A little over a year ago, Connecticut ice dancer Hana Maria Aboian’s future as a figure skater was uncertain.
Her skating partnership of three years had ended, and the Woodbridge resident wasn’t sure what came next.
Halfway across the country, Daniil Veselukhin found himself in the same predicament. He had moved to Colorado Springs in 2022, uprooting his life in Kirov, Russia for a skating partnership that had just ended.
Now, Aboian, 14, and Veselukhin, 17 are skating together as an ice dance team and are headed to the 2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas on Jan. 20-26 as medal contenders in the junior division. There they will be making their debut on the national stage.
It’s been a whirlwind year for the young team who announced their partnership in December 2023. In their short time together, they’ve already won four international medals.
Training at Newington Arena has proved a grounding home for the team’s burgeoning partnership. Aboian and Veselukhin are coached by a pair of Olympians who once trained in Newington themselves, Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov.
Aboian and Veselukhin found each other on Ice Partner Search in 2023, after splitting with their previous skating partners. The website serves as a hub for ice dancers and pairs skaters who are seeking partners, and Aboian had been on the site for about six months, waiting for the perfect partner. While waiting, she turned to Gregory and Petukhov to hone her skating skills.
“It was definitely a tougher time for me because I had to learn a lot,” Aboian said. “I had to just start from the beginning and to really build my own skills. Melissa and Denis completely changed my skating skills.”
In late November 2023, Veselukhin’s mother called Aboian’s mother from Russia. They arranged a tryout for the following day. That one-day tryout became a month-long, extended tryout. That turned into a partnership and a relocation to Connecticut for Veselukhin. which they announced in an Instagram video shot by acclaimed skating videographer Jordan Cowan.
Though it was too late for the team to compete during the 2023-24 season, the pair got to work on their rhythm dance and free dance programs for the upcoming season.
Aboian and Veselukhin made their competitive debut in June 2024 at the Paradise Classic in Estero, Florida. Later that month, they skated at the highly competitive Chesapeake Open in Baltimore, Maryland, a competition that young ice dance teams often use to debut their new programs before the official start of the session. There, Aboian and Veselukhin won the free dance portion of the competition, beating seasoned teams and earning second place overall. A month later, the team won the Dallas Classic, beating out an even deeper field, including teams who represented the United States at the 2024 World Junior Championships and the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics. Later that month, they repeated the feat at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International.
These results earned Aboian and Veselukhin two assignments on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, where they represented the United States in Turkey and Thailand, winning bronze and silver medals, respectively.
“It was such an honor to represent Team USA,” Aboian said.
“I was filled with joy and happiness,” Veselukhin added. “I couldn’t imagine this moment could have happened in my life. It was a really big win for my family and me. I’m very glad to represent the United States of America, and I’m very thankful for everything they gave me,” he said.
Abioan was born in New Hampshire, after her parents, both doctors, met at a hospital. Her mother, Mariam, was born in Ukraine, and her father, Edouard, was born in the country of Georgia.
Veselukhin’s parents, Andrei and Olga, live in Odintsovo, Russia, where his sister and brother are professional dancers.
The Connecticut-based ice dance team communicates in English, though Aboian is able to speak in Russian, which is Veselukhin’s native language. Aboian learned it from her grandmother and spoke it with her parents when she was young.
The pair’s coaching team understands the dynamic well. In 2000, Petukhov moved to the United States to try out with several potential ice dance partners, including Gregory, who became his skating partner and then wife. After representing the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy, the pair returned to their training base at Newington Arena and began coaching. Now, they’ve set up Gregory & Petukhov International Skating Group, where they coach Aboian and Veselukhin and the reigning Italian junior ice dance champions, Noemi Tali and Noah Lafornara.
“Newington Arena has been very supportive of our club, providing all of the necessary opportunities for young athletes to come and train,” Petukhov said. Because the rink has been so accommodating, and has everything they need, the coaching team “decided to set up a base here and focus on high performance and host an international skating group right here in Connecticut.”
In November, exactly a year after their initial tryout, Aboian and Veselukhin solidified their lead over the domestic ice dance field by winning gold at the U.S. Ice Dance Final, which earned them a spot at the 2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Gregory and Petukhov will travel with the skaters to Wichita, Kansas, and stand rinkside as their young team takes the ice at the very event they medaled at every year between 2002 and 2007.
“Their commitment to the daily grind and their grit is what has made them improve so fast,” Gregory said. “They have special qualities. Hana is incredible with her extensions, and she was trained in ballet since she was very young, and she did gymnastics, so she’s very flexible. (Daniil) is very strong and powerful on the ice, so that compliments her beauty. The two of them together — they just hold something really special when they skate together.”
You can catch Aboian and Veselukin’s debut at the 2025 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championship streaming live on Peacock on Jan. 21 and 22 (the full schedule is available here).
