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Michał Woźniak
Polish pair skater From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
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Personal life
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
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Early years and single skating career
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
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
2023–24 season
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
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]
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Programs
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Pair skating with Ioulia Chtchetinina
Pair skating with Anna Hernik
Single skating
Competitive highlights
- 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
Pair skating with Anna Hernik
Single skating
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Detailed results
Pair skating with Ioulia Chtchetinina
- The Polish Championships are contested as part of the Four Nationals Championships.
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References
External links
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