Background
Deniss Vasiļjevs was born on 9 August 1999 in Daugavpils, Latvia. His mother is a former dancer.
Deniss Vasiļjevs was born on 9 August 1999 in Daugavpils, Latvia. His mother is a former dancer.
He enjoys drawing and he speaks 3 languages: Latvian, Russian and English. Vasiļjevs began skating in 2002. Due to his schooling, he spends part of the year training in Daugavpils.
His figure skating role models include Patrick Chan, Daisuke Takahashi, and Javier Fernandez.
2013−14 season: Junior Grand Prix debut
Vasiļjevs debuted on the International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix circuit in 2013, placing 7th in Riga, Latvia and 10th in Gdańsk, Poland. He was named in Latvia"s team to the World Junior Championships, held in March 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Ranked 11th in the short program, he qualified for the free skate where he placed 7th, pulling him up to 8th overall. 2014−15 season
During the 2014-2015 figure skating season, Vasiļjevs placed fourth at both of his Junior Grand Prix assignments, in Courchevel, France and Tallinn, Estonia.
In March, he finished 7th overall at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, having placed 8th in both segments.
2015−16 season: Senior international debut
Vasiļjevs began the 2015-2016 season by winning silver at both of his JGP events, in Riga, Latvia and Toruń, Poland. Making his senior international debut, he placed 5th at the 2015 Mordovian Ornament before taking the bronze medal at the 2015 Tallinn Trophy. In January 2016, Vasiļjevs was sent to his first senior International Skating Union Championship – the 2016 Europeans in Bratislava, Slovakia.
He finished 12th after placing 14th in the short program and 10th in the free skate.
In February, he competed in Hamar, Norway at the 2016 Youth Olympics. Ranked third in the short program and first in the free skate, he finished second overall with a total score 1.09 less than gold medalist Sōta Yamamoto of Japan.
Placing first in his segment, he lifted his team to the bronze medal. At the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, he placed 3rd in the short program, but finished 8th overall.
He won two medals at the 2016 Youth Olympics (silver in men"s singles and bronze in the team event) and two silver medals on the International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix series. He won the silver medal at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, held in January 2015 in Dornbirn, Austria. His silver is Latvia"s first Youth Olympic medal in figure skating.
Vasiļjevs was assigned to compete in the mixed NOC team event as a member of Team Discovery.
