Career
Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov met at the rink when they were six years old and began skating together in 1967. They had their breakthrough during the 1974–1975 season. They were third at the Soviet Championships, behind Lyudmila Pakhomova/Aleksandr Gorshkov and Natalia Linichuk/Gennadi Karponosov, and placed just off the podium at the 1975 European Championships.
However, they then went on to capture their first World title at the World Championships, in the absence of Pakhomova/Gorshkov but moving ahead of a few teams ranked higher than them earlier in the season, including Linichuk/Karpanosov.
The next season, Moiseeva and Minenkov were again ranked behind Linichuk/Karponosov at the Soviet Championships but edged past them in international competition to be second only to Pakhomova/Gorshkov. The 1976–1977 season was the most successful for Moiseeva and Minenkov.
The couple trained at VSS Trud in Moscow. They were coached by Tatiana Tarasova, Lyudmila Pakhomova, and Natalia Dubova.
Tarasova coached them for ten years, beginning in 1969.
Olympic champions Torvill and Dean considered them one of their greatest influences. With Moiseeva.