Michel Tsiba

With his skating partner, Daria Danilova, he is the 2020 Dutch national champion and the 2020 NRW Trophy bronze medalist.

[1] As a child, Tsiba experienced bullying from his peers about being a figure skater, who referred to him as "a ballerina in a tutu" and often called him "gay" or other homophobic remarks.

[1] Due to the relative obscurity of figure skating in the Netherlands, he admitted to being jealous of popular speed skaters like Sven Kramer when he was young.

He switched disciplines from men's singles to pair skating because he felt that he was too tall to succeed in learning quadruple jumps.

[3] At the start of their partnership, Danilova/Tsiba alternated training in Berlin and Moscow every three months due to the differences in their respective citizenships' visa requirements.

[8] Danilova/Tsiba made their season debut at the 2020 NRW Autumn Trophy in November and won their first senior international medal, bronze behind Germans Annika Hocke / Robert Kunkel and Minerva Fabienne Hase / Nolan Seegert.

[11] Danilova/Tsiba concluded the season at the 2022 World Championships, where they finished a career-best ninth in a field depleted due to Russia being banned as a result of their invasion of Ukraine and the Chinese Skating Association opted not to send athletes to compete in Montpellier.

[11] Nika Osipova / Dmitry Epstein won the Netherlands' only pair skating berth at the 2023 European Championships.

[13] However, due to Danilova/Tsiba's ninth-place finish at the prior year's World Championships, both teams were able to attend the 2023 edition in Saitama.

Both Dutch teams qualified for the free skate segment, a first in the history of the event, with Danilova/Tsiba finishing thirteenth, the higher-ranked of the two.

Going on to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix circuit, the pair finished seventh at the 2024 Skate Canada International and fifth at the 2024 NHK Trophy.

Danilova/Tsiba at the 2020 European Championships
Danilova/Tsiba performing a pair combination spin at the 2024 World Championships