Totmianina/Marinin have been skating together since 1996. Until then, both were single skaters. Marinin decided to switch to pairs when Evgeni Plushenko, who is five years younger than him, beat him in a competition. Totmianina/Marinin have two different triples (toeloop and Salchow) in their free skating. Both admire Olympic pairs champions Gordeeva/Grinkov and Artur Dmitriev (with both partners). The pair left their coach Pavlova just prior to Europeans 2001 and then moved to Chicago to work with Oleg Vasiliev, who is the 1984 Olympic Pairs Champion (with partner Elena Valova). Following a fall on a Lasso lift at Skate America in October 2004, the couple missed the Grand Prix series and returned to competition in January 2005 for Nationals. Totmianina/Marinin withdrew from the 2006 Nationals due to illness (Totmianina).