Born:
July 4, 1980

Biography

Ivan immigrated to Canada in 2003 to join his mother and sister, who had arrived a few years before. Initially, he had no plans to ski race after his career had stalled in Russia, but after moving to Canmore in the fall of 2003 and training with the Canadian team, he decided to pursue a skiing career once again. Without Canadian citizenship, he skied for Russia and was named to the Russian cross country ski team for the 2006 Olympics in Torino.

In December 2007 Ivan became a Canadian citizen and skied for the Canadian team starting in the 2008/2009 season. In January 2009 he won gold in the final (and most gruelling) stage of the Tour de Ski. His was the first World Cup victory by a Canadian man since Pierre Harvey’s win in 1988.

Ivan skied for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and again at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. In 2010 he was part of the men’s team which produced the best results ever at an Olympic Games in cross country skiing, including three top ten finishers in the 30 kilometre skiathlon (Ivan’s result in that race was 5th).

In individual World Cup skiing representing Canada, Ivan won one each of gold, silver and bronze in 2008, 2013 and 2014 respectively. In team skiing, Ivan won gold in the Men’s 4 x 10 kilometre Relay, while skiing for Russia in 2007.

Following his retirement from skiing in 2016, Ivan became Head Coach for the Canadian team for two seasons.

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Sources: Canada Olympic Committee, Wikipedia