About Maria Mukhortova
Maria Vladimirovna Mukhortova (Russian: Мария Владимировна Мухортова; born 20 November 1985) is a Russian pair skater. With former partner Maxim Trankov, she is the 2008 European silver medalist, a five-time Grand Prix medalist (including one gold medal at Trophée Eric Bompard), 2005 World Junior champion, 2004 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and 2007 Russian national champion. In her early career, she competed with Egor Golovkin and Pavel Lebedev. She also competed one season with Jérôme Blanchard. == Personal life == Mukhortova was born in Saint Petersburg but began skating in her father's hometown of Lipetsk when she was 6 years old. She became attracted to pair skating, however, there were no related opportunities in Lipetsk so her mother took her back to Saint Petersburg when she was thirteen. == Career == === Early career === Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov trained in the same practice group under coaches Ludmila Velikova and Nikolai Velikov, but with different partners. Mukhortova first competed with Pavel Lebedev during the 2001–02 and the 2002–03 season, skating with him on the ISU Junior Grand Prix and finishing fourth at the 2002 and 2003 World Junior Championships. The pair had frequent arguments but due to good results, Mukhortova initially declined to switch partners, however, a year later in 2003, she accepted Trankov's suggestion to skate together. === Partnership with Trankov === In their first season together, they won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final and the 2004 World Junior Championships.
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