For 24 years, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva looked every bit the champion on the ice. During those years, she became the 2015 World and European champion, won the 2014 Grand Prix Final, and later added a silver medal at the 2021 World Championships. She also became known for performing the triple Axel, a jump that demands technique and body control. However, maintaining that physical form was not always easy. When she reached puberty at around 16, her body began changing, and she struggled with weight gain. Now retired, the Russian skating star has opened up about the dangerous methods she once turned to in an attempt to control her weight.

 In an interview with Russian journalist Irina Shikhman, Tuktamysheva admitted that she used laxatives. “To be completely honest, I started taking weight-loss pills, laxatives,” she revealed. She explained that she first learned about these products through acquaintances in figure skating, where other girls shared information about them. What initially seemed like an easy way to control her weight soon became a habit that she found difficult to break.

Explaining how the pills affected her, Tuktamysheva said she felt her normal metabolism stopped working as it should. She also believed her body retained more water whenever she stopped taking them, making the number on the scale rise again. She eventually understood that the pills were not helping her lose fat or calories. Instead, they were causing her to lose water through bowel movements. However, knowing this did not immediately help her break the habit, as she remained worried about gaining weight again.

Describing how difficult it became to stop, the former world champion said, “It’s like a vicious circle: you need to take these pills to look normal, but at the same time, they are kind of ruining you.” She added that she found it difficult to go without them for long because she felt she started gaining weight again. Tuktamysheva also warned that the practice was dangerous, explaining how the temporary change on the weighing scale could make athletes believe everything was fine when it was not.

Her revelation also brought attention to how weight-related struggles were discussed within the figure-skating community.  Tuktamysheva said such topics were usually not discussed by coaches, whose main concerns were whether athletes remained in good shape and arrived at training on time. However, this was not the first time Tuktamysheva had spoken about her struggles with weight.

In a March 2023 interview with Sport-Express, she revealed that her problems began when she entered puberty. She admitted that she went through periods of overeating and starving herself while trying to find a way to control her weight. Strict diets did not help either, and she said she spent a long time believing she was naturally prone to gaining weight and would always have to count calories.

Interestingly, she made it clear that her coaches were not the ones telling her to lose weight. Instead, much of the pressure came from how she viewed herself. She admitted that she struggled to accept her changing body and began thinking that she did not look good enough. The constant worry also affected her training, as she said she spent so much mental energy thinking about her weight that she had less left for skating. Yet, these struggles were far from the beginning of her story, which started long before she became a World Champion.

Years of sacrifice made her a World Champion, but the Olympics remained out of reach

Tuktamysheva’s journey began in the small Russian town of Glazov, where she stepped onto the ice at just four and a half years old. Her introduction to figure skating happened almost by chance. Her father, Sergey, once took her to a sports camp, where she met a group of girls who were figure skaters. She became friends with them and wanted to join them on the ice. Her parents supported her interest, and she began training under her first coach, Svetlana Veretennikova.

However, growing up in Glazov meant she did not have the same training opportunities as skaters in bigger Russian cities. She had to share the rink with hockey players and other visitors. Despite these difficulties, she continued working and quickly began standing out among the other children. Her talent eventually caught the attention of renowned coach Alexei Mishin who invited the young skater to train in St. Petersburg.

That opportunity came with another challenge. Tuktamysheva had to travel between her hometown and St. Petersburg, spending weeks away from home while still a child. There were times when she wanted to quit because she missed her family and wanted to enjoy a normal childhood like her classmates. Things became even harder in 2011 when her father passed away. Losing him at just 14 was heartbreaking, but she continued skating with the support of her family and coaches.

Her hard work eventually began producing the results she had dreamed of. She won silver at the 2011 World Junior Championships and claimed the Russian national title in 2013. By then, she was considered one of the country’s promising young talents, with many expecting her to become an Olympic contender at the 2014 Sochi Games. But that opportunity never came.

The 2013-14 season proved difficult for Tuktamysheva. She struggled during the transition from junior to senior skating, while Russia had several strong female skaters competing for limited Olympic places. She missed selection for the Sochi Games, watching the competition from home instead of representing her country. Her disappointment did not end there. In March 2014, she broke her foot and spent three months away from the ice. After facing such a difficult period, many wondered whether she could return to her previous level. Tuktamysheva answered those doubts in the best possible way.

In 2015, she won the European Championships, the World Championships, and more. She had gone from missing the Olympic team to becoming the best female skater in the world. Yet, even that achievement could not guarantee her a place at the next Olympics. For the 2018 PyeongChang Games, she again failed to secure selection for the Russian team. Despite continuing to compete at a high level, she could not get ahead of the other Russian skaters fighting for the limited places. 

Her final opportunity came before the 2022 Beijing Olympics. This time, she put enormous effort into preparing her programmes and reaching the best possible form. She also won silver at the 2021 World Championships. However, Russia had three other leading female skaters who were selected ahead of her. 

What makes her story particularly striking is that she did not leave figure skating without achieving international success. She became a World and European champion, won the Grand Prix Final, and earned another World Championship medal in 2021. After spending more than two decades on the ice, Tuktamysheva officially announced her retirement from competitive figure skating on November 24, 2025, at the age of 28.