The 39-year-old former world and European champion was named during the unveiling ceremony for the Olympic and Paralympic Torch design, making him the 37th person to join the team of Ambassadors, which includes the likes of Nikita Kriukov, Olga Zavialova and Sergey Shilov, for next year's Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sochi 2014 President and chief executive Dmitry Chernyshenko also awarded the figure skater, who claimed his Winter Games silver medal at Salt Lake City 2002 with former wife Irina Lobacheva, an honorary diploma.


"I'm very pleased that the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torches have been unveiled," said Averbukh, who is currently playing an active role in a number of projects being run by Sochi 2014.

"We have lots of great events to look forward to in 2013.

"We're getting closer and closer to the Sochi Games with each passing day and it's a great honour for me to become part of the team of Sochi 2014 Ambassadors.

"Together we will do everything in our power to spread the excitement of the Winter Olympic Games of 2014."


At the London 2012 Olympics, Averbukh organised a unique ice show – the first of its scale to have been staged overseas – at Sochi.Park, which was watched by over 12,000 spectators.

Called "Sochi: small stories of a big city", the spectacle featured some of the biggest stars from the world of figure skating, including six Olympic champions and 18 world champions, such as Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, Aleksei Yagudin, Ilya Averbukh, Tatiana Totmyanina and Maksim Marinin.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]