[2] Due to Marinin's height, a coach asked him to switch to pairs and move to Saint Petersburg.

Early in their career together, they were coached by Natalia Pavlova in Saint Petersburg, with choreography by Svetlana Korol.

[4] Totmianina/Marinin left Pavlova just prior to the 2001 European Championships and moved to Chicago in the United States to train under Vasiliev.

[7] Totmianina/Marinin won their first major title at the 2002 European Championships, and went on to finish 4th at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Twice in a row, they finished second at the World Championships to their Chinese rivals Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo, before finally winning gold in 2004.

Although Totmianina did not blame him, the accident weighed heavily on Marinin and when the pair returned to training, he was unable to lift her due to panic.

They won their second consecutive World title easily, with a total score 10 points higher than the second-place finishers.

The pair toured with the Champions on Ice show, with other notable skaters including Michelle Kwan, Evgeni Plushenko, and Viktor Petrenko, among others.