Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin
The 2026 Olympic season has just begun for Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin. The 2025 World silver medalists presented their new programs for the first time in public at the test skates in Oberstdorf. The team, or rather Russian-born Volodin, has overcome another important hurdle on to their way to Milano Cortina 2026 after passing the German language and citizenship test that is required to receive the German passport.
“It for sure was exciting,” Hase said about debuting their programs in front of German Skating Union officials, some journalists, and fans. “It is always one of the most interesting parts to hear the first opinions from the judges, from the audience and the federation after the summer. I wouldn’t say that you are nervous, but you are a bit tense. We know that we love our programs, but it is a different story if other people like them as well.”
An Olympic season requires something special and that is what the skaters and their team put together: For the Short Program, they asked renowned French composer Maxime Rodriguez to write a Tango piece for them. The result is a passionate, strong piece entitled “El Abrazo” (“The Embrace”) and the program was choreographed by Mark Pillay and Paul Boll. For the Free Skate, the 2025 European champions turned to award-winning choreographer Benoît Richaud and selected music from the album Memoryhouse by neo-classical composer Max Richter.
“We feel like these programs can be really great,” Hase said. “Maxime has created something wonderful that does pair skating justice. There is beautiful Tango music, but the pieces are always oriented towards ice dance. Our Tango has more drama, more highlights and is adjusted to our elements. I think that makes this Tango so much more worthy for pair skating.”
Volodin agreed: “This music has been especially made for us, and it is really good for us. However, we still need to work on the program. We’ll now work with our choreography and dance coach Sidnei (Brandao) again on the emotional components to achieve a good presentation.”
For Hase, it has been a long-time dream to skate to a Tango. “It is a very elegant dance, but with a certain strength. Our choreographers said that our Blues from last season was a little preparation for the Tango and told us from the beginning that this season it has to be the Tango,” she said.
Richaud is well-known for his deep-reaching programs with a message, and he did not disappoint. He chose the tracks “Europe, After the Rain,” “November,” and “Last Days” from Richter’s debut album Memoryhouse.
“Working with Minerva and Nikita on their free program has been an inspiring artistic journey,” said Richaud. “Together we wanted to create something that begins in darkness and gradually opens toward light, a story that carries both fragility and strength. What moves me most is how they have made this choreography their own, transforming the steps and movements into something deeply personal and authentic. For me, it is not only a program for the Olympic season, but also a piece of art that reflects who they are as athletes and as people.”
In the opening pose, the couple is down on the ice, first turning away from each other and then leaning towards each other.
“This shows the point when you are at the bottom,” Hase explained of the theme. “You are without hope, there is a lot of chaos in your head, especially in mine, and I don’t find a way out. Nikita is there, leans towards me and tries to pull me up. He wants to show me a new perspective, and he presents the whole world to me. During the program we show that I am gaining more and more hope and find joy in life and maybe in figure skating again. At the end, we are performing the choreo sequence really big and want to take everyone with us.”
The program came across very well. “The judges told us right away what we need to change in the Short Program but that the Free Skate was a bit magical,” Volodin noted. “It will be a very good program when we are in top shape. This is our style, and we’ve skated to something like that before but now the level is higher. We like that we have two different programs.”
The team from Berlin is happy so far with how their preparation for the season has gone. They trained in Berlin and went to Courmayeur in Italy to build the Free Skate. Before the test skates, they participated in a training camp by their head coach Dmitri Savin in the Netherlands with an international group of Pairs.
“You do feel that it is an Olympic year,” Hase acknowledged. “The practice is somewhat tense because you think you need to be good right on the mark, you need to be better. The pressure and the stress are a bit more present than in the past years. But we’ve been training well through these phases and continued to work with concentration. We can say that we have taken a step forward and achieved what we planned.”
Notably the pair has improved their triple twist to get a level four and has included the throw triple flip into the Free Skate. They also have worked on their speed. “Now we feel like everything is coming together,” Hase said.
Programs and elements aside, there was one extra steppingstone for the two-time World medalists as Volodin needs to obtain German citizenship to be eligible to compete in the Olympic Games. He recently passed his language and citizenship exams. Hase was very relieved. “I saw that he was studying very hard but obviously there is a certain tension if it was enough or not. Now we can focus completely on our training and don’t have to think about tests anymore.”
Volodin shared that he studied with two teachers several hours a week and then daily the last two weeks before his exam. “It was a lot of stress,” the 26-year-old admitted. “I am very happy about the result, but I know I did a good job.”
For the citizenship exam, he needed to study 400 potential questions and their correct answers. He also had to pass a written and oral language test in German. His German has definitely improved as he did the interview for this article in German.
“I am continuing to study not for the test anymore, but more as a hobby. I started more than a year ago and do not want to stop now,” Volodin pointed out.
All necessary documents for naturalization have been submitted and Volodin expects to become a German citizen soon.
Hase and Volodin continue to prepare in their home base in Berlin and will start the competition season at the Challenger series Nebelhorn Trophy at the end of September. They also plan to attend the new ISU Challenger event in Tbilisii, Georgia, before their two ISU Grand Prix events: Skate Canada and Finlandia Trophy.
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