“It is something I have been training for 14 years now,” Valanov told NRK, as the Norwegian broadcaster profiled him this week.

The 17-year-old, born in December 2008, has spent more than a decade working on the hardest men’s elements in Bergen. At the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Batumi, Georgia from 24 to 26 September, ISU records now show his personal best stands at 198.11 points, 64.68 in the short program and 133.43 in the free. There he landed what no male skater from his country had done in competition: a quadruple followed by a triple.

Valanov trains at Loddefjord Idrettslag under coaches Kristina Sontum and Jurijs Salmanovs, splitting his year between Bergen and Teplice in the Czech Republic. He is a three-time Norwegian junior champion and finished 33rd at the 2026 World Junior Championships.

Staying in a sport other boys walked away from

Regina Jensen, his club’s sports director, told NRK the sport sets a high physical bar.

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“Figure skating is among the toughest sports.”

For Valanov, the harder part may have been staying in a sport that other boys told him was not for them.

“I heard things like that a lot in primary school,” he said.

“I took it to heart back then, when I was younger.”

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“I know for myself what figure skating demands.”

‘I want to be historic’

For him, the records are not the point.

“What Norway has lacked is a male role model in figure skating.”

“I really hope boys can look up to me.”

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“I want to be historic.”

Senior debut and a 2030 target

Valanov is moving up to senior level this season, skating to “Un Giorno Per Noi” from Romeo and Juliet in the short and two Benjamin Clementine pieces in the free. His immediate targets, as he told NRK, are the European Championships and the World Championships this season, with the 2030 Winter Olympics as the longer goal.

“We are not saying we will try. We will.”

The European Championships run from 27 to 31 January 2027 at the Vaudoise Aréna in Lausanne, Switzerland. The World Championships follow from 17 to 21 March 2027 at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.

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