Sofía Val

Sofía Val
Val/Colmor Jepsen at 2019 Junior Worlds
Born	(2004-11-14) 14 November 2004 (age 19) Madrid, Spain
Hometown	Madrid
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 4+1⁄2 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Spain
Partner	Asaf Kazimov (2022–present) Nikita Vitryanyuk (2021–2022) Linus Colmor Jepsen (2018–2020)
Coach	Kirill Khaliavin Sara Hurtado Ksenia Monko Oscar Muñoz
Skating club	SK International Ice Dance School
Began skating	2009

Sofía Val (born 14 November 2004) is a Spanish ice dancer. With her current skating partner, Asaf Kazimov, she is the 2023 Trophée Métropole Nice champion.

With her former partners, Linus Colmor Jepsen (2018, 2019) and Nikita Vitryanyuk (2021), she is a three-time Spanish junior national champion.

Val was born on 14 November 2004 in Madrid, Spain to parents Virginia and Miguel Ángel.^[1] As of 2023, Val is a psychology student at the Universidad Camilo José Cela.^[2][3]

Val made the decision to transition from single skating to ice dance in 2018 after watching the sport on television and becoming inspired to try it. She relocated with her mother from their home in Torrelodones to Lyon, France in July 2018 to train under Muriel Zazoui and Olivier Schoenfelder, teamed with then 17-year-old Danish skater Linus Colmor Jepsen.^[4]

Val/Colmor Jepsen won their first Spanish junior national title in December 2018, just five months after forming their partnership. They next made their international junior debut at the Bavarian Open in February 2019 where they placed ninth of 22 in the junior ice dance category. The skaters concluded their season at the 2019 World Junior Championships the following month, narrowly missing the cutoff to advance to the free dance portion of the competition with a 21st-place finish in the rhythm dance.^[5]

Val/Colmor Jepsen opened their second competitive season on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) circuit, debuting at the 2019 JGP France with a 16th-place finish. They improved upon this placement at their second assignment, the 2019 JGP Croatia, finishing thirteenth.^[5]

In between the conclusion of their JGP season and their second Spanish Championships in December, Val/Colmor Jepsen competed at two international junior B events – the 2019 Open d'Andorra and the 2019 Bosphorus Cup, placing sixth and fifth respectively. The team capped off 2019 with their second junior national title.^[5]

Val/Colmor Jepsen's spring competition schedule mirrored that of their previous season, with appearances at the Bavarian Open and 2020 Junior Worlds. In Oberstdorf, Val/Colmor Jepsen finished seventh in the junior dance field, and at Junior Worlds the team managed to advance to the free dance with a 20th-place finish in the rhythm dance, qualifying in the final progressing slot. The Spaniards placed seventeenth in the rhythm dance for an eighteenth-place finish overall.^[5]

Val announced the end of her partnership with Colmor Jepsen on June 13, 2020.^[6] She remained with her coaching team in Lyon with the intention of seeking a new partner.^[7]

Val remained without a partner for the majority of the 2020–21 season despite traveling abroad on a number of occasions for tryouts with potential prospects. In February 2021, Val tried out with Russian-Cypriot skater Nikita Vitryanyuk in Lyon, and the two skaters elected to form a partnership in March.^[8]

Val/Vitryanyuk debuted for Spain at the 2021 JGP Slovenia in September. There, the recently formed team placed sixth in the rhythm dance and eighth in the free dance for a sixth-place finish overall. They faltered in the free dance at their next JGP assignment, the 2021 JGP Austria, finishing eleventh overall.^[9]

Val/Vitryanyuk competed at several international junior B events throughout the fall of 2021, including the 2021 Ice Challenge where they won the bronze medal behind Canadian champions D'Alessandro/Waddell and Czech sibling team Mrázková/Mrázek. In December, the team won the junior ice dance title at the 2021 Spanish Figure Skating Championships, Val's third national title in ice dance.^[9]

Despite their recent success, Val/Vitryanyuk ended their partnership in January, citing a difference in opinion on training location. Vitryanyuk hoped to relocate their training base to Moscow, a move that was not feasible for Val and her family, leading the team to split.^[10]

Following the end of her short-lived partnership with Vitryanyuk, Val returned to her hometown of Madrid to train under former Olympic ice dancers Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin.^[3] She briefly formed a partnership with Russian skater Alexander Gnedin, but the pairing did not last.^[11] In August 2022, Hurtado reached out to Russian-German skater Asaf Kazimov, whose three-year partnership with Viktoriia Lopusova had recently ended, to arrange a tryout with Val. Kazimov traveled to Madrid in October for a five-day trial skate, and he and Val made the decision to team up for her native Spain not long after.^[3]

The new team was ineligible to compete internationally until January 2023 when Kazimov received his release from the German Ice Skating Union. Val/Kazimov debuted at the 2023 Challenge Cup at the end of February where they placed sixth of fourteen and secured their technical minimum scores to be eligible to compete at the 2023 World Championships.^[12]

At the World Championships in March, Val/Kazimov placed thirtieth in the rhythm dance and did not advance to the free dance portion of the competition.^[12]

Val/Kazimov opened their first full competitive season with a thirteenth-place finish at the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial. They set new personal bests in both segments of competition, as well as overall, at their next ISU Challenger Series assignment, the 2023 CS Budapest Trophy, where they placed sixth. The team won their first international medal a week later at the 2023 Trophée Métropole Nice, taking the title ahead of Lithuanian and Chinese teams Ramanauskaitė/Kizala and Xiao/He.^[12]

Competing at their first Spanish Championships in December, Val/Kazimov won the silver medal behind the new team Smart/Dieck.^[13] Despite the latter being the national champions, it was initially announced by the Spanish federation that Val/Kazimov would represent the country at the 2024 European and World Championships. Following controversy around the criteria used to arrive at this result, on December 27 the Spanish federation announced that Smart/Dieck would instead be given the country's lone World Championship berth, while Val/Kazimov would go to the European Championships.^[14][15]

In the rhythm dance at the European Championships in Kaunas, Val lost a level on her twizzle sequence, and both partners had low levels on their step sequences. They were twenty-third in the segment, and missed the cut for the free dance.^[16]

CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

• Sofia VAL / Asaf KAZIMOV at the International Skating Union
• Sofia VAL / Nikita VITRYANYUK at the International Skating Union
• Sofia VAL / Linus COLMOR JEPSEN at the International Skating Union