“This season was a little bit tough for us,” Isabella Flores admitted in January at the 2024 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Flores and her partner Ivan Desyatov faced unusual challenges during 2023-24, but were nevertheless able to end their season on a high note.

Flores, 20, and Desyatov, 23–better known as “Bella” and “Vanya”–originally teamed up in June 2022. Previously, Flores had competed for the United States with Dmitri Tsarevski, winning a junior National pewter medal and two Junior Grand Prix medals in 2021. The duo were highly ranked on the junior scene before their split.  

Desyatov, meanwhile, started his skating career in his hometown of Moscow, Russia. His mother was originally from Nizhyn, a city in eastern Ukraine, while his father was from Saratov, in southern Russia.

“I went to a public skate at four years old. My first coach saw me, and came to my mom and said, ‘Take this girl to figure skating.’ Because I was pretty small and with long hair,” Desyatov recounted, smiling. “When my mom said that I was a boy, the coach said, ‘Then you definitely have to! Because there are not a lot of boys in figure skating.’ And here I am.” 

Desyatov started ice dance around age 11 with coach Alexei Gorshkov and had two partners in Russia, Irina Khavronina and Ekaterina Andreeva. In the 2021-22 season, Andreeva and Desyatov switched to represent Belarus, training under Alexander Zhulin. The team broke up at the end of that season.

Desyatov then came to Colorado Springs in the United States, where he started training under coach Elena Dostatni and teamed up with Flores. His transition to America was made easier because Dostatni is also originally from Russia.

“When I first came, my English was, like, zero,” Desyatov said. “When Bella said something to me, I was just–”  [Makes puzzled face.]

“He’d do a slow nod,” Flores said with a laugh. “I’ve learned some Russian. Vanya teaches me, and I’ve been around Elena for almost thirteen years now. So my grammar is not the best, but I can pick up some conversation.”

“Kind of like my English,” said Desyatov, grinning. 

The Russian skater is still finding his niche in America.

“You can adapt to it–learn the culture, the language. It’s just difficult to find friends,” Desyatov said of his new home. “I miss my friends from Moscow so much. But I’ve found a lot of Russian-speaking people who moved to America one or two years ago, since the war. Most of them are Ukrainian, but it’s not a problem, all cultures here are great, and it is nothing like what [is in] politics.” Many of the Russian-speaking expatriates who Desyatov has befriended in Colorado are not skaters, according to Flores.

After they partnered up, Flores and Desyatov quickly drew notice with a top 10 finish at last year’s 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. This season, the duo were hoping to start their international career together. However, trouble cropped up shortly after 2023 Nationals.

“At the end of last season, we found out that Vanya was not going to be [immediately] released from the Belarus skating federation. So we were on standby for the entire first half of the year,” Flores explained. “We didn’t know what the deal was, and we were just hoping that he would get a release at some point. Then, the Belarus federation requested that we pay a sum of money [$25,000] to compensate for the costs that had accumulated when he was skating under their federation. He had only skated with them for one season. When we found out, we were like–what?”  

“It was stressful. It bothered us,” Desyatov said. 

Fans come to the rescue

Flores and Desyatov were unsure how they could come up with the sum requested for his release. It was also unclear what would happen if they didn’t pay up. 

“We had the option to just wait things out,” Flores said. “But there was no guarantee that he would get released at all. Skating is an expensive sport, and to be willing to give up another [competitive] season, or maybe two seasons, it just really isn’t a possibility for most skaters, I don’t think.”

Feeling in a bind, Flores and Desyatov decided they needed help. In early June 2023, they launched a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help their cause. Fortunately, their “village,” so to speak, is a large one. Flores, who is active on Instagram, has one of the biggest fan bases among figure skaters on the platform: 256K+ followers. With such a large group of supporters, in addition to their family and friends, Flores and Desyatov were able to raise $18,000–the majority of the requested amount–through their GoFundMe. 

“It was really amazing. We definitely got a lot more support than we ever anticipated, and we’re super-grateful for that,” Flores said. 

“I don’t know what it would have taken [to get] this money, if not for all of them,” Desyatov added of their fans.

“And I don’t know what we would have done without the release,” Flores admitted. “We were very lucky.”

Finally competing internationally

By the time they finally secured Desyatov’s release, the fall international season was almost over. 

“The first international [competition] we had for the season, Golden Spin of Zagreb, was the very last Challenger [Series event] that we could go to,” Flores said. 

Golden Spin took place in Croatia in early December. Despite their lack of competitive experience this season, Flores and Desyatov won a bronze medal, beating several teams who later made the free dance at Worlds. It was a terrific start to their international career.

“We were lucky to get to Croatia and have such a great result there. It definitely boosted our confidence coming back,” Flores said.

Pleased as they were to compete in Zagreb, it did somewhat complicate their preparations for the U.S. Championships. Upon returning from Golden Spin, Flores and Desyatov had to re-acclimatize to altitude conditions in Colorado Springs, high in the Rocky Mountains, while also trying to ramp up for Nationals. 

“When we compete, the altitude is almost always, if not at sea level, near that. And Colorado Springs is 6000+ feet in elevation. So when you come back to altitude, the first two weeks are miserable,” Flores noted. “After even a week away, it takes a little bit to build back up.”

“And [training for] Nationals is just more difficult,” Desyatov said. 

“I think all athletes can agree that leading up to Nationals is really stressful,” Flores added. “You definitely felt the tension in the rink, leading up to this event. It’s physically hard, mentally hard, and you’re stressed out. But the second you arrive at the event, I’ve always felt like you get into competition mode.” 

U.S. Championships: A test

Flores and Desyatov came into Nationals without the international experience of many of their competitors. But they were encouraged by the support of their fans in the audience. Flores and Desyatov could also rely on one of their greatest strengths: Their charisma. The duo are both natural performers on the ice, with great chemistry and an ability to connect with audiences. Their programs for this season–an 80s rock rhythm dance to Def Leppard and a romantic free dance to ballads from West Side Story–were both potential crowd-pleasers.

“We really loved both programs. We felt that the West Side Story free dance was kind of more ‘me,’” Flores said of their music selections. “So when we were picking the rhythm dance music, we wanted to balance it out.”

“The rhythm dance is more like my style of music, what I’m listening to,” Desyatov said.

Flores and Desyatov placed ninth in the rhythm dance at Nationals after Flores had a slight wobble on a twizzle. But they came blazing back in the free dance. Their emotional performance and stunning lifts captivated the crowd in Columbus and brought them to their feet with a thunderous standing ovation, not usually seen for a couple lower in the standings. It was a thrilling moment for the team, and they pulled up to sixth in the free dance and seventh overall–improving three spots from the previous year’s finish.

Afterward, Flores and Desyatov were all smiles in the mixed zone.

“It was awesome. It was like an out-of-body experience,” Flores said. “We’ve never performed in front of a crowd like this, and it was really cool. We went into our curve lift–it’s our second-to-last lift–and the crowd went crazy. And I got so excited. It was really incredible. I’m upside-down, and I just hear the crowd roar.”

Asked if the sudden roar was distracting, Desyatov said: “Not at all. It’s the opposite. I’m focused on how we’re giving each other our energy.”

“For me, it makes me feel like I’m flying, almost. Which is a good feeling for lifts,” Flores added. 

After Nationals, Flores and Desyatov went on to compete once more internationally in February at Egna Dance Trophy in Italy. They won the rhythm dance in Egna and took the silver medal overall. It was another strong result in a season that– although shorter than hoped for–was unquestionably successful.