Sergey Ustiugov

Sergey Ustiugov was born in Mezhdurechensky as one of the youngest children in a large family; he is of Mansi descent. He married junior cross-country ski champion Elena Soboleva on 9 August 2019. Their child, Kira, was born on 17 January 2020.

Amidst the doping accusations in Russia, several clean athletes, including Ustiugov, An and Shipulin, were not invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to participate at the 2018 Winter Olympics, including Ustiugov. Prior to the Olympics, Ustiugov participated at the 50 km marathon event of the Ski Classics series in Cortina d'Ampezzo, finishing third. After his appeal and that of 46 other athletes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were declined, Ustiugov participated at the Russian Cup created for dismissed athletes and won the team sprint with Alexander Legkov. He skipped the remaining stages that season.

On 23 October 2018, Ustiugov injured his finger while practicing in Val Senales with roller skis. Eight days later he was successfully operated in Moscow. He returned to practice on 4 November, and on 16 December he came back to sports in Davos, the eight stage of the new FIS World Cup season. Ustiugov finished 25th.

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2017 he started by winning silver medal in the sprint competition. Then he went on winning his first ever gold medal at the Championships in 30 km skiathlon. With Nikita Kriukov he won his second gold medal in team sprint.

In the new season, Ustiugov in January won the 2016-17 Tour de Ski. He won the first five stages and only in the sixth stage he lost the crown to Martin Johnsrud Sundby. In the last stage, the final climb, he started first and by saving the handycap won the overall tour. He was the second Russian after Legkov to win the Tour de Ski. Ustiugov also set a record for the most wins in succession (5). Before him, the record were four winning stages in a row, set by Johnsrud Sundby.

In the 2015–16 WC season, in January 2015, he won the team sprint event with Alexey Petukhov at a World Cup stage in Otepää. In Rybinsk he became runner-up in free style sprint and third in individual 15 km free style. He participated at the 2016 Tour de Ski, reaching third place overall. In the Nove Mesto stage he won silver and bronze in 15 km free style event and relay event, subsequently. In February he won the mass start 15 km free style event in Swedish Falun. At the season-ending Ski Tour Canada he became 2nd overall, reaching five times the pedestal.

In October, Ustyugov and other skiers including Evgeny Belov and Stanislav Volzhentsev got into a conflict with the Swiss-German coaching duo Burgermeister-Knaute, and so President of the Russian Federation of Cross-Country Skiing and main coach of the national Russian team Elena Vyalbe allowed to switch Ustiugov the coaching group; the new coach became German Markus Kramer, who also coached 2014 Olympic Champion Alexander Legkov and other sportsmen.

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Vale di Flemme, Ustiugov with his relay team claimed the bronze medal. In the individual 15 km free style race he became 47th. In the same year he reached a podium place for the first time in Davos on 15 December, finishing third in free style sprint. The next month he won a stage in the Czech Nové Město in free style sprint. He debuted at the 2014 Winter Olympics in sprint, where he became fifth after falling down near the final passage. In May 2014, Ustiugov moved to a separate group of the national team headed by the Swiss-German duo Reto Burgermeister/Isabel Knaute and so left the group headed by Oleg Perevozchikov.

In the 13th edition of the Tour de Ski, Ustiugov won the second stage in 15 km individual freestyle, exactly a year after his last victory. After finishing third, third and second in Sprint F, 15 km C Mass Start and 15 km C Pursuit, respectively, Ustiugov failed in Stage 6, 15 km C Mass Start in Val di Fiemme. In the third-last round he got tired and fell behind from the leaders, while his teammates Sobakarev, Larkov and Vylegzhanin took the leadership. The Russians were outskated by Klaebo and De Fabiani before the finish line. Ustiugov finished 16th. In the last pursuit climb stage he rebounded and won over a minute and almost reached exhausted Klaebo after showing strong climb performance. As a result he finished 2nd in the overall classification.

In 2011, Ustiugov won gold in sprint at the World Youth Cross-Country Skiing Championships in Otepää, Estonia. A year later he became four-times champion of the Youth Championships in Erzurum, Turkey, in the events sprint, 10 km race, skiatlon and relay as part of the Russian team. In 2013, he participated at the Junior Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic in the Under-23 classification, winning there two gold medals in 15 km free style and 30 km skiatlon. At the Junior Championships in Val di Fiemme in 2014 he won gold in individual sprint.

Ustiugov debuted on 6 February 2011 at the World Cup in the relay event. Overall, out of 31 spots on the podium in World Cup individual events, Ustiugov finished 12 times in the first place, 10 times in the second place and 9 times in the third place. His best overall ranking to date was 2nd place in the 2016–17 season.

Sergey Ustiugov started doing cross-country skiing in the biathlon section of the sports school of the settlement Mezhdurechensky in 2001. His main coach was Ivan Gennadievich Vragin.

Sergey Aleksandrovich Ustiugov (Russian: Сергей Александрович Устюгов ; born 8 April 1992) is a Russian cross-country skier, world champion and Tour de Ski winner.

Ustiugov did not start well in the next season, finishing 23rd in the Ruka Triple. However, between the Ruka Triple and the Tour de Ski, he rebounded and finished three times as runner-up in three different disciplines (sprint, individual and pursuit). At first he started well to defend the Tour de Ski title after he finished first, tenth and second in Lenzerheide, in sprint, individual and pursuit, respectively, beginning with the next stage he always finished beyond the top-10 position and in the pursuit climb did not participate, leaving him without a place in the overall tour ranking; during the mass start stage in Val di Fiemme he finished with pain in the back and so could not participate in the deciding stage.