Anastasiia Smirnova (figure skater)

Smirnova began skating in 2010 in Dnipro. Her first pairs partner was Artem Darenskyi. Coached by Lilia Batutina, Smirnova/Darenskyi were 2015 Ukrainian junior national silver medalist and the 2016 Ukrainian junior national champion.[4] They competed at two Junior Grand Prix events, placing ninth at 2017 JGP Latvia and 11th at 2017 JGP Belarus, before splitting in fall 2017.[5]

Smirnova teamed up with Danil Siianytsia in mid-2018 after he found her profile on IcePartnerSearch and asked his coach, Trudy Oltmanns, to arrange a tryout.[1] She moved from Ukraine to train with Siianytsia under Oltmanns in Shakopee, Minnesota. In their first season together, they won the novice bronze medal at the 2019 U.S. Championships.

Smirnova/Siianytsia made their junior international debut at 2019 JGP Russia, where they finished seventh overall. They then competed at the 2019–20 U.S. Pairs Final and won the bronze medal, qualifying them to the 2020 U.S. Championships. At the 2019 Golden Spin of Zagreb in December, Smirnova/Siianytsia earned their first international medal, silver behind Georgia's Alina Butaeva / Luka Berulava.

At the 2020 U.S. Championships, Smirnova/Siianytsia were third in the short program, but won the free skate to earn the silver medal behind Kate Finster / Balazs Nagy. As a result, they were named to the 2020 World Junior Championships team, alongside Finster/Nagy and Winter Deardorff / Mikhail Johnson.[3] Smirnova/Siianytsia finished tenth at the World Junior Championships.

After the COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota caused their training rink to close, Smirnova/Siianytsia temporarily relocated with their coach to her old rink in Sioux Center, Iowa.[6] The Junior Grand Prix, where they would have competed, was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and cancelled.

In January, Smirnova/Siianytsia won the junior title at the 2021 U.S. Championships by over 20 points ahead of Isabelle Martins / Ryan Bedard and Valentina Plazas / Maximiliano Fernandez, despite Smirnova suffering a high ankle sprain on her right leg in practice the day before competition began.[7] Siianytsia reflected that they were "pretty excited" about the win and "hopefully it won't be our last one."[7]