Background
Elizabet Tursynbayeva was born on 14 February 2000 in Moscow, Russia. She and her mother, Pashakan, settled in Toronto, Canada in May 2015, where she is currently home-schooled.
Elizabet Tursynbayeva was born on 14 February 2000 in Moscow, Russia. She and her mother, Pashakan, settled in Toronto, Canada in May 2015, where she is currently home-schooled.
She attended a special music school when she was living in Moscow.
Early career
As a child, she was coached by Natalia Dubinskaya and Alexander Shubin. She was also briefly coached by Elena Buianova and Svetlana Sokolovskaya from 2011 to 2012, before switching to Eteri Tutberidze. After finishing 13th at the 2013 Russian Junior Figure Skating Championships, Tursynbaeva made the decision skate for Kazakhstan, where her family originally comes from.
She had already briefly competed internationally for Kazakhstan at the Rooster Cup in April 2011.
Her coaching relationship with Tutberidze ended in 2013 because Russian coaches no longer had the right to work with non-Russian skaters during the 2014 Olympic year. Having difficulty finding a coach in Russia, Tursynbaeva and her mother wrote a letter to Brian Orser, whom she had always wanted as a coach, and sent him videos of her, asking if he could coach her.
Orser, impressed with her talent, responded, saying that he would love to work with her. 2013-2014 season
Before the 2013-2014 season, Tursynbayeva began training under Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson in Toronto, Canada.
She placed 5th at her second JGP event, in Tallinn, Estonia, and 11th at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
She ended her season with gold at the 2014 Triglav Trophy in Slovenia. 2014-2015 season
At the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Tursynbayeva placed seventh in the short program, fourth in the free skate, and fourth overall. Most of this season, Tursynbeva experienced visa problems, which meant that she spent only part of the season training in Toronto under Orser.
As a result, she had to spend most of the year training in a shopping mall ice rink in her hometown of Moscow with her mother.
2015-2016 season
Tursynbaeva became eligible to compete internationally at the senior level for the first time in the 2015-2016 season. She was invited to two Grand Prix events, the 2015 Skate America and 2015 Skate Canada International.
She began her season by winning silver at the 2015 United States. Classic and gold at 2015 Skate Canada Autumn Classic. Making her debut on the senior International Skating Union Grand Prix, Tursynbaeva placed 4th at 2015 Skate America and 7th at 2015 Skate Canada International.
Tursynbaeva finished in third behind Russians Polina Tsurskaya and Maria Sotskova at the 2016 Youth Olympic Games in ladies singles.
Senior level
Junior level