Andrew Torgashev - Wikiwand

Andrew Torgashev (born May 29, 2001) is an American figure skater. He is the 2024 Grand Prix de France bronze medalist, 2025 U.S. national silver medalist, 2019 Asian Open Trophy silver medalist, the 2016 Tallinn Trophy bronze medalist, and the 2015 U.S. national junior champion.

Quick Facts Born, Height ...

Andrew Torgashev

Andrew Torgashev at the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix Final

Born

May 29, 2001 (age 23)
Coral Springs, Florida,
United States

Height

1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)

Figure skating career

Country

United States

Discipline

Men's singles

Coach

Rafael Arutunian
Vera Arutunian
Nadezhda Kanaeva
Brandon Frazier

Skating club

Panthers Figure Skating Club

Began skating

2006

Highest WS

34th (2018–19)

Medal record

U.S. Championships

2025 Wichita

Singles

2023 San Jose

Singles

Personal life

Andrew Torgashev was born May 29, 2001, in Coral Springs, Florida.^[1] He is the son of Ilona Melnichenko and Artem Torgashev, who competed for the Soviet Union in ice dance and pair skating respectively.^[2] As a result, Torgashev is fluent in both English and Russian.^[3] Later in his career as a competitive figure skater, Torgashev also began working as a coach at the Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, California.^[2]

Torgashev, who is half-Ukrainian with family still living in the country, has vocalized his support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion and has partaken in ice shows to raise money in support.^[4]

Career

Summarize

Perspective

Early career

Torgashev began learning to skate in 2006.^[1] He was awarded the juvenile bronze medal at the U.S. Junior Championships in December 2010.^[5] He won the U.S. national juvenile title in the 2011–2012 season and the U.S. intermediate title the following season.^[6]

He placed fourth in the novice men's category at the 2014 U.S. Championships.

2014–15 season: U.S. Junior National champion

Torgashev became age-eligible for international junior events in the 2014–2015 season. Competing for in the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, he placed fourth in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and fifth in Tallinn, Estonia.

After taking the junior gold medal at the Eastern Sectionals, he won the junior title at the U.S. Championships, setting U.S. junior men's records in the free skate and total score.^[7] He was assigned to the 2015 World Junior Championships and finished tenth at the event, which was held in March in Tallinn.

2015–16 season

Torgashev fractured his right ankle in June 2015 while practicing a quadruple toe loop.^[8] He underwent surgery in June to insert three screws, which were removed from his ankle in January 2016.^[9] As a result, he missed the entire skating season. He worked on his edges, stroking, and speed after returning to the ice.^[10]

2016–17 season

Torgashev returned to competition in July 2016.^[8] Competing in the 2016 Junior Grand Prix series, he won silver in Russia and placed fourth in Germany.

Making his senior international debut, he took the bronze medal at the 2016 CS Tallinn Trophy in November. He finished eleventh in the senior ranks in January at the 2017 U.S. Championships.

At the 2017 World Junior Championships, he placed twenty-fifth in the short program and did not qualify to the free skate.

2017–18 season

Torgashev placed sixth at the Philadelphia Summer International in early August 2017. During the 2017 Junior Grand Prix series, he won silver in Belarus with a personal best total score of 212.71 points and then placed fourth in Italy. He qualified for the JGP Final in Nagoya, Japan, where he placed sixth. Torgashev also finished sixth at the 2017 CS Warsaw Cup. In January, at the 2018 U.S. Championships, he ranked ninth in the short program, fourteenth in the free skate, and thirteenth overall.

In June, he announced that he had relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to work full-time with Christy Krall.^[11] Erik Schultz and Joshua Farris also became members of his coaching team.^[1]

2018–19 season

In August 2018, Torgashev won the senior men's title at the 2018 Philadelphia Summer International. At the 2018 Junior Grand Prix in Bratislava, Slovakia, he placed fifth in the short program, third in the free skate, and fourth overall. In September, he won gold at JGP Lithuania in Kaunas after placing second in the short program and first in the free skate. These results qualified him for the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, Canada.^[12] Due to a fractured toe, he withdrew from the competition and was off the ice for eight weeks, until around mid-November.^[13] In January, he finished seventh in the senior ranks at the 2019 U.S. Championships.

In March 2019, he won silver at the Egna Spring Trophy.

2019–20 season: World Junior bronze medal

Torgashev started the season at the 2019 Philadelphia Summer International, where he won the event. He competed in the JGP series, placing fourth in Riga, Latvia, at the JGP Croatia. He placed second in the short program with a new personal best, sixth in the free program, and fourth overall. He then competed at the senior level at the 2019 CS Asian Open Trophy, winning the silver medal.

Competing at the 2020 U.S. Championships, Torgashev placed third in the short program, skating a clean program that included a quadruple toe loop.^[14] He struggled in the free skate, falling twice and stepping out of an under-rotated attempted quadruple toe loop in the program's second half. Fifth in that segment, he dropped to fifth place overall.^[15]

Assigned to the 2020 World Junior Championships, Torgashev placed third in the short program, winning a small bronze medal.^[16] Torgashev fell four times in the long program, placing eleventh in that segment and dropping to eighth place overall.^[17]

2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons

In November 2019, Torgashev announced a coaching change as he moved from Colorado to California to train with Rafael Arutyunyan at Great Park Ice in Irvine.^[18]

He was unable to compete during the 2019–20 and 2020–21 figure skating seasons due to an injury in his right foot that ultimately required ankle surgery as well as a long rehabilitation.^[3]

2022–23 season: U.S. National bronze medal and World Championship debut

Making his return to competition, Torgashev qualified for the 2023 US Championships in San Jose, following a second-place finish at the 2023 Eastern Sectional Championships. By his own account, he entered the event hoping to finish in the top ten.^[19] Torgashev couldn't afford to pay for his coaching team's travel expenses to attend the competition, so his father, Artem, stood in as his coach.^[20] He placed fifth in the short program, and then won the free skate, winning the overall bronze medal with a total score of 255.56 points.^[21] He called the result "surreal."^[22]^[19]

Because Torgashev had not competed internationally since 2020, he lacked the technical minimum scores required to attend ISU championships and could not obtain them in time to be assigned to the 2023 Four Continents Championships. He was provisionally selected for the 2023 World Championships in Saitama, Japan, pending his acquisition of the requisite scores at the International Challenge Cup.^[23]

Torgashev finished fifth at the Challenge Cup, securing the minimum technical scores, and finished twenty-first in his World Championship debut. He said afterward: "I would have liked better, but I'm so grateful to be here and for the opportunity."^[24]

2023–24 season: Grand Prix and Four Continents debut

Torgashev began the season by winning the bronze medal at the 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy.^[2] He appeared on the Grand Prix at the 2023 Skate America, where he came eleventh in the short program but rose to seventh after the free skate.^[25]

In advance of the 2024 U.S. Championships, Torgashev was preemptively named to the American team for the 2024 Four Continents Championships in Shanghai, which were to take place the week after the national championships.^[26] He finished fifth at the national championships in Columbus.^[27] At the Four Continents Championships, Torgashev came eighth.^[28]

2024–25 season: Grand Prix medal

Torgashev started the season by competing on the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series, finishing fifth at the 2024 CS Cranberry Cup International and ninth at the 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. Going on to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix circuit, Torgashev would place fourth in both the short and program segments at the 2024 Grand Prix de France but managed to win the bronze medal as a result of many of the event's top contenders making mistakes. Initially only assigned one Grand Prix event, Torgashev's name was assigned to the 2024 NHK Trophy to replace Canadian skater, Stephen Gogolev, days before the event.^[29] At the NHK Trophy, Torgashev delivered a strong short program, earning a new season's best score, finishing fourth in that competition segment. He would place fifth in the free skate, where he obtained a new personal best free skate and combined total score, and finish fourth overall.^[30] Following his success on the Grand Prix series, Torgashev expressed elation, saying, "I packed for a few days trip to France, and ended up staying for a while more week in Japan. It was awesome. Even more, achieving a PB in the free and total score was so sick, just think I’m still capable of so much more though."^[31]

Programs

More information Season, Short program ...

Competition and exhibition programs by season
Season	Short program	Free skate program	Exhibition program
2014–15 ^[32]	"Parisienne Walkways" Composed by Gary Moore	Concierto de Aranjuez Composed by Joaquín Rodrigo Performed by Edvin Marton	—
2015–16 ^[8]	"Le temps des cathédrales" From Notre-Dame de Paris Composed by Bruno Pelletier	"Bohemian Rhapsody" Composed by Queen	—
2016–17 ^[8]	"Le temps des cathédrales"	"Bohemian Rhapsody"	—
2017–18 ^[33]	Moonlight Sonata Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven	"El Tango de Roxanne" From Moulin Rouge! Choreo. by Scott Brown	—
2018–19 ^[1]	"Open Arms" Performed by Journey Choreo. by Andrew Torgashev, Scott Brown, Evgeni Platov	"El Tango de Roxanne"	—
2019–20 ^[34]	"Bloodstream" Performed by Tokio Myers Choreo. by Andrew Torgashev, Scott Brown, Ilona Melnichenko, & Samuel Chouinard	"E lucevan le stelle" From Tosca Composed by Giacomo Puccini Choreo. by Andrew Torgashev, Scott Brown, Ilona Melnichenko, & Samuel Chouinard	—
2022–23 ^[35]^[36]	Oblivion Composed by Astor Piazzolla Choreo. by Misha Ge	Medley: "The Gate" "Push the Limits" "Gravity of Love" Performed by Enigma "O Fortuna" From Carmina Burana Composed by Carl Orff Choreo. by Misha Ge	—
2023–24 ^[37]^[38]^[20]	"L'enfer" Performed by Stromae Choreo. by Shae-Lynn Bourne	Void of Madness: "The Void" "Madness" Performed by Muse Choreo. by Misha Ge	"Bloodstream"
2024–25 ^[2]	"L'enfer"	"Scheherazade" Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Choreo. by Nadezda Kanaeva & Rafael Arutyunyan	"Enter the Jungle" Performed by Tokio Myers & Akala
2024–25 ^[2]	"L'enfer"		"L'enfer"

Competitive highlights

GP – Event of the ISU Grand Prix Series
JGP – Event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series
CS – Event of the ISU Challenger Series

More information Season, 2016–17 ...

Competition placements at senior level ^[30]
Season	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20	2022–23	2023–24	2024–25
World Championships					21st		TBD
Four Continents Championships						8th
U.S. Championships	11th	13th	7th	5th	3rd	5th	2nd
GP France							3rd
GP NHK Trophy							4th
GP Skate America						7th
CS Asian Open Trophy				2nd
CS Cranberry Cup							5th
CS Lombardia Trophy						3rd
CS Nebelhorn Trophy							9th
CS Tallinn Trophy	3rd
CS Warsaw Cup		6th
Challenge Cup					5th
Egna Spring Trophy			2nd
Philadelphia Summer		6th	1st	1st

More information Season, 2014–15 ...

Competition placements at junior level ^[30]
Season	2014–15	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20
World Junior Championships	10th	25th			8th
Junior Grand Prix Final			6th
U.S. Championships	1st
JGP Belarus			2nd
JGP Croatia					4th
JGP Czech Republic	4th
JGP Estonia	5th
JGP Germany		4th
JGP Italy			4th
JGP Latvia					4th
JGP Lithuania				1st
JGP Russia		2nd
JGP Slovakia				4th