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Alena was born on November 23, 1990, in Leningrad. She started skating when she wasn’t even 4 years old, after her mother chanced upon an advertisement in the street, saying that a sports school was recruiting children to practise in a figure skating group. On reading this Tatiana Leonova remembered the horoscope she ordered after her daughter’s birth; it had foretold that Alena would achieve great results in sport. So the Leonovs decided to give it a try. From the very start Alena proved to be a most gifted kid, her progress was remarkably good. Lots of prizes and videos kept at the Leonovs’ show that she was among the best skaters at the Crystal skating rink.
 At first Alena was coached by Marina Vahrameeva, then at the age of 10 moved to Alla Piatova and Tatiana Mishina’s group training at the Yubileiniy stadium. Shortly after that the group split and Alena stayed with Piatova. It was then that the training spells became really intense, but a long time had passed before Alena started winning any events. The reason was obvious: because of the 6 years spent practising at a rather small skating rink her skating skills left much to be desired. Moreover, by the time Alena came to the Yubileiniy, she could make only underrotated double jumps, even though she was already 10 years old. During some 4 or 5 years Alena never so much as entered the notable Crystal Skate junior competition, and definitely wasn’t among the top 10 best female skaters at the Yubileiniy.
Only at 14 did she enter her first Cup of Russia event (a national level competition, not to be confused with the ISU Grand Prix Cup of Russia) but still could not make it through to the Final, because to achieve this one had to enter two events. But as the time passed, Alena’s results, thanks to her indefatigable industry and enthusiasm, were gradually improving. Dreams of success didn’t seem to be castles in the air any more.
In the 2006-2007 season Alena participated in Russian Junior Nationals and took the silver medal, then went on to her first World Junior Championships and placed 12th. Next year she improved her result at Junior Worlds, finishing in 6th place, but placed only 7th at the Russian National Championships held in St. Petersburg.
In the 2008-2009 season Alena debuted at senior level international events. She took part in ISU Grand Prix Cup of China (7th place) and Cup of Russia (5th place), but once again didn’t succeed in winning Russian Nationals. It turned out, though, that the disappointing 5th place didn’t mean the end of the season for Alena. Upon the recommendation given by the coaches’ council, Russian Figure Skating Federation decided to include Leonova in the Russian national team.
At the 2009 European Championships Alena finished in 4th place, receiving the highest technical score among all the contenders. Such success impelled Russian Figure Skating Federation to send Leonova to her third Junior Worlds. Though it was a rather unexpected decision, Alena won the event over such worthy rivals as Caroline Zhang and Ashley Wagner.
Then the newly crowned World Junior Champion went on to participate in her first senior World Championships in Los Angeles. There she once again showed brilliant peformances, achieving new personal best scores for her short program, free skate and overall score. Being a debutant, Alena finished in 7th place, meanwile surpassing all her European rivals except the reigning European Champion Laura Lepistö.
At the very end of her fabulous 2008-2009 season Alena Leonova participated in the first ISU World Team Trophy held in Japan (6th place). Beside figure skating, Alena is keen on dancing. She likes to stage shows for the guests at family parties (together with her younger sister Katya and brother Roma), as well as to take part in dancing performances at school and training camps.At present Alena attends College of Olympic Reserve №2.
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