Actual.: 17.01.2026 23:31
Issued by: 17.01.2026, 18:03
Sheffield (Great Britain) – Czech figure skater Georgii Reshtenko sensationally won bronze at the European Championships. With a great free ride at the championship in Sheffield, he moved from eighth place after the short program and followed up on his coach Michal Březina with a surprising success after 13 years. The winner was Georgian Nika Egadze, who confirmed the lead after a short program with the best free ride.
Twenty-three-year-old Reshtenko followed up on a successful short program and once again showed off his famous jumping form on the ice in Sheffield. He started the free ride to the music from the movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service” with a great combination of a quadruple and triple toeloop, in the next course he also jumped a quadruple salchow and a second quadruple toeloop. He managed the other jumps with only minor flaws in his beauty, and even though he lost points again in the pirouettes, he improved his personal record from the European Championship 2024 by 5.72 points to 159.65 points.
In total, Reshtenko scored 238.17 points and established himself firmly at the head of the competition. “I was more tired at the end, but I did all the combinations, I made it to the end. The first race when I drove two clean runs, and just at the European Championship,” he boasted to Czech Television. In the end, he received a bronze reward for his performance, which was technically the second most valuable this afternoon.
Most of the high-ranking figure skaters made mistakes after a short program. Reshtenka was beaten only by the reigning champion of the championship, Egadze, who won the first major medal, and the experienced Italian Matteo Rizzo.
“I have no words at all, maybe I still don’t believe it at all. I have an awful lot of emotions in me, I can’t describe it,” Reshtenko responded to winning the bronze. He hugged coach Březina. “It was a very big moment for us, very big. I am very happy. I thank our team. We did it, from the first heat to the top three at the European Championship… I would never have believed it,” said the Czech representative, noting that in the short program he was placed in the weakest opening heat on paper.
Last year, Reshtenko was only twenty-third at the EC and thirty-first at the WC. He did not make it to the Olympic Games in Milan even in the fall from the additional qualification. As an unexpected European medalist, he will now present himself to the Czech audience at the World Championships in Prague in March.
In the history of the independent Czech Republic, Reshtenko is the fourth domestic medalist at the European Figure Skating Championships. Before him, alongside Březina, Tomáš Verner succeeded three times and in 1995 the sports couple Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný.
There was not much left, and Březina and his mentee could not experience the feelings after the unexpected bronze directly in the hall. “Because I’m still leaving Sheffield tonight, I almost went to the hotel after his start to pack my things. I actually stayed here by accident. But when I saw during the race that he could be fifth, I was happy. And then this… If someone had told me this before the championship, of course I would have thought he was crazy,” Březina described in the association’s press release. “But at the same time, he finally showed where he belongs – among the top. He had great training here all week, he showed it in the competition as well. I am most happy about that,” he added.
The Taschler dancers finished tenth at the EC, repeating last year’s ranking
Dancers Natálie and Filip Taschler finished tenth at the European Figure Skating Championships. They performed a solid free dance at the championship. Compared to rhythmic dance, they lost one place, but for the fourth time in a row they were placed in the top ten in Europe. The Frenchmen Laurence Fournierová-Beaudryová and Guillaume Cizeron triumphantly won their joint premiere at the EC.
The Taschlers, who have been training in Helsinki since the summer, followed up their successful rhythmic dance with a free dance performance to the music from the movie Matrix, without significant mistakes. They got 112.47 points for him, they came 1.18 points closer to their highest this year. They evaluated their performance positively. “We were connected to each other from beginning to end, we are satisfied,” Taschler boasted to Czech Television. “We’re satisfied, we just saw the technical side where we missed one level in each lift. That’s four to six points we’re missing. We have to ask about it and work on it,” added his sister.
Together with their coaches, they consider the European Championship a successful test of form. “This first big race gave us a lot of motivation for the two more important ones,” said Taschler, heading into February’s Olympics and March’s World Championships in Prague.
The Spaniards Olivia Smartová and Tim Dieck got ahead of the Czech representatives, who were only tenth after a broken rhythmic dance, but today they confirmed their long-term performance and moved to seventh place. With their tenth place, the Taschlers secured two places for the Czech Republic at the next European Championship. The Czech Republic has had two top dance couples in recent years. The junior world champions from 2023, Kateřina and Daniel Mrázek, did not compete at this EC due to Mrázek’s illness. Like the Taschlers, they will now be preparing for the February Olympics in Milan.
Already the sixth European gold brought the return to competitive figure skating to the 2022 Olympic champion Cizeron. With Canadian native Fournier-Beaudry in the free dance, he followed up on a dreamy style that brought him numerous successes, including five world titles with Gabrielle Papadakis. They received the highest mark of the evening and in total outclassed their opponents by more than twelve points. Cizeron returned to the European throne after seven years, his partner has the first European gold.
In the end, thirty-six-year-old Charlene Guignardová and Marco Fabbri, a year older, took silver. Shortly before the home Olympics, the Italian representatives overtook the home Brits Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson at their last EC thanks to a better free dance. They made a mistake in twizzles and after two European silvers, this time they have a bronze.
The competitive part of the championship in Sheffield ended with the free dances, which brought Reshtenka a shocking bronze and two other top ten finishes for the Czech Republic. These were taken care of by the Taschlers and also the sports couple Anna Valesiová and Martin Bidař.
EC in Figure Skating in Sheffield:
Men – final standings: 1. Egadze (Georgia) 273.00, 2. Rizzo (It.) 256.37, 3.Reshtenko (CZ) 238.27.
Dance couples – final order: 1. Fournierová-Beaudryová, Cizeron (Fr.) 222.43, 2. Guignardová, Fabbri (It.) 210.34, 3. Fearová, Gibson (Brit.) 209.51, …10. Taschlerová, Taschler (CZ) 189.47.
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