Ivan Arzhanikov

Hero / Idol	US speed skater Shani Davis. (Athlete, 02 Nov 2014)
Awards and honours	He holds the title of Master of Sport of International Class in Kazakhstan. (Athlete, 19 Nov 2021; skating.kz, 26 Oct 2021)

When and where did you begin this sport?

He took up the sport at age 10 in Petropavl, Kazakhstan.

instagram.com/ivanarzhan

Memorable sporting achievement

Winning gold in the 1500m at the 2018 World University Championships in Minsk, Belarus. (Athlete, 18 Nov 2021)

Reason for choosing this sport	"From a very young age, I was an active, athletic, coordinated child. In the courtyard, we often played football, played various outdoor games, and I was good at them. At age nine, I signed up for a football group, trained for six months, but our coach left for a month to referee and our training stopped. At that moment, my first skating coach Irina Bubenshchikova came to recruit at school. I decided to go and try it. And I was sucked in. I liked the sport for its diversity. Cycling, roller skating, skating, weightlifting, swimming, running, game training. The main reason [for taking up the sport] was probably the variety of athletic training and speed."
Name of coach	Dmitry Babenko [national], KAZ; Aleksey Yesin [consultant], RUS; Anton Surovyatkin [personal], KAZ

Hobbies

Reading, playing computer games, chess. (Athlete, 19 Nov 2021)

Club / Team

Dynamo: Kazakhstan