Roman Sadovsky


Roman Sadovsky is a Canadian figure skater. He is the 2020 Canadian national champion, the 2019 NHK Trophy bronze medalist, and a three-time ISU Challenger Series medalist. He also won five medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, including two gold medals.

Personal life

Sadovsky was born on May 31, 1999, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His parents moved to Canada from Ukraine. After attending Christ The King CES, he continued his education at Bill Crothers Secondary School.

Career

Early years

Sadovsky began learning to skate at the age of five years in order to play hockey. Tracey Wainman started coaching him when he was eight. Another early coach was Allen Carson.

2012–2013 season

Making his Junior Grand Prix debut, Sadovsky won a bronze medal in Lake Placid, New York, and placed tenth in Bled, Slovenia. He withdrew from the 2013 Canadian Championships due to a metatarsal fracture in his right foot on a growth plate near the toe.

2013–2014 season

Coached by Tracey Wainman and Grzegorz Filipowski at the York Region Skating Academy in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Sadovsky competed in two events of the 2013 Junior Grand Prix series, placing fourteenth in Riga, Latvia, and eighth in Minsk, Belarus. Nationally, he appeared on the senior level, finishing eighth at the 2014 Canadian Championships. He was selected for the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ranked fourteenth in the short program and twelfth in the free skate, he finished thirteenth overall.

2014–2015 season

Sadovsky's first assignment of the 2014 Junior Grand Prix series was in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Ranked first in the short program and third in the free skate, he finished first overall by a margin of 3.39 points over the silver medalist, Alexander Samarin. After the event, Sadovsky said his goal was to develop a solid triple Axel. He then went on to place fourth at his second JGP event in Dresden, Germany. With those results, Sadovsky qualified for the 2014 JGP Final and placed fifth.
At the 2015 Canadian Championships, Sadovsky placed fourth. He ended his season with a fourteenth-place finish at the 2015 World Junior Championships.

2015–2016 season

In the 2015 Junior Grand Prix season, Sadovsky was assigned to the first event, held in Bratislava, Slovakia. With a quad Salchow in the free skate — Sadovsky's first quad in competition — he won the gold medal with a total score 2.87 points ahead of Vincent Zhou of the United States. He then went on to win bronze at his second JGP event, in Toruń, Poland. These results qualified him for the 2015 JGP Final, where he was sixth. He represented Canada at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics and finished fourth. He was coached by Wainman and Filipowski.

2016–2017 season

Sadovsky changed coaches, joining Brian Orser and Lee Barkell at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club. He placed ninth at the 2017 Canadian Championships. Ranked ninth in the short program and twenty-third in the free skate, he finished seventeenth at the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan.

2017–2018 season

Sadovsky switched back to Wainman and Filipowski. Making his Grand Prix debut, he placed tenth at the 2017 Skate America. He finished seventh at the 2018 Canadian Championships.

2018–2019 season

Sadovsky began the season at the 2018 CS Autumn Classic International, where he placed fourth in both the short and free programs, winning the bronze medal, his first senior medal. Sadovsky landed his first quad toe loop jump in competition. He then placed twelfth at the 2018 Skate Canada International, after struggling in both of his programs, and won the silver medal at the 2018 Inge Solar Memorial.
Sadovsky placed fifth in the short program at the 2019 Canadian Championships, executing his open quadruple Salchow-triple toe loop combination cleanly, but popping a planned quad toe loop and receiving a negative Grade of Execution on his triple Axel. He dropped to seventh place overall following a difficult free skate.

2019–2020 season

Starting out the season on the Challenger series, Sadovsky won the bronze medal at the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy after placing third in the short program and fourth in the free skate. He called the short program "the best I've ever done", but said "the long could have been better."
Sadovsky placed tenth at Skate Canada International, his first Grand Prix assignment for the season. Competing next at the 2019 NHK Trophy, Sadovsky placed fourth in the short program despite making two jump errors, one of them costing him the second part of his combination. He was second in the free skate, making only two minor errors on his second triple Axel and closing triple Lutz, and placed third overall, taking his first even Grand Prix medal. He remarked "I’m still new to the senior Grand Prix circuit and there are some mistakes that need to be fixed. I hope this success on the senior Grand Prix will not be my last."
Entering the 2020 Canadian Championships as a contender for the title, Sadovsky placed third in the short program behind Keegan Messing and Nam Nguyen, having had two of his jumps called as underrotated. He then won the free skate, with only two minor jump errors on his triple loop and second triple Axel, while Messing and Nguyen both struggled. Sadovsky won his first national title by a margin of over seventeen points. Sadovsky was named to one of Canada's three men's berths at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, but Skate Canada declined to immediately decide who would be Canada's sole men's representative at the 2020 World Championships in Montreal. Sadovsky placed a poor sixteenth at Four Continents, and thus was not chosen for the World Championships, instead claimed by Nguyen.

Programs

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Detailed results

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals awarded for team results only.