Gennadi Karponosov began skating because Alexei Ulanov was his neighbor.

[1] He initially competed with Elena Zharkova under coach Tatiana Tarasova but had greater success with his second partner, Natalia Linichuk.

Linichuk and Karponosov won the 1980 Olympics, but failed to defend their World title, making them the only team ever to unsuccessfully defend a World title after winning the Olympics.

[3][4] In September 2007, they moved to the Ice Works Skating Complex in Aston, Pennsylvania.

The couple initially lived in Moscow and then moved to the United States in the early '90s.