Winter Olympics: Harley Windsor, the Indigenous Australian ice skater breaking barriers

Under the guidance of Russian coaches and "second parents" Galina and Andrei Pachin, Windsor competed in the singles, but because of a spurt in height he was becoming less suited for the event.

So in 2015 he started focusing on finding a partner to compete with in pairs skating.

"I asked my coaches to find a partner, but that was difficult because there aren't many girls who are interested in the pairs in Australia at elite level," Windsor recalled. "At that point I started to lose passion and I wasn't competing. I thought I was going to quit skating."

But then Russia came calling. Like a skating matchmaking service, his coaches said they had found three potential partners.

The young Australian packed his bags and headed overseas for the first time in his life - to a land renowned for its world-class skaters. His parents gave him the airfare for the journey to Moscow, where the shortlist had been reduced to one by the time he arrived.

"I was introduced to Katia [Alexandrovskaya]. She didn't speak English, but Andrei acted as a translator," he said.

Was there a spark straight away?

"The first time we skated together we matched really well," said Windsor.

The Russian skating federation gave Alexandrovskaya clearance to compete for Australia and the new partnership, between the "calm and laid-back" Windsor and the "fiery Russian", matured at a rapid rate. Last March, the duo won the pairs competition at the World Juniors in Taipei - the first Australians to win a medal in the event since Elizabeth and Peter Cain in 1976.

They started attracting headlines back in Australia, but could they now go one step further and become the first pair representing the country to qualify for the Olympics since 1998?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o67CZ5qopV%2BovbC%2B02iuoqakmr9uu8uypKmhk6h8dX6Ubm9wcGY%3D