Nikita Katsalapov

Ilinykh/Katsalapov decided to team up again in spring 2008 after she returned to Russia.[2][3] They began training again with Alexander Zhulin in Moscow and began competing together in the 2008–09 season, placing fourth at the Russian Junior Championships.

During the 2009–10 season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov competed for the first time on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. At their first event, the event in Budapest, Hungary, they won the gold medal. At their second event, in Torun, Poland, they won a second gold medal and qualified for the JGP Final. After winning the silver medal behind Ksenia Monko / Kirill Khaliavin at the Final and at the Russian Junior Championships, they moved past them to win gold at the 2010 World Junior Championships. They were named Discovery of the Year at the 2010 Crystal Ice Awards held in October 2010 in Moscow.[4][5]

For the 2010–11 season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov chose a ballet-themed free dance to Don Quixote: "[Zhulin] wanted us to do something classical Russian, and only very few people have done a real ballet program in dance."[6] Ilinykh's tutu was made at the Bolshoi.[6] They made their senior debut at the 2010 NHK Trophy where they finished fourth. At their next event, 2010 Cup of Russia, they won the bronze medal, their first medal on the senior Grand Prix series. At the 2011 Russian Nationals, they were second after the short dance behind Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev but placed fourth in the free dance to finish third overall behind Ekaterina Riazanova / Ilia Tkachenko.[7] However, their bronze medal was enough to earn them their first berth to the European Championships.

At the 2011 Europeans, Ilinykh/Katsalapov set new personal bests in the short dance (60.93), free dance (92.55) and combined total (153.48) to finish fourth in their debut at the event.[6] They were in a battle with Riazanova/Tkachenko for Russia's second of only two berths to the 2011 World Championships. By finishing ahead of them, Ilinykh/Katsalapov won the right to make their senior Worlds debut. They finished seventh at the event. Following the end of the season, they ended their collaboration with Alexander Zhulin and Oleg Volkov to begin working with new coach Nikolai Morozov in May 2011.[8][9][10] During the off-season, they spent some time in the U.S. preparing for the 2011–12 season.[11]

For the 2011–12 Grand Prix season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov were assigned to 2011 NHK Trophy and 2011 Trophée Eric Bompard. At NHK Trophy, they placed first in the short dance[12] but in the warm-up before the free dance Ilinykh crashed into the boards and injured her knee.[13] The couple finished the competition, winning the bronze medal, but withdrew from the exhibitions.[13] Ilinykh/Katsalapov then finished fourth at the 2011 Trophee Eric Bompard. They won the silver medal at the 2012 Russian Championships. At the 2012 European Championships, Ilinykh/Katsalapov were seventh in the short dance but set a personal best in their free dance, resulting in an overall total of 153.12 points. They won the bronze medal at the event and then performed with Art on Ice.[14] Ilinykh/Katsalapov finished 5th—the highest of the three Russian teams—at the 2012 World Championships.[15] Their final event of the season was the 2012 World Team Trophy.

Ilinykh/Katsalapov started their season with gold at the 2012 Crystal Skate of Romania. They won silver at their first 2012–13 Grand Prix event, the 2012 Rostelecom Cup. At the 2012 NHK Trophy, Ilinykh/Katsalapov were third after the short dance. Ilinykh fell ill before the free dance due to food poisoning but went on to compete. They placed second in the segment and won the silver medal. They qualified for the 2012 Grand Prix Final in Sochi, Russia, and finished sixth at the event. At the 2013 Russian Championships, Ilinykh/Katsalapov won the silver medal behind defending national champions Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev. At the 2013 European Championships, they placed second in the short dance and first in the free dance. They won the silver medal, just 0.11 of a point behind gold medalists Bobrova/Soloviev. Ilinykh/Katsalapov finished 9th at the 2013 World Championships.

Katsalapov at the awarding ceremony for Russian athletes with President Vladimir Putin

Ilinykh/Katsalapov's first assignment of the 2013–14 Grand Prix season was the 2013 NHK Trophy where they placed fourth. At their next event, the 2013 Trophee Eric Bompard, they scored personal bests in both segments, finishing with an overall score of 171.89 points and winning the silver medal ahead of French ice dancers Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat.

Ilinykh/Katsalapov won their third national silver medal at the 2014 Russian Championships behind Bobrova/Soloviev and then won silver at the 2014 European Championships with an overall score 1.1 points less than gold medalists Cappellini/Lanotte. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Ilinykh/Katsalapov were assigned to the free dance in the inaugural team event. They placed third in their segment and Team Russia won the gold medal. Ilinykh/Katsalapov then won the bronze medal in the individual ice dancing event behind champions Meryl Davis / Charlie White and silver medalists Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir. They scored personal bests in both segments and an overall total of 183.48 points.

The next month, Ilinykh/Katsalapov traveled to Saitama, Japan for the 2014 World Championships. On 26 March 2014, just before the short dance, ITAR-TASS reported that they would split after the competition.[16] Katsalapov had a serious error on the twizzles and they placed fifth in the short dance. Despite winning the next segment, they finished off the podium in the closely contested event. Their total score was just 1.05 less than the gold medalists. On 4 April 2014, Katsalapov confirmed to Ilinykh that he wanted to end their partnership.[17]

Sinitsina/Katsalapov made their competitive debut at the 2014 Rostelecom Cup, a Grand Prix event in Moscow; they placed fourth in both segments and finished well behind their former partners.[20] At the 2014 NHK Trophy, they finished fifth in the short dance, eighth in the free dance after falling on one lift and aborting another, and eighth overall. They were fourth at the 2015 Russian Championships.[21]

A stress fracture in his foot that kept Katsalapov off the ice in early 2015 recurred in the summer of 2015, keeping the duo out of test skates organized by the FSFR. Competing in the 2015–16 Grand Prix series, Sinitsina/Katsalapov won the silver medal at the 2015 Skate America, obtaining the highest total technical elements score in the free dance, and then bronze at the 2015 Rostelecom Cup, behind Italians Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte. They were the second highest-ranked Russian couple in the Grand Prix rankings, behind Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev who also won one silver and one bronze but had a higher total short dance score, and were the first alternates for the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final. In December, Sinitsina/Katsalapov won the silver medal behind Bobrova/Soloviev at the 2016 Russian Championships in Yekaterinburg.

In January, Sinitsina/Katsalapov finished fourth behind Bobrova/Soloviev at the 2016 European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia. They placed ninth at the 2016 World Championships in Boston.[22]

In mid-2016, Sinitsina/Katsalapov returned to train in Moscow, naming Oleg Volkov as their coach. They later added Elena Tchaikovskaya to their coaching team.[23]

At their Grand Prix events they first placed fourth at the 2016 Cup of China and then fifth at the 2016 NHK Trophy. At the 2017 Russian Championships they won the bronze medal but finished only tenth at the 2017 European Championships.

Sinitsina/Katsalapov were scheduled for the later Grand Prix events NHK Trophy and Skate America in November.[24] Before their Grand Prix events they skated one Challenger event, the 2017 CS Minsk-Arena Ice Star, where they won the bronze medal. At their Grand Prix events they first placed fourth at the 2017 NHK Trophy and then they won the bronze medal at the 2017 Skate America. At the 2018 Russian Championships they had to withdrew after the short dance.

Sinitsina/Katsalapov at the 2019 World Championships

Sinitsina/Katsalapov started their season at the 2018 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy where they won the gold medal with a personal best score of 196.42 points. [25] In late October they won the silver medal at the 2018 Skate Canada. In late November they won their second Grand Prix silver medal of the season at the 2018 Internationaux de France. At this event they also scored their personal best score of 200.38 points. With two Grand Prix silver medals they qualified for the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final. At the Grand Prix Final, Sinitsina/Katsalapov won the silver medal after placing third in the rhythm dance and second in the free dance. At this event they also scored their personal best score of 201.37 points.

At the 2019 Russian Championships, Sinitsina/Katsalapov placed first in both the rhythm and free dances, taking the Russian national title for the first time in their careers.[26]

Sinitsina/Katsalapov were medal favourites going into the 2019 European Championships, but encountered issues in the rhythm dance when first Katsalapov and then Sinitsina fell during their twizzle sequence. They placed fifth in the rhythm dance, almost nine points behind the third-place team, and effectively out of medal contention. Katsalapov was uncertain as to the cause, saying "I don’t know exactly what happened. I can’t excuse it or justify it."[27] They placed third in the free dance, winning a bronze small medal, with Katsalapov saying that they "fought hard to show the beautiful choreography of our program and avoid any stupid mistakes."[28]

At the 2019 World Championships, Sinitsina/Katsalapov placed second in both segments, winning the silver medal, their first Worlds medal together. Katsalapov said he was "pleased to get a medal. We will try our best for consistency and clean performances."[29] Subsequently, they were assigned to the 2019 World Team Trophy, finishing second in both dance segments, and winning the bronze medal as part of Team Russia.[30]

Sinitsina/Katsalapov started their season at the 2019 CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial, where they won the gold medal.[31] On the Grand Prix, they began at the 2019 Cup of China, where they placed first in the rhythm dance with a new personal best score.[32] The finished second in the free dance, behind Madison Chock/Evan Bates, but their rhythm dance lead was sufficient to give them the gold medal. Katsalapov said they were "not pleased with our performance today", and hoped that they would show improvement the following week.[33] At the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, they won the gold medal. Katsalapov said they looked forward to showing their "very best" at the Grand Prix Final.[34][35] Competing at the Final, they unexpectedly placed fourth in the rhythm dance after a number of technical issues, leading him to comment "I made a mistake on the twizzles and realized that level would be definitely reduced. But looking at the points and levels, it seems that everything was bad."[36] In the free dance, they came sixth out of the six teams after losing levels on a number of elements and Sinitsina having a technical fall in their choreographic sliding movement, and dropped to sixth overall.[37]

Competing at the 2020 Russian Championships, Sinitsina/Katsalapov placed first in the rhythm dance despite a slight loss of balance by Katsalapov in his twizzle sequence.[38] Second in the free dance, they nevertheless won their second national title.[39]