Denis Petukhov

Denis Alexandrovich Petukhov (Russian: Денис Александрович Петухов; born October 6, 1978) is a retired Russian-American ice dancer.

[10] Petukhov met American ice dancer Melissa Gregory through an online partner search for pairs skaters.

[11] He came to the United States on a tourist visa at the end of August 2000 to test with her and other prospective partners, but canceled his other tryouts after skating with Gregory first, and never used his return plane ticket to Russia.

[12] Gregory and Petukhov were originally coached by Oleg Epstein and Sandy Hess but made a change in 2003 to Nikolai Morozov and Shae-Lynn Bourne.

[2] Gregory and Petukhov both suffered injuries in a fall during the warmup before the free dance at 2007 Skate Canada International on November 4, 2007.

Petukhov lost his footing while practicing a one-handed rotational lift, dropping Gregory onto the ice and injuring her ribs and hip and skidding into the boards himself, hurting his own knee and neck.