Alisa Agafonova & Alper Ucar have announced their retirement

[Sylvia]

@Dobre just posted this news in the Dance Hall thread (they announced it on their FB page on March 25, 2018) - re-posting 2 posts from there to start this thread:

Agafanova & Ucar have retired. Their announcement is here:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1898160720196124&id=338662142812664

Not surprised, especially as he was voted to be an athlete representative & someone posted afterward that he could not take the position yet until he had finished skating. I have always found Alper Ucar to be one of those people who always looks like he loves the sport.

My favorite memory of this team is their beautiful FD from last season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHZd1pksJUM

Ucar was, AFAIK, the oldest active competitor in ice dance, and had only switched from singles in his mid twenties. It's very impressive that he was able to find some measure of success nonetheless. His selection as athlete representative shows that his fellow skaters clearly hold him in high regard. Good luck to him and to Alisa in their future pursuits.

Copied out from the beginning and end of their FB post:

This was an emotional 8 years of our career.We say good bye to all our fans with our performance of free dance yesterday in Milano World Championship .Thank you so much for all your support ,you give to us power and strength to achieve our dreams.We love you.
...
It was not easy 8 years,we proud what we achieve,proud to make a history for our country.Its start from Universiade Winter Games where we take our first medal,Two Olympic Games ,Grand Prix and many international competition .We are finishing with a big smile and big plans for the future .

-----

Best wishes to both of them in the next chapter of their lives!

 

[Coco]

Awwww, congratulations to them and best of luck in the future.

 

[Hanna]

Best of luck to both Alisa & Alper in all their future endeavours & thanks for the memories!

 

[Vash01]

Best of luck to both Alisa & Alper in all their future endeavours & thanks for the memories!

I second this.

 

[nimi]

From ISU FD QQ (link)

Agafonova:
We feel really grateful because this was the last competition of our career that is why we are so emotional: we finish our career right here. It has been a long and hard way for us and for our country to get to where we are now: to get into the strongest group and to get into the top twenty in the Olympics and get this kind of ranking. We are here and we are really proud of it. Our biggest memories are from the Winter Games in Sochi because we made history as the first ever participant from Turkey and this Olympics we made history again because we made 19th and got to the Finals so this was also history for Turkey. (on her future): I will actually move to France to my boyfriend and start a new life. Also I will start a new life as a coach too. Alper will coach in Detroit and develop a new generation of ice dancers.

[The boyfriend she mentions is Chafik Besseghier, or so I've heard.]

Ucar:
I am very proud of Alisa. This eight year journey, we started in 2009/2010 and it was the government issue that the 2011 Winter Univerisdade were held in Turkey and we got the silver medal which was the most honorable and memorable moment ever in the history of Winter sports for Turkey. After this, we talked with our government and decided to open an ice skating school in Turkey and the we would like to go for 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. It was a long road and we achieved that and we achieved our second Olympics in 2018 PyeongChang. It was a very short period of time, very big success and a big achievement. So we would like to open a school and show the younger generation that they can come here in the ISU Championships and proudly represent their country.
(on the future): I would like to serve in the ISU and particularly to serve the skaters (NB: he is a member of the ISU athletes’ commission).