Ice dancers training in West Palm eye Beijing Olympics

BOCA RATON — A skating duo — her from Boca Raton, him from Kazakhstan — hope to ice dance their way into the next Winter Olympics. And their path to competition runs through an ice rink in West Palm Beach, where a two-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion from Russia coaches them.

Maxine Weatherby, 19, came to South Florida by adoption. Her skating partner Temirlan “Tima” Yerzhanov, 24, came to the U.S. to continue training as a teen, and later followed another coach to the Sunshine State.

Their celebrated coach, Evgeny Platov? The 53-year-old and his wife thought Florida would be a great spot for a winter home, a place to dial back from decades of elite competition and the breakneck pace of a second career coaching world-class up-and-comers.

They moved to Hutchinson Island full-time five years ago. Platov took up golf.

That’s not to say Platov didn’t slowly return to the ice when he discovered a local ice rink — more on that in a bit. But he thought he was done working in the sport’s most exclusive circles.

Really, up until late 2018, Weatherby and Yerzhanov weren’t certain they’d be reaching those altitudes themselves.

Finding each other next door

Weatherby was the least accomplished of the three and at the time knew that if she were to continue competing it would be in ice dancing — the partnered competition that focuses on intricate footwork, choreography, and lifts as opposed to the jumps and throws of skating singles or doubles.

“I was never fond of jumps,” says the petite teen. “I really liked having a partner on the ice.”

But to get any further, she had lost one partner and needed to find another.

Yerzhanov was older, and had successfully competed internationally. He too had a history in singles and doubles, but at a time when he was considering hanging up his skates, around age 15, he got an invitation to try ice dancing instead.

He loved the change, but did not have luck keeping a partner. Circumstances caused him over time to run through four of them.

Heading into 2019, he needed a partner too.

The two, separated by five years in age and experience, were acquaintances, having passed each other on the ice as they practiced years earlier in Coral Springs.

Finding a skating partner is like finding a date — it usually involves a website. And first skates. And chemistry. Both were striking out.

Then Weatherby’s mom struck matchmaker gold. “What about Tima?” she said, admittedly aiming above her daughter’s rankings at the time, but not beyond the young woman’s potential.

“For a year I was skating by myself. People were coming from all over the states and other countries to try out. It was a last chance for me. And then they called,” Yerzhanov recalled.

“I hadn’t seen Maxine in a long time. I was shocked her skills got so much better. She’s also tiny, so I was thinking the lifts are going to be cool with her. And she’s really strong because she was a pairs skater,” he said.

“Funny, we were looking all over the world and she was 20 miles from us,” Platov said. He made the call without ever seeing them skate together in person.

“Two seconds of video. Done. It was fantastic. It just clicked,” Platov said. They were natural mirrors on the ice. Their lines matched. He later discovered their temperaments and work ethics were also in sync.

Back in the game

With that, Platov, who had recently discovered the joys of coaching youngsters and thought his life spending nights, weekends and holidays traveling the international circuit were behind him, found himself all-in once again.

The pair began training with Platov in West Palm Beach and with Platov’s former student John Kerr, a two-time British national ice dancing champion with sister Sinead Kerr, in Pembroke Pines.

In a field where partners skate years with one another before arriving at the world stage, Weatherby and Yerzhanov are speeding through the ranks.

After roughly a year together, the two had landed enough points in competitions — including a bronze medal for team Kazakhstan in Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten Memorial Challenge — that they were headed to Montreal for the World Championship in 2020 last March.

The bronze was particularly sweet for Yerzhanov, now a West Palm Beach resident, who was competing for the first time in his hometown and in front of his parents, who had remained in Kazakhstan and, to that point, had watched him only on video.

“That was one of my dreams to compete in my city, my hometown. I wanted to show everyone who I am. That I can skate. Some thought I wasn’t good enough. We were the only ones from Kazakhstan to medal,” he said.

Everything was coming together. And then COVID-19 undid the sports universe.

Not only could no one compete, but the ice rinks in South Florida were also closed. No place to practice. Nowhere to earn money — all three are instructors at the rink as well.

No slowdown

Weatherby and Yerzhanov took it in stride. He welcomed the first week to help his body recover from injuries. And then they started practicing lifts in the street in front of her house or his. They worked on their strength and choreography and waited.

The rink’s owner is no stranger to adversity.

Figure-skating enthusiast Lori Alf erected Palm Beach Ice Works in 2009, aiming to give locals a classy venue for training with an Olympic-sized rink. A month later, she was diagnosed with cancer. After becoming the sole survivor of an experimental treatment, Alf continued to battle the economics of ice.

Making money to stay afloat for the figure skaters requires also drawing in big players like hockey teams — sometimes putting the two at odds over access to the open ice, she said.

Being a home base for Platov, Weatherby and Yerzhanov to practice and also train others has made it all worth it, Alf said.

“When Evgeny came down to meet with me, I could tell he had a real passion for the sport. The rink was built as a gift to the community. We’ve dumped money into it to keep it open to the community. We have strict bullying policies. The coaches here are really about hard work,” Alf said. “Evgeny is a perfect fit for me. He’s a healthy person. He’s had a great career, but it’s not about jockeying to make it about him.”

This is something many comment on after meeting Platov, who has serious bragging rights. He and his partner Oksana Grishuk remain the only ice dancers ever to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 1994 in Norway and again in Japan in 1998. In those four years, they were unbeatable with 22 consecutive titles.

Even Platov will admit that Russian coaches are strict.

“They were hardcore in my times, kind of like Navy Seal training,” Platov said.

Training in his day meant leaving home at age 14 and rarely seeing your parents again, not even on Christmas.

He will also tell you that ice dancers then and now put more time on the ice than singles and doubles skaters and hockey players too.

While figure skaters must conquer jumps, an ice dancer’s every step is a point won or lost in a dance choreographed and scored by the seconds. When they aren’t on the ice, they’re studying ballet or are in the weight room.

Weatherby and Yerzhanov train four hours a day on the ice and at least an hour off six days a week.

Platov figures he’s tough, but not as tough as his former coaches.

“I want to fix that element. Fix that line. But also make them laugh. Make them a joy,” Platov said. He wants them to love the sport like his first coaches made him love it.

“To be honest, I was looking at quieter chapter,” Platov says with a distinct Russian accent. “Teach little kids. Be a little bit away from skating. But it didn’t happen.”

First, he was working with Yerzhanov. Then along came a perfect match in Weatherby. Now he can’t help thinking bigger.

COVID has given the pair more time to prepare. They have an invitation to the 2021 World Championship.

“Even if the Worlds are not in Sweden, all this work will not be wasted. They’ll be practicing and getting better day by day,” Platov said. “They’re improving pretty fast. They will be (a) pretty good team, maybe in the future, maybe top 10 in the world. That would be amazing. There are many teams in the world.”