Sara Hurtado

Hurtado began skating in 2001.[5] Her mother signed her up for lessons when an ice rink opened nearby.[6] She competed in singles but became interested in switching to ice dancing in 2006, when Adrià Díaz asked her to attend a summer camp organized by the Spanish federation (FEDH) with French coach Romain Haguenauer.[7] Hurtado said, "We begged the Federation for two years, please, please, we want to do ice dance."[8] In early 2008, FEDH hired British coach John Dunn to teach ice dancing in Madrid.[8][3][9]

Hurtado/Díaz began competing together internationally in the 2008–09 season. Their first major international event was the 2009 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where they finished 32nd.

Hurtado/Díaz competed in two events on the Junior Grand Prix circuit and finished sixteenth at the 2010 World Junior Championships in The Hague, Netherlands.

Hurtado/Díaz competed on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, while also taking part in several senior internationals. They finished fifteenth at the 2011 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, won a bronze medal at the Bavarian Open, and finished fourth at the Winter Universiade.

They placed ninth at the World Junior Championships in Gangneung, South Korea. They then competed in Moscow, Russia, at their first senior World Championships; although the two qualified for the short dance out of the preliminary round, they were unable to reach the free dance portion of the event.

Hurtado/Díaz moved to London, England, in mid-2011 after Dunn accepted a coaching job in his native country.[6][10] In November, they competed at their first-ever Grand Prix event, the 2011 Trophée Éric Bompard, where they placed 8th (last). In December 2011, they ended their relationship with Dunn and relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to train under Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.[11][12][13]

Ranked twelfth in the short dance and seventeenth in the free dance, Hurtado/Díaz finished sixteenth at the 2012 European Championships in Sheffield, England. They qualified to the free dance at the 2012 World Championships in Nice, France, and finished nineteenth overall.

Hurtado/Díaz did not compete on the Grand Prix series. They placed 15th at the 2013 European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, and nineteenth at the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.

At the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy, Hurtado/Díaz became the first ice dancers to qualify an Olympic entry for Spain.[14] They had no Grand Prix assignments. In January 2014, they finished 10th at the 2014 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, allowing Spain to send two ice dancing teams to the next Europeans.[15]

One month later, Hurtado/Díaz competed at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia;[2] they set personal best scores in both segments and finished in thirteenth place. They ended their season with a sixteenth-place result at the 2014 World Championships in Saitama.

Returning to the Grand Prix series, Hurtado/Díaz placed eighth at the 2014 Skate Canada International and fourth at the 2014 Trophée Éric Bompard. They then achieved career-best ISU Championship results, finishing fifth with a new personal best score at the 2015 European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, and then fourteenth at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, China.

Hurtado/Díaz were invited to two Grand Prix events – the 2015 Trophée Éric Bompard and the 2015 Rostelecom Cup. However, on 16 October 2015, Hurtado announced on her personal Facebook page that she had decided to end the partnership.[16][17] In a later interview, Hurtado stated that their partnership had experienced problems for some time and that therapy had not helped resolve these issues.[18]

Hurtado and Russia's Kirill Khaliavin began considering skating together in late December 2015 and had a tryout in March 2016 in Moscow.[19][7] He was released to skate for Spain in September 2016.[20] They decided to be coached by Alexander Zhulin in Moscow.[21] Making their international debut, they won gold at the Santa Claus Cup, held in December 2016 in Hungary. Later in the month, they won the Spanish national title ahead of Olivia Smart / Adrià Díaz.

Hurtado/Khaliavin finished thirteenth at the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It was their final competition of the season. The Federación Española Deportes de Hielo (FEDH) selected Smart/Díaz to compete at the 2017 World Championships, the main Olympic-qualifying competition.[22] Their result allowed Spain to send one ice dancing team to the Olympics.

In July 2017, FEDH announced that Spain's Olympic spot in ice dancing would go to the team which received the highest combined score at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb and Spanish Championships.[23]

Hurtado/Khaliavin began their season in October with a sixth-place result at the 2017 CS Finlandia Trophy. The following month, they won gold at the Open d'Andorra. In December, they finished fourth at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, just 0.30 points behind bronze medalists Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker of the United States. They outscored Smart/Díaz by 4.18 points at Golden Spin and finished second at the Spanish Championships with a 3.23 deficit, resulting in a final advantage of 0.95 points. On 17 December 2017, FEDH announced that Hurtado/Khaliavin would compete at the European Championships and Olympics while Smart/Díaz would be assigned to the 2018 World Championships.[24][25]

In January, Hurtado/Khaliavin placed seventh in the short dance, tenth in the free dance, and eighth overall at the 2018 European Championships in Moscow. In February, they competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[26] Ranked twelfth in the short and eleventh in the free, the two finished twelfth overall.

The Spanish Federation had decided to send Olivia Smart and Adria Diaz to the World Championships and so Hurtado and Khaliavin got an early start to the upcoming season. However, before that, they went to Spain and met King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who invited all the Winter Olympians from PyeongChang.[27]

Hurtado/Khaliavin began their season with bronze at the 2018 CS Lombardia Trophy in September. The following month, making their Grand Prix debut, they placed fourth at the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki and then won silver at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup, becoming the first Spanish ice dancers to stand on a Grand Prix podium. Hurtado called the occasion "a goal and I dreamed of it when I saw Javier getting on the podium. It proves to skaters in Spain that you can be here when you work hard."[28]

After winning their second Spanish national title, Hurtado/Khaliavin competed at the 2019 European Championships, placing seventh, almost four points ahead of Smart/Díaz.[29] They were consequently assigned to Spain's lone dance spot for the 2019 World Championships, where they placed twelfth.

Beginning the season on the Challenger series at the 2019 CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial, Hurtado/Khaliavin took the silver medal.[30] They next won gold at the 2019 CS Ice Star. At their first Grand Prix assignment, the 2019 Skate Canada International, they placed fifth.[31] Weeks later at the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, they placed third in the rhythm dance. Hurtado said there was still "some little things in the technical aspect of the program" to fix, but that they felt the program was improving.[32] Third in the free dance as well, they won their second Grand Prix medal.[33]