmonize on the ice with jumps and lifts. Of course that wasn’t the case. For seven years, Hare had Nolan Seegert as her partner, with whom she came fifth at the World Cup and European Championships and competed at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. Volodin previously tried with four Russian partners without success.

»Our technology is similar. And we are both explosive and quickly came together when learning the elements,” he reported. That’s why they had the courage to tackle the triple Throwrittberger on the fifth day of training together, a huge difficulty for any pair. “I wouldn’t have thought that it would have such an immediate impact,” said Hase and confidently added: “We are there for the future and would like to be at the forefront. We want to make a statement in the figure skating world.«

The football, computer games and car fan can compete in Grand Prix competitions, the European Championships in Lithuania in January and the World Cup in Montreal in March. In order to take part in the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy, he must become a German citizen. “I’m already starting to learn German,” said Volodin. Since “half the training group in Berlin speaks Russian,” it’s not easy. A big advantage for him is that the chemistry between him and “Minnie” is good even outside the ice. Rabbit: “We can laugh a lot together.”