[1] Sergei Volkov coached him early on but he began suffering from cancer and sent Abt to be trained by Rafael Arutyunyan before he died.

[1] Later, in the summer of 1996, he sustained a serious injury during an exhibition performance in Mexico – He crashed into the boards and cut into his right leg's quadriceps muscle with his left blade, keeping him in hospital for several weeks and off ice for six months.

Later that year, he placed third at the European Championships, behind fellow countrymen Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko and claimed the bronze medal.

[5] He was forced to withdraw from the 2003 European Championships after injuring his landing ankle in practice a day before he was supposed to fly out,[5] and took several months to recover.

In April 1999, Abt married former ice dancer Elena Pavlova,[7] who competed with her brother Alexander Pavlov.