Aliona Sergeevna Kostornaia (; born 24 August 2003) is a Russian figure skater. As a singles skater, she is the 2020 European champion, the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final champion, a six-time Grand Prix medalist (including gold at the 2019 Internationaux de France and the 2019 NHK Trophy), and the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy champion. Competing domestically, she is a three-time Russian senior national medalist (silver 2020, bronze 2018 and 2019). She previously held the world record for the highest senior short program score in women's skating.
At the junior level, Kostornaia is the 2018 Junior World silver medalist, the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, and a two-time Russian junior national silver medalist (2018, 2019). She currently holds the world record for the highest junior short program score in women's skating.
Kostornaia is the 10th woman in history to have landed the triple Axel jump in a senior international competition. Kostornaia is the third woman after teammate Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Rika Kihira of Japan to attempt and land the maximum number of triple jumps allowed in one senior international competition: four in the short program and eight in the free skate (see Zayak rule). She first accomplished this at the 2019 Internationaux de France, and later landed all 12 triples cleanly at the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final.
Personal life Kostornaia was born on 24 August 2003 in Moscow to parents Sergei and Tatiana. She has a younger brother, Stepan. Although she registers her name as "Alena" with the ISU, Kostornaia uses the romanization of "Aliona" on her official Instagram account. In a May 2020 Q&A with former teammate Anna Shcherbakova, Kostornaia stated that she wants to become a neurosurgeon once she retires from figure skating.
In her free time, Kostornaia enjoys horseback riding and as such often received horse and unicorn stuffed toys from fans. She also has several pets, including a rabbit gifted to her by her fans, a cat, and a Maltipoo named Audrey. Kostornaia is a supporter of FC Lokomotiv Moscow.
As of September 2021, Kostornaia is a student studying psychology at the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism.
Kostornaia married her skating partner, Georgy Kunitsa, on 11 August 2023, following a brief engagement. On 25 April 2025, Kostornaia announced via an Instagram video that she was pregnant. On 3 October 2025, Kostornaia and Kunitsa announced the birth of their son Dmitry Kunitsa via Instagram. He was born on 28 September 2025.
Career
Single skating
Early years Kostornaia began learning to skate in 2007. Her parents initially put her in skating as a way to channel her energy. From 2012 to 2017, she was coached by Elena Zhgun in Moscow.
Kostornaia sustained an injury in 2016. She finished 16th at the 2017 Russian Junior Championships. Eteri Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov became her coaches in 2017.
2017–2018 season: Junior international debut Kostornaia's international debut was in early October 2017, at a 2017–18 ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) competition in Gdańsk, Poland; ranked first in the short program and second in the free skate, she won the gold medal by a margin of 1.36 points over the silver medalist, her training partner Daria Panenkova. She won silver behind Sofia Samodurova at JGP Italy by a margin of 0.04 points. Her placements qualified her for the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, where she won silver, placing second in the short program and first in the free skate. At the senior level, Kostornaia won bronze at the 2018 Russian Figure Skating Championships. She later won silver at the 2018 Russian Junior Championships behind teammate Alexandra Trusova by a margin of 0.58 points.
In March 2018, Kostornaia competed at the 2018 World Junior Championships. She placed second in the short program and the free skate, winning the silver medal behind Trusova.
2018–2019 season: Junior Grand Prix Final champion
Kostornaia learned to perform a triple Axel in the preceding year, and originally planned to introduce it in competition. However, she lost the jump following growth during the offseason. Kostornaia started her season by competing in the 2018 JGP series. She won the gold medal at her first JGP event of the season in Linz, Austria. She was ranked first in both the short program and the free skate and won the gold medal by a margin of more than 11 points over the silver medalist, her teammate Alena Kanysheva.
She skated her second JGP event of the season at JGP Ostrava, where she again placed first in both the short program and the free skate. She won the gold medal by a margin of about two points over the silver medalist, Kim Ye-lim. With two JGP victories, she qualified for the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final, where she won the gold medal after placing first in both the short program and the free skate. She outscored her teammate and training partner Trusova by about 2.5 points. At this event, Kostornaia scored her personal best score of 217.98 points, and also set a new junior record for the short program (76.32 points).
At the 2019 Russian Championships, Kostornaia placed third in the short program due to a fall during her step sequence, which she attributed to being "too relaxed" as she was nearing the end of the program and had already completed all of her jumping passes. She then placed third in the free skate as well, winning her second consecutive national bronze medal.
Kostornaia participated in the 2019 Russian Junior Championships, winning the short program and placing second in the free skate. She placed second overall, winning her second consecutive junior national silver medal. After the event, she was named to the Russian team for the 2019 World Junior Championships along with training mates Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova. However, on 4 March, the first day of the event, Kostornaia withdrew from the competition due to a medical condition, subsequently revealed by choreographer Daniil Gleikhengauz to be leg inflammation that required four weeks away from training. She was replaced by Ksenia Sinitsyna.
2019–2020 season: Undefeated senior international debut and European title
For her programs, Kostornaia retained her short program from the previous season and revised a Twilight–themed exhibition program from the previous year to serve as her free skate, citing how much she enjoyed skating it. Shortly after debuting her programs at the Russian test skates, Kostornaia resumed training the triple Axel jump. Kostornaia debuted on the senior international level at the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy, where she placed first in both the short program and free skate. She incorporated two triple Axels in her free skate, becoming the tenth woman in history to land the jump in an international competition, and earned a total combined score of 234.84, 22.31 points ahead of silver medalist Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.
Making her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Internationaux de France, Kostornaia ranked first in the short program, incorporating a triple Axel into it for the first time. She then became the fourth woman ever, after Mao Asada, Rika Kihira and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, to land two fully rotated triple Axels in a free skate, placing first in the segment with a personal best score of 159.45 points. She took the gold medal over training mate and reigning World and Olympic champion Alina Zagitova by a margin of 19.94 points. At the 2019 NHK Trophy, Kostornaia performed a clean skate with a successful triple Axel to place first in the short program, 5.15 points over Rika Kihira, who also landed a triple Axel, and set a new world record score of 85.04 for the ladies' short program at the senior level. In the free, she again placed first and won the event with a personal best total score of 240.00. Kostornaia became the top qualifier for the Grand Prix Final in Torino, with two gold medal finishes and 30 points overall.
At the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final, she broke her own world record by scoring 85.45 points in the short program, placing first. In spite of having the only clean free skate amongst the ladies, Kostornaia ranked second in that segment, 0.51 point behind teammate Anna Shcherbakova. However, her lead from the short program was enough to not only win the title by almost seven points over Shcherbakova, but also to break the world record in the combined total score, previously held by Alexandra Trusova. She became the fifth figure skater in any discipline to win the Junior Grand Prix Final and Grand Prix Final in consecutive years. Kostornaia competed next at the 2020 Russian National championships, where she again won the short program, setting a ten-point lead over second-place Anna Shcherbakova. However, she placed second in the free skate, due to mistakes on her double Axel and triple flip-triple toe loop combination. She received the silver medal, two points behind Shcherbakova, and secured a spot on the European and World teams.
At the 2020 European Championships, Kostornaia was in the lead following a clean short program. She placed second in the free skate behind Shcherbakova, receiving a deduction for falling on her last jumping pass, a triple Lutz, but still scored enough to claim the European title by three points. Upon being interviewed after her victory, she expressed surprise at the results, as she had not expected to win in light of the mistake.
After the 2020 World Championships were cancelled over concern about the COVID-19 pandemic, Kostornaia officially ended her season undefeated at every international competition of her senior debut.
2020–2021 season: Coaching changes and COVID-19
On 31 July 2020, it was announced by Russian media outlet R-Sport that Kostornaia had chosen to part ways with Tutberidze to train in the camp of coach Evgeni Plushenko. This news was first reported by Tutberidze herself via Instagram where she claimed that the split was due to Kostornaia's refusal to share the ice with other teammates. Kostornaia herself initially declined to comment on her departure. Although she left Tutberidze with two new programs set, including a new free program to three variations of Lovely by Billie Eilish and Khalid, Plushenko stated in an interview with TASS that he and his team would set two more new programs for Kostornaia for the season, potentially with international choreographers. While her new short program ended up being choreographed by her coach, Sergei Rozanov, her new free program was choreographed remotely by Canadian former ice dancer and choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
At the 2020 Russian test skate event, Kostornaia only performed her short program as her free program was not finalized due to limited training time. Plushenko also stated that Kostornaia was recovering from an unspecified injury and had not yet returned to top form. Due to the injury and late coaching change, Kostornaia was assigned to the final two events in the 2020–21 Russian Cup series, a domestic competition series used to determine qualification to the Russian Figure Skating Championships. She was also assigned to compete at the 2020 Rostelecom Cup.