Alexander (Sasha) Viacheslavovich Zhulin (; born 20 July 1963) is a Russian ice dancing coach and former competitor. With Maya Usova, he is a two-time Olympic medalist (1994 silver, 1992 bronze), the 1993 World champion, and the 1993 European champion. They also won gold medals at Skate America, NHK Trophy, Nations Cup, and Winter Universiade. They represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Russia.

Competitive career

Coach Natalia Dubova paired him with Maya Usova in 1980. In 1988, they made their first appearance at the European Championships, placing fourth. The next season, they won silver at the 1989 European Championships in Birmingham, England and silver in their World Championships debut, in Paris. The next two seasons, they took bronze at Worlds.

At the 1991 World Championships in Munich, Germany, they were very close to winning. They led after both the compulsory dances and original dance (although finishing 2nd in the original dance portion), and in the free dance received 4 1st place ordinals from the 9 judges. Nonetheless, a strange ordinal situation led to them finishing only 3rd in the free dance and dropping to 3rd overall behind the Duchensays and Klimova and Ponomarenko. They later described their 1991 free dance as "being about Paganini and his muse". Zhulin wore brown tights and a loose beige shirt. Kestnbaum also reported that they skated their program with "intense emotion" and created "an overall aura of Romanticism and uncanniness", using little runs and turns on their toepicks, knee slides, and "sensuous flowing and intertwining movements" that were enhanced by their billowing costumes.

Usova/Zhulin ended their season with silver at the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, California. They moved with Dubova from Moscow to Lake Placid, New York in September 1992. the 2011 and 2012 European champions. Coached from July 2008 to April 2011.

  • Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov,
  • Tiffany Zahorski / Jonathan Guerreiro from June 2014 to May 2017
  • Valeria Zenkova / Valerie Sinitsin, from mid-2011 to 2014.

His current students include:

  • Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev, from 25 April 2012 (2013 World bronze medalists). from 2016.
  • Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov, from the end of the 2016–17 season (2021 World Champions, 2020 European Champions, 2019 World Silver Medalists, 2018 Grand Prix Final Silver Medalists).
  • Viktoria Kavaliova / Yurii Bieliaiev
  • Maria Stavitskaia / Andrei Bagin

Personal life

Zhulin married Maya Usova in 1986

In 2023, Zhulin attacked American skaters Adam Rippon and Ashley Wagner:

Ukraine

According to Oleksandra Nazarova / Maksym Nikitin, Zhulin did not contact his former students after they survived weeks of Russia's bombardment of their hometown, Kharkiv, and documented what they had experienced in February and March 2022.

  • 1992 Olympics free skate (YouTube clip)