Marina Pestova
pair skater
Marina Nikolayevna Pestova, married surname: Akbarov, (Russian: Марина Николаевна Пестова, born 20 December 1964) is a former pair skater who competed for the Soviet Union. With her skating partner, Stanislav Leonovich, she became a two-time World medalist (silver in 1982, bronze in 1980), a two-time European medalist (silver in 1982, bronze in 1980), and a three-time Soviet national champion. The pair competed at the 1980 Winter Olympics, placing fourth.
Personal life
Pestova was born on 20 December 1964 in Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. She married fellow pair skater Marat Akbarov, with whom she has a daughter, Angela.
Career
Early years
Pestova began skating in 1968 at the Spartak Skating Club in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) with coach Igor Ksenofontov. She moved to Moscow in 1976 to train with Stanislav Zhuk. In the 1976–77 season, she competed in partnership with Mikhail Vazhenin.
Partnership with Leonovich
Pestova teamed up with Stanislav Leonovich in 1977. In the 1977–78 season, they won silver at the Soviet Championships and were granted their European and World Championship debuts, placing 7th at both competitions.
“Marina Pestova” enters the record as pair skater. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Marina, Pestova and pair can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q516518. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1982, 1980 and 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marina Pestova” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.