Tatyana Zhuk

Tatyana Zhuk’s older brother Stanislav and his wife Nina were the first leading Soviet figure skating pair and they also coached Tatyana throughout her entire career. Zhuk started to skate pairs with Aleksandr Gavrilov and they won the Soviet Championships in 1960, when their coaches, Stanislav and Nina Zhuk, did not compete. In 1963 Tatyana Zhuk won silvers at the Soviet Championships in both singles, and pairs with Gavrilov, and they won bronzes at both the World and European Championships, to which they added another bronze at the 1964 European Championships. At the 1964 Olympics they finished in fifth place and at the 1964 World championships they were sixth. Later in 1964 Zhuk started to skate with Aleksandr Gorelik and although they never won a Soviet Championships medal together, they were quite successful at the international level. They won bronzes at the 1965 World and European Championships, which they turned to silver in 1966. In 1968 Gorelik and Zhuk won an Olympic silver and then in their last competition won another silver at the 1968 World Championships. In 1965 Zhuk married the famous Soviet footballer Albert Shesternyov and after the 1968 World Championships Zhuk decided to end her competitive career to give a birth to a child. She later skated professionally with her old partner Gorelik in ice shows.