In March, Israeli ice dancers Shira Ichilov and Mikhail Nosovytskyi placed 30th in the rhythm dance at the ISU 2026 World Figure Skating Championships. When the duo reached the mixed zone in Prague, they already knew they would not qualify for the free program. Yet Ichilov and Nosovytskyi were in high spirits nonetheless, clearly thrilled just to compete at their first Worlds together. Both spoke of how grateful they are for their new partnership, and how happy they are to skate together. 

Ichilov and Nosovytskyi were certainly not strangers before teaming up. The two ice dancers both compete for Israel and had actually trained in the same group in Hackensack, NJ, for eight years, with previous partners. Yet, their backgrounds in ice dance are quite different. The two skaters shared some of their story with us in an interview in Prague. Off the ice, Ichilov comes across as vivacious and friendly, while Nosovytskyi is quieter, with a wry sense of humor.

Different paths

Mikhail “Misha” Nosovytskyi was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and started ice dancing with his twin sister Mariia (“Masha”) when they were very young. The twin siblings skated together for 16 years in total, achieved top 20 results at the European Figure Skating Championships in 2023 and 2024, and also competed twice at Worlds. 

However, the last few years of their partnership weren’t easy. Masha was dealing with some personal issues, while Misha felt limited artistically by their sibling status. Midway through the 2024-25 season, Masha decided to step away from the sport. She returned to Kyiv, where she is now coaching and attending university. “She’s enjoying life without skating,” said her brother.

While Nosovytskyi had only ever had one partner, it was the opposite for Ichilov. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ichilov came to the U.S. to train in 2016. Over the next eight years, she had four different partners, but could not find the right match. Some of her partners were much older than her, while others were not at a compatible skill level. The last Olympic season (2021-22) proved particularly frustrating. 

“I had two partners quit on me [that] season,” Ichilov said. “We went to the Olympic qualification [event] in Oberstdorf four years ago [with Laurent Abecassis]. We finished the free dance, and he was like: ‘We didn’t qualify. I’m done skating.’ Then I found another partner [Volodomyr Byelikov], and three months after we started, we went to Worlds. We did really well [placing 21st]. Then the week after, he was like: ‘I want to go work somewhere. I don’t want to skate any more.’’ And that was the end of another partnership. 

Ichilov continued skating and tried to stay optimistic. “I felt like I could be a good skater. But I didn’t have the partner to do it with,” she said. “Every time, there was something that bothered me to get to my goal.”

How it all happened

Everything changed in the spring of 2025. When his sister decided to step away from the sport, Nosovytski knew immediately he wanted to continue.

“I started looking for a partner the same day,” he said. He had two tryouts that didn’t work out. Then Boris Chait, the longtime president of the Israeli figure skating federation, asked Nosovytskyi if he would be interested in trying out with Ichilov. Nosovytskyi quickly said yes.

“Boris was like, ‘Okay, let me call Shira. She’ll come to my house, I’ll talk to her. And if she says yes, I’ll call you back,’” Nosovytskyi recalled. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll take an Uber over there if she says yes.’ The moment I saw his call, I was like, ‘Yes! I’m getting an Uber!’’ He and Ichilov laughed at this memory. 

Their first on-ice tryout went very well. 

“We knew right away,” Ichilov said. “We knew it was going to work.”

“It was from the first ten minutes,” Nosovytskyi agreed. “We held each other’s hand, and it’s like, Okay.”

A tight-knit team

Their coach, Galit Chait Moracci, was on board as well with the new partnership. And that was a key piece to the puzzle. Both Nosovytskyi and Ichilov are open about how important–even vital–Chait Moracci is to their career.

“She’s the hero,” said Nosovytskyi.

“She is the engine for us. We’re just the car–she’s the engine,” Ichilov said. “Honestly, we can’t– We couldn’t do it without her. She’s a part of this partnership. I don’t see us with any other coach, ever.”

“No. I said once, if it’s not Galit, I’m done,” Nosovytskyi stated. “I think she’s the only coach.”

“The main thing is that she understands us so well,” Ichilov added. “We don’t even have to talk for [her] to know what we need, or want. I think it’s important that you have a coach like that.”

Galit Chait Moracci was born in Israel and became the country’s first successful international competitor in figure skating, with her longtime ice dance partner, Sergei Sakhnovski. Chait and Sakhnoski represented Israel at three Olympic Games, won a World bronze medal in 2002, finished top 10 at Worlds seven more times, and also qualified for five Grand Prix Finals. After her retirement, Chait married and began coaching in the New York/New Jersey area, where her family had moved when she was a child. Her parents, Boris and Irene Chait, also live in the area, traveling to Israel as needed.

The duo’s close connection to Chait Moracci surely stems from the fact that she is not just a coach, but also a role model.

For Ichilov, her connection with Chait Moracci goes way back.

“My dad used to work at the [Israeli skating] federation, and Boris and Galit knew my dad for a long time. One time she gave my dad a gift–a picture of her and Sergei, with their signatures. My dad put it in my room,” said Ichilov. “Two years after I moved to the U.S., I came home and I’m like, ‘Oh, is that new? That’s Galit.’ And my dad’s like, ‘No, it’s been there from the day you were born.’” 

Ichilov started as a roller skater in Israel. Since the country historically has had few ice skating rinks, roller skating was more popular than figure skating. Plus, Ichilov’s mother was a roller skating coach. When Ichilov was around 11, a new ice rink opened in Holon, Israel.

“Boris was talking to my dad, and he was like, ‘She should try [figure] skating.’ Then when I was 12–actually, it was the week right before my bat mitzvah–I stepped on the ice for the first time. And, at 13, I moved to New Jersey to train with Galit,” Ichilov said.

The transition from roller skating to figure skating had its challenges. It was Chait Moracci who made the leap possible for Ichilov.

“Everybody says it’s the same. It’s so not the same,” Ichilov said. “Okay, the idea is the same. But let me tell you, when I came to Galit, I didn’t even know how to do crossovers. I was just skating, like public skaters [on a public session]. She had to teach me. I couldn’t do anything. I only started actually doing something, I would say, a year after I came to Galit. She taught me how to skate–from the beginning, from doing crossovers to cross rolls. She was nine months pregnant with her son, Matteo, and she was trying to teach me how to do lunges. I came with zero knowledge of figure skating, of technique, of everything. People at twelve already compete in JGPs [Junior Grand Prixs]. And I was like, ‘What is a JGP?’”

Chait Moracci was also an idol for Nosovytskyi as a young skater. 

“I remember the first time I saw Galit. It was at a big competition for Ukrainians–it was the Ukrainian Open in 2013–and I was the kid who was collecting the toys on the ice,” Nosovytskyi recalled. “That’s the first time I saw Galit. And I never thought she would sit with me in the World Championships, in the kiss-and-cry.”

It was several years later when Nosovytskyi’s path again crossed the Chaits’–and became further entwined.  

“It was [at the] Final Cup in Ukraine in 2017,” Nosovytskyi said. “One of the judges from Israel was there. He was like, ‘I think you should speak to Boris.’ We spoke to him, and we started collecting documents to prove that we’re Jews. In December, we went to the first national championships in Israel. And then in June or July [2018], we came to the United States to skate with Galit.”

So the ties between Ichilov, Nosovytskyi, and the Chaits run deep.

“It’s our whole team and our environment. It’s … different,” Ichilov said. “We appreciate what they do for us. Because, especially for me, in Israel– Without them, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t. Galit and her parents–Boris and Irene–they’re the ones who are giving the opportunities to the little skater in Israel to do it. So I just appreciate what they do for us.”

A fresh beginning

Ichilov and Nosovytskyi announced their partnership in May 2025. They were excited, but also realistic and tempered in their expectations. 

“I think for this partnership, we both came a little more mature and a little more, just, respectful, and really honored that we get to do this sport, because we love it so much,” Ichilov said.

Ichilov and Nosovytskyi are both 23 years old (Ichilov will turn 24 on August 8). So they know they have plenty of time to develop as a team, in a discipline where careers often now extend well past age 30.

“I think we have the same goal, and we can slowly do it together. I want to have a long career,” Ichilov said. “I finally feel like we can take our time to build our partnership.”

“In ice dance, it’s step by step. We don’t have to rush,” Nosovytskyi agreed. 

Since the couple skated in the same group for so long, they already understood each other’s training style. Still, there were some nuances to learn.

“I think one of the pluses I brought, at the beginning, is that I do know how to skate with different boys,” Ichilov said. “We just had to learn each other’s technique, a little bit, to melt into each other.”

The couple opted to re-use the Muse Exogenesis: Part 3 free dance that Nosovytskyi had during his final, shortened season with his sister Masha. They went to Novi, Michigan, to have Igor Shpilband choreograph their 1990s rhythm dance.

For Nosovytskyi, one of the biggest adjustments in the new partnership is how different it feels from an artistic/presentation standpoint.

“I just think as a brother and sister, you have very limited options of what you can skate to,” Ichilov observed. Ichilov, who is a naturally expressive and charismatic performer, now feels she can let loose even more with her emotions on the ice. 

“Me and my sister, of course, we couldn’t show any expression to each other, any of the feelings that I have with Shira,” he said. “It was 16 years in the same style. With Shira, we can show something more than that. I feel a little bit more confident now.” 

“I feel like I can be more free. Because I trust him–he’s there, he’s [got] my back, he’ll get me,” she said. “So I can be as extra as I want, and as I love to do. If anything, sometimes he’ll be like, Okay, here you’ve got to go less [with expression]. Or my coach will be like, Here, you’ve got to go less. Because sometimes I can be too much.” 

“It’s amazing. She’s doing a lot of the job, and I just have to control [i.e., guide] the couple,” Nosovytskyi said admiringly. “We are much stronger together than I was [before]. It’s easy, because she’s just a really good skater. I think we have a really good balance between the presentation and technical ability.”

A busy first season

Ichilov and Nosovytskyi started their season early last year and competed a lot–ultimately doing 13 competitions–with the intent of establishing themselves with judges and starting to work toward gaining World standing points. Fortunately, they found their personalities were compatible and mutually supportive in a competition environment. 

“I am really comfortable with Shira. I don’t have to worry about every step. It’s given me a little bit of calmness, I would say, in every competition,” Nosovytskyi said. 

“It’s weird, because we were both very different, with our other partners. But I feel like we really trust each other. Even when something goes wrong, we’re like, Okay, it’s a part of the process,” Ichilov said. “We didn’t really have any bad competitions this season.”

A highlight came at the European Championships in Sheffield, England, where they qualified for the free dance and placed 18th out of 28 teams. 

“We didn’t think we were going to–well, okay, he thought, but I didn’t think–we were going to qualify for the free dance,” Ichilov said. “I think that gave [us] confidence. For our first Europeans, that’s not bad.”

The duo would have liked to place higher at Worlds. But they felt very satisfied with how they performed their rhythm dance in Prague, even if the scores weren’t high.

“We didn’t expect anything, to be honest, from this season,” Nosovytskyi said. “This was our warm-up.”

Looking forward to the new season

They have higher hopes for the 2026-27 season. The duo recently announced their free dance will be to Black Swan–seemingly an excellent match with their classic lines and dramatic style. As for the challenging Golden Waltz compulsory section in this year’s rhythm dance, the couple described their early attempts at it as “good” and “interesting.” They anticipated going in a unique direction with the rhythm dance–choosing something that was neither modern nor classical, but “different” and “cool,” in their words.

“We’re very excited to change our programs,” Ichilov said. “I think now it’s our time to really explore different stuff and see what we feel most comfortable in.”

In terms of their training during the off-season, Ichilov and Nosovytskyi planned to stay on the same track they’ve been on. 

“I think the work we did with each other and with our coach is very smart and very good. Clearly, it’s working,” Ichilov said. “We just have to keep the rhythm that we’ve had so far and not ruin it. To be calm in practice, to appreciate each other, to respect each other. And technically, it will be there. It will come with time. People say: Ice dance is like wine. I think we just need to spend time on the ice and explore our skating, explore each other. To see what we can do, and what we cannot do. I think we were a little cautious this season, because it’s our first. We were a little holding ourselves in. But we don’t want to do that next season. We want to take risks.”

Perhaps saving their energy for drama on the ice, Ichilov and Nosovytskyi both say that, off the ice, they like to keep their daily routines low-key and restful.

“Usually I’m coming home around 8 p.m. after practice, I’m taking my shower, I’m having my dinner, I’m going straight to my bed,” said Nosovytskyi. “I’m trying to sleep like nine hours every day. It’s good recovery. I would say that, without good rest, you cannot have good work. When I have free time, I watch movies, and I play a little bit of video games.”

“Yes, we go to sleep really early,” Ichilov said, with a laugh. “For me, especially, I’m really trying to take the next few years just focusing on skating. I don’t want to look back in ten years and regret something. So I’m really just focusing on my career; that’s all I care about now. But I like video games when I’m home, talking to friends, stuff like that.” 

Both skaters would like to do some coaching in the future, but not yet. For now, their focus is their own skating.

“We feel the potential,” Ichilov said. “I think for the first season, we showed that this partnership is worth looking forward to. This is just opening the door for what we’re going to do. And we’re not just here for a season, we’re not just here to participate. Next year, we don’t want to be in the first group. We’re here to fight.”