Hektor Giotopoulos Moore is an Australian pair skater. With his skating partner, Anastasia Golubeva, he is the 2022 CS Warsaw Cup champion.
On the junior level, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore are two-time World silver medalists (2022 and 2023) and the 2022-23 Junior Grand Prix Final champions.
Personal life
Giotopoulos Moore was born on June 25, 2002, in Melbourne, Australia. He holds dual Australian-Greek citizenship, and is fluent in Russian, which he learned to speak while training in Moscow during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Career
Giotopoulos Moore began skating at the age of nine after developing an interest in pair skating from watching a pair team, coached by Galina and Andrei Pachin, performing a lift in practice at the Sydney Figure Skating Club. The Pachins agreed to train him after seeing how tall Giotopoulos Moore's father was and knowing that Giotopoulos Moore would likely grow to be tall enough to be a pair skater as well. In addition, he won the 2017 Australian Novice Championships as a singles skater.
Due to the difficulties of finding a suitable pair partner in Australia, Giotopoulos Moore and his coaches searched for potential partners abroad. He initially skated with Karina Akopova of Russia and Milania Vaananen of Finland but neither partnerships lasted. In the fall of 2019, Giotopoulos Moore had a try-out with Anastasia Golubeva, a singles skater from Moscow, after Galina and Andrei Pachin were able to get in contact with Golubeva's coach in Russia. Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore decided to team up following a successful try-out.
In February of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit while Giotopoulos Moore was training with Golubeva, whom had yet to obtain a visa to relocate to Australia, in Moscow. Due to lockdowns, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were unable to use Russian ice rinks to train so instead, they would meet daily to practice off-ice training. The pair would also temporarily train in Belarus because the country allowed a three-month visa-free entry.
The team would finally relocate to Sydney, Australia after the country re-opened its borders.
2021–22 season
Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore debuted as a pair team on the 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix and finished fifth at both their ISU Junior Grand Prix events in Russia and Austria. The pair would also go on to compete at the senior level the 2021–22 Challenger Series, placing eighth at the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy and tenth at the 2021 Golden Spin of Zagreb. At the 2022 Winter Star in Minsk, Belarus, Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore would win the gold medal.
Although the pair were assigned to compete at the 2022 World Championships in Montpellier, their plans were disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Due to Golubeva's Russian citizenship, they were unable to have a visa processed in time to travel to France, and withdrew from the event.
As a further result of the invasion, the International Skating Union banned all Russian and Belarusian skaters from participating in international competitions, which had a significant impact on the international pairs field. Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were assigned as well to the 2022 World Junior Championships, initially scheduled to be held in Sofia in March. However, due to both the invasion and COVID pandemic issues, Bulgaria renounced hosting the event, which was rescheduled for Tallinn in April. Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore placed second in the short program. They were second in the free skate as well, despite some minor errors, winning the silver medal. Golubeva said afterward that "this is my first medal. We have some little mistakes in the program, but overall we're very happy." They became the third Australian pair team to win a World Junior medal, after Cain/Cain in 1976 and Alexandrovskaya/Windsor in 2017.
2022–23 season
Although Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore were selected to compete on the Grand Prix circuit at 2022 Skate America and 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, the pair elected to compete on the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix instead. They were assigned to both Polish JGP events in Gdańsk, arriving at the first as the favourites to win, which they did by a wide margin. The gold medal was their first JGP medal. The following weekend they won their second event as well, despite a number of errors that caused Giotopoulos Mooere to say it "wasn't as good as last week." Their results qualified them for the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino, Italy.