Michał Woźniak
| Michał Woźniak | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ioulia Chtchetinina and Michał Woźniak at the 2024 World Championships | ||||||||||||
| Born | 1 July 1999 Katowice, Poland | |||||||||||
| Hometown | Katowice | |||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in) | |||||||||||
| Figure skating career | ||||||||||||
| Country |  Poland | |||||||||||
| Discipline | Pair skating (since 2020) Men's singles (2012–20) | |||||||||||
| Partner | Ioulia Chtchetinina (since 2023) Anna Hernik (2020–22) | |||||||||||
| Coach | Nolan Seegert Dmitri Savin | |||||||||||
| Skating club | UKŁ SPIN Katowice | |||||||||||
| Began skating | 2005 | |||||||||||
| Medal record | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Michał Woźniak (born 1 July 1999) is a Polish pair skater. With his current skating partner, Ioulia Chtchetinina, he is the 2025 Four National champion, the 2024 Four National silver medalist, a two-time Polish national champion (2024–25), and the 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb champion.
Personal life
[edit]Woźniak was born on 1 July 1999 in Katowice, Poland. As of 2023, Woźniak is a law student at the University of Silesia in Katowice. In his free time, he enjoys reading and road cycling.[1]
He married Polish singles skater, Elżbieta Gabryszak, in May 2024.[2]
Career
[edit]Early years and single skating career
[edit]Woźniak began learning how to skate in 2005. He trained as a single skater in Poland until 2019. While Woźniak never competed in the senior ranks internationally, he did receive a handful of junior international assignments over the course of his singles career, including two ISU Junior Grand Prix events. Notably, he won the Polish Junior Championships in 2016. Woźniak's coach, Iwona Mydlarz-Chruścińska, attempted to convince him to switch to a paired discipline — namely ice dance given his height and musicality — for several seasons before he ultimately chose to pursue pair skating.[1]
2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons: Partnership with Hernik
[edit]Woźniak teamed up with his first partner, Anna Hernik, in 2020, coached by Mateusz Chruściński. Both new to pair skating, the duo learned the basics of the discipline together, eventually building to throw triple jumps and a double twist. Hernik and Woźniak entered the 2021 Four Nationals Championships, the shared national championship event for the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, but withdrew after the short program.
Hernik and Woźniak made their international debut at the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy, the final qualifying event to the 2022 Winter Olympics. The couple finished last at the event, suffering an error during the free skate where Hernik fell head first out of a lift and onto the ice. While the team did eventually return for the 2022 Four Nationals Championships where they won the Polish national title, Hernik ultimately made the decision to conclude her competitive career.[3]
Partnership with Chtchetinina
[edit]2023–24 season
[edit]
Woźniak faced challenges in finding a new skating partner following the conclusion of his collaboration with Hernik. His search was initially hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and later by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. With limited options internationally, he decided to explore possibilities within his home country. However, tryouts with young skater Wiktoria Pacha and returning veteran Ola Malinkiewicz proved unsuccessful. Eventually, Woźniak connected with Swiss-Hungarian skater Ioulia Chtchetinina, who was in search of a new partner after parting ways with Márk Magyar, over Instagram.[3] Despite differences in their levels of experience in the discipline, Chtchetinina agreed to a tryout, which took place in July 2023. The official announcement of their partnership for Poland came the following month.[1] The pair ultimately decided to train in Berlin, Germany as due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chtchetinina no longer wished to continue training in Russia as she previously had. While Nolan Seegert became the team's head coach, Chtchetinina's previous Russian coach, Dmitri Savin, continued working with her and Woźniak through video chat.[4]
Chtchetinina and Woźniak made their international debut at the 2023 Budapest Trophy, where they finished fourth. They next competed at the 2023 Diamond Spin where they placed second between Italian teams Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini and Anna Valesi and Manuel Piazza. The team claimed their second international medal not long after with a bronze at the 2023 Warsaw Cup behind Georgians Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava and Brits Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby. Chtchetinina and Woźniak competed once more before the Polish National Championships, finishing fourth at their first Challenger event, the 2023 Golden Spin of Zagreb.[5]
At the 2024 Four Nationals Championship, Chtchetinina and Woźniak placed second in the combined senior pairs event, but won the Polish national title by default as the sole Polish entrant. Their win yielded assignments to both the 2024 European Championships and the 2024 World Championships. The team competed just once more before the championship season began, winning the silver medal at the 2024 Bavarian Open between Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba from the Netherlands, and Barbora Kucianová and Martin Bidař of the Czech Republic.[6]
They ultimately finished tenth at the European Championships and nineteenth at the World Championships.[7][8]
2024–25 season
[edit]
Chtchetinina/Woźniak opened their second season together at the 2024 Nebelhorn Trophy, where they finished in seventh place.[9] They then went on to take silver at the 2024 Diamond Spin for a second consecutive time.[10]
Following the withdrawal of Italians Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise, Chtchetinina and Woźniak were assigned to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix circuit at 2024 Skate Canada International as substitutes.[11][12][13] They finished in sixth place at the event.[14] Chtchetinina and Woźniak were later assigned to the 2024 Cup of China as well, where they finished fourth.[10] The team was happy with their placement, but wanted to hit the 180 mark for the total score.[15]
In December, Chtchetinina/Woźniak won the gold medal at the 2024 Golden Spin of Zagreb. They followed this up with another gold medal at the 2025 Four National Championships.[10]
At the 2025 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, Chtchetinina/Woźniak finished in seventh overall after placing seventh in both the short and free program segments. Two weeks later, they won the bronze medal at the 2025 International Challenge Cup.[10]
In March, Chtchetinina/Woźniak competed at the 2025 World Championships, held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. They placed nineteenth in the short program but following a clean free skate, placed twelfth in that segment and moved up to fourteenth overall.[10][16] With this placement, Chtchetinina/Woźniak won Poland a quota for pair skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics.[17] In an interview following the free skate, Chtchetinina shared, "I am so thankful to have Michal by my side. He was such a rock for me, and he managed to keep his calm and acted like nothing much happened. I was so disappointed during the short program today. I am so happy that we kept fighting, and today was so much better."[18]
Programs
[edit]Pair skating with Ioulia Chtchetinina
[edit]| Season | Short program | Free skate | Exhibition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–24 |
By Marian Hill |
By Woodkid |
[19] | |
| 2024–25 |
By Florence + The Machine |
By Marian Hill |
[20] |
Pair skating with Anna Hernik
[edit]| Season | Short program | Free skate | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021–22 |
|
|
[21] |
Single skating
[edit]| Season | Short program | Free skate | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018–19 |
|
|
[22] |
Competitive highlights
[edit]- GP – Event of the ISU Grand Prix Series
- CS – Event of the ISU Challenger Series
- JGP – Event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series
- WD – Withdrew from competition
Pair skating with Ioulia Chtchetinina
[edit]| Season | 2023–24 | 2024–25 | 2025–26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships | 19th | 14th | |
| European Championships | 10th | 7th | |
| Polish Championships | 1st | 1st | |
| Four Nationals Championships | 2nd | 1st | |
| GP Cup of China | 4th | ||
| GP Finland | TBD | ||
| GP Skate Canada | 6th | ||
| CS Golden Spin of Zagreb | 4th | 1st | |
| CS Nebelhorn Trophy | 7th | ||
| Bavarian Open | 2nd | ||
| Budapest Trophy | 4th | ||
| Challenge Cup | 3rd | ||
| Diamond Spin | 2nd | 2nd | |
| Warsaw Cup | 3rd |
Pair skating with Anna Hernik
[edit]| Season | 2020–21 | 2021–22 |
|---|---|---|
| Polish Championships | WD | 1st |
| CS Nebelhorn Trophy | 16th |
Single skating
[edit]| Season | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polish Championships (Senior) | 8th | 7th | 4th | |||||
| Polish Championships (Junior) | 10th | 7th | 5th | 1st | 6th | 3rd | 5th | |
| JGP Czech Republic | 19th | |||||||
| JGP Poland | 24th | |||||||
| Mentor Toruń Cup | 8th | |||||||
| Tirnavia Ice Cup | 9th | |||||||
| Warsaw Cup | 10th |
Detailed results
[edit]Pair skating with Ioulia Chtchetinina
[edit]| Segment | Type | Score | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | TSS | 185.50 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb |
| Short program | TSS | 62.76 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb |
| TES | 34.76 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb | |
| PCS | 28.21 | 2024 Cup of China | |
| Free skating | TSS | 122.74 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb |
| TES | 63.47 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb | |
| PCS | 59.27 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb |
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Score | P | Score | P | Score | ||
| Oct 13–15, 2023 |  2023 Budapest Trophy
|
4 | 53.42 | 4 | 102.74 | 4 | 156.16 |
| Oct 19–22, 2023 | 2023 Diamond Spin
|
2 | 53.19 | 2 | 109.54 | 2 | 162.73 |
| Nov 16–19, 2023 | 2023 Warsaw Cup
|
4 | 47.62 | 2 | 105.40 | 3 | 153.02 |
| Dec 6–9, 2023 |  2023 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb
|
4 | 54.12 | 4 | 105.03 | 4 | 159.15 |
| Dec 14–16, 2023 |  2024 Four Nationals Championships
|
3 | 55.11 | 2 | 106.47 | 2 | 161.58 |
| Dec 14–16, 2023 | 2024 Polish Championships[a]
|
1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | — |
| Jan 8–14, 2024 |  2024 European Championships
|
11 | 53.61 | 11 | 101.30 | 10 | 154.91 |
| Jan 30 – Feb 4, 2024 |  2024 Bavarian Open
|
2 | 59.33 | 2 | 110.43 | 2 | 169.76 |
| Mar 18–24, 2024 |  2024 World Championships
|
18 | 56.24 | 19 | 99.67 | 19 | 155.91 |
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Score | P | Score | P | Score | ||
| Sep 19–21, 2024 | 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy
|
5 | 60.64 | 5 | 113.58 | 7 | 174.22 |
| Oct 15–20, 2024 | 2024 Diamond Spin
|
2 | 60.23 | 2 | 119.02 | 2 | 179.25 |
| Oct 25–27, 2024 | 2024 Skate Canada International
|
6 | 60.87 | 6 | 112.97 | 6 | 173/84 |
| Nov 22–24, 2024 |  2024 Cup of China
|
4 | 61.11 | 5 | 115.93 | 4 | 177.04 |
| Dec 4–7, 2024 | 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb
|
2 | 62.76 | 1 | 122.74 | 1 | 185.50 |
| Dec 13–15, 2024 | 2025 Four Nationals Championships
|
1 | 62.82 | 1 | 121.58 | 1 | 184.40 |
| Dec 13–15, 2024 | 2025 Polish Championships[a]
|
1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | — |
| Jan 28 – Feb 2, 2025 |  2025 European Championships
|
7 | 60.31 | 7 | 117.55 | 7 | 177.86 |
| Feb 13–16, 2025 |  2025 Challenge Cup
|
2 | 55.19 | 3 | 110.17 | 3 | 165.36 |
| Mar 25–30, 2025 |  2025 World Championships
|
19 | 56.37 | 12 | 116.81 | 14 | 173.18 |
- ^ a b The Polish Championships are contested as part of the Four Nationals Championships.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Tascher, Magdalena (7 August 2023). "Nowa para sportowa" [New sports pair] (in Polish). Polish Figure Skating Association.
- ^ Chtchetinina, Ioulia. "First stop of my vacation". Instagram. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
- ^ a b Gorecki, Mateusz (9 January 2024). "Polska wraca na ME po 11 latach! Niezłomny duet marzy o igrzyskach" [Poland returns to the European Championships after 11 years! The unwavering duo dreams of the games] (in Polish). TVP Sport.
- ^ Kellar, Anna. "Ioulia Chtchetinina and Michal Wozniak: "If you Don't Enjoy It, Don't Do It"". Anything GOEs. Anything GOEs. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
- ^ "ISU Golden Spin of Zagreb 2023 – Pairs". www.croskate.hr. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "Bavarian Open 2024 Pairs". www.deu-event.de. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "ISU European Championships 2024 – Pairs". International Skating Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "ISU World Championships 2024 – Pairs". International Skating Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "Nebelhorn Trophy 2024 - Pairs". German Ice Skating Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "POL–Ioulia Chtchetinina/Michal Wozniak". SkatingScores.
- ^ @AnythingGOE (October 18, 2024). "🇮🇹 Lucrezia Beccari / Matteo Guarise have withdrawn from Skate Canada" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ @AnythingGOE (October 21, 2024). "🇵🇱 Ioulia Chtchetinina / Michal Wozniak have been assigned to Skate Canada" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ @lucreziabeccari; (October 19, 2024). "Hello everyone 👋🏻" – via Instagram.
- ^ Slater, Paula (October 27, 2024). "Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps defend Skate Canada title". Golden Skate. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
- ^ Slater, Paula (November 24, 2024). "Conti and Macii grab elusive Grand Prix gold in China". Golden Skate.
- ^ "2025 World Championships - Pairs Free Skate". Skating Scores. Skating Scores. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
- ^ "ENTRIES/PARTICIPATION 2026 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES (OWG) SINGLE & PAIR SKATING AND ICE DANCE" (PDF). International Skating Union. International Skating Union. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
- ^ "Ioulia Chtchetinina / Michal Wozniak 🇵🇱 116.81 / 173.18". Instagram. Golden Skate. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
- ^ "Ioulia Chtchetinina / Michal Wozniak: 2023/2024". International Skating Union. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ "Ioulia Chtchetinina / Michal Wozniak: 2024/2025". International Skating Union. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
- ^ "Anna HERNIK / Michal Wozniak: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ "Michal Wozniak: 2018/2019". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ "POL–Anna Hernik/Michal Wozniak". SkatingScores.
- ^ "POL–Michal Wozniak". SkatingScores.
- ^ "Michael Wozniak / Ioulia Chtchetinina". RinkResults.com. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
External links
[edit]- Ioulia Chtchetinina & Michal Wozniak at the International Skating Union
- Ioulia Chtchetinina & Michal Wozniak at SkatingScores
- Anna Hernik & Michal Wozniak at the International Skating Union
- Anna Hernik & Michal Wozniak at SkatingScores