Stephen Gogolev’s challenging decade-long journey from figure skating wunderkind to Olympian 

Athletes and coaches and the journalists who write about them use the phrase “Olympic journey” for good reason. 

The road to achieving a lifelong dream is never straight. There are obstacles to overcome and tangents that have to be taken. 

Figure skater Stephen Gogolev knows this all too well. 

He came to the attention of many fans when videos of him landing triple axels and quad salchows at just 10 years old appeared on social media. It didn’t seem to be a question of whether he would be a national champion and Olympian, just a matter of when. 

More than 10 years later, he could finally lay claim to both achievements at the ripe old age of 21. 

“It means everything to me because the past couple of years have been quite rough. A lot of injuries. A lot of doubts,” Gogolev said just after being officially named to Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026. 

READ: Team Canada’s Olympic figure skating team for Milano Cortina 2026 revealed

“Even though I might not show it, this is probably the most emotional I’ve felt in my life so far because it really showed that my hard work paid off this season.”

In the decade before he won his first senior men’s national title this past January, Gogolev hit many highs. 

He progressed up the national pathway the way a highly touted prospect should. Pre-novice gold medallist at the 2015 Canada Winter Games. Novice national champion in 2016. Junior national champion in 2017. He made his first appearance at the senior national championships in 2018 when he was just 13. A year later he was the national silver medallist just a month after his 14th birthday. 

He won gold at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in 2018-19 and finished fifth at that season’s ISU World Junior Championships. 

But then he went through what every teenager goes through: a growth spurt. Gogolev shot up from being about five feet to over six feet tall. It threw off the balance and coordination vital to landing the big jumps that had seemingly come so easy for him. It was also the start of recurring back problems that almost led to him considering hanging up his skates. 

In 2022, he began to deal with stress fractures in his lower lumbar spine. He missed a lot of training and withdrew from several competitions, including the 2024 Canadian Championships, a Grand Prix assignment in the fall of 2024, and the 2025 Canadian Championships. Even when he was able to compete, it was clear he was in pain as he popped planned quad jumps into doubles and triples into singles. 

Fans began to wonder: would we ever see his full potential realized? 

It’s amazing what a difference being healthy can make. 

“I think it helped me develop my discipline. It helped me develop confidence and be able to consistently train and prepare for the competitions and be able to compete the way I am,” Gogolev reflected about how well this season has gone.

Over the summer, he spent four months in Italy at a training camp hosted by coach Benoit Richaud working on “choreography, jumps, technique, everything”. He spent his time off the ice strengthening the core of his back and doing lots of rehab work and physiotherapy to prevent more injuries from happening. 

Gogolev showed up at Skate Canada’s high performance camp in late August ready with a new free skate to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 that featured three quads and two triple axels. He brought back his short program from the previous season, a medley of modern swing music by Royal Crown Revue, with two quads and a triple axel, matching the technical content of the top competitors in the world. 

“It’s a good contrast compared to the short program, which is more fun and playful, and the free program is more serious and classical,” he explained of his selections. 

His progress was on display at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September as he won his first gold medal in an ISU Challenger Series event. He took another big step up when he won his first ISU Grand Prix medal in November, taking bronze at Finlandia Trophy to share the podium with a couple of world championship medallists. Those results set him up as the top contender for the national title, which he won by a margin of 20 points. 

It put him on the podium at the Canadian championships for the first time since he was the wee 14-year-old in 2019. 

“I’m overjoyed right now,” said the man of few words after letting his skating do the talking. 

First up for Gogolev at Milano Cortina 2026 will be the team event, followed a few days later by the men’s singles event. If all goes well, he’ll skate four competitive programs in just seven days. 

But that’s what has kept him motivated through everything, the chance to show just what he’s capable of on Olympic ice.