Yasmina Kadyrova

Kadyrova began learning to skate in 2008, coached first by her mother in Kazan. She trained in Kazan as a single skater until the 2016–17 season when she moved to St. Petersburg to train under Alexei Mishin and his wife, Tatiana.[2] Kadyrova skated under Mishin for two seasons, only competing domestically, before being accepted into Eteri Tutberidze's camp in Moscow. She trained under Tutberidze for a portion of the 2018–19 season, during which time she was captured on video training a quadruple salchow; however, she was forced to leave the group due to injury and returned to her native Kazan to recover. Later in the season, she competed at her only international assignment as a single skater, the 2019 Children of Asia International Sports Games, where she finished fourth.

Kadyrova teamed up with her first and current partner, Ivan Balchenko, in September 2019. She'd admired pair skating since her time training under Alexei Mishin, and was inspired to try the discipline after skating in an Art on Ice show in Switzerland with 2018 Olympic champion Aljona Savchenko. She relocated to Perm to skate with Balchenko under his coaches, Pavel Sliusarenko and Valentina Tiukova. Due to the six year age gap between Kadyrova and Balchenko, the team were forced to begin their career as seniors, despite Kadyrova's lack of pairs experience. Kadyrova/Balchenko competed domestically in the Russian Cup series during the 2019–20 season.

Kadyrova/Balchenko opened their season at the 2020 Russian test skates, an unscored event which allows the Russian Figure Skating Federation to evaluate the programs and condition of their national team members.[3] They next competed at the second stage of the domestic Russian Cup series, the qualifying competition series to the national championships, in Moscow, where they finished second in a field of two behind Pavliuchenko/Khodykin. At their second Russian Cup assignment, the fourth stage in Kazan, they finished just off the podium in fourth place, and with a combined total of 28 points qualified to nationals.[4]

Although the team was not initially slated to compete at the event, Kadyrova/Balchenko were assigned to the 2020 Rostelecom Cup after Pavliuchenko/Khodykin withdrew due to illness in November. At the competition, Kadyrova/Balchenko placed fourth in both the short program and the free skate to place fourth overall, just behind training-mates Panfilova/Rylov.[5][6]

At the 2021 Russian Championships, their first nationals as a team, Kadyrova/Balchenko cleanly skated their short program to place sixth in the segment amidst a strong field of competitors.[7] The team fell to seventh in the free skate after struggling with their throw jumps, but maintained their standing of sixth overall.[8]