Born in Moscow, Daniil Samsonov formerly trained under Alexander Shubin at Moskvich, but since the start of the 2015/2016 season trains under Eteri Tutberidze at Sambo 70.
2018–2019 season
In early February 2019, Samsonov won the Russian Junior Figure Skating Championships. " skated breathtakingly. At such an age, to jump a quadruple lutz, so beautifully, so easily, that had never happened before in the world," Tatiana Tarasova said of his victory. Samsonov was not sent to the 2019 World Junior Championships, because he would not be age eligible to compete at junior level internationally until the following season; his thirteenth birthday was July 13, twelve days past the July 1 cutoff. A few days later, he was one of the skaters who represented Russia in Sakhalin at the first Children of Asia Games, winning the gold medal.
2019–2020 season
In early September 2019, Samsonov made his ISU Junior Grand Prix debut at the 2019 JGP event in Riga, Latvia, where he won the bronze medal. He ranked fourth in the short program and third in the free skate and scored his personal best score of 211.62 points. Two weeks later he competed at this second JGP event of the season in Gdańsk, Poland, where he won his first JGP gold medal. At this competition he set the new world record scores for the short program, free skate and the combined total. Ranked first in both the short program and the free skate he outscored the silver medalist, Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama, by about 5 points. Qualifying to the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino, Samsonov placed second in the short program despite falling on his opening triple Axel. After a number of minor jump errors in the free skate, he placed fourth in that segment, and won the bronze medal overall. He described himself as "unhappy" with how he had performed. Competing at the senior 2020 Russian Championshipsfor the first time, Samsonov was seventh in the short program after stepping out of his quad Lutz and falling on his triple Axel. Fifth in the free skate, he rose to sixth place overall. Daniil competed at the junior 2020 Russian Championships taking place at Saransk, Mordovia, from 4th to 8th February 2020. He was second both in short and free program making several minor mistakes, though finishing first in total. He became Russian junior champion for the second time in a row. Daniil was listed as a member of a team for the 2020 World Junior Figure Skating Championships. On 28th february 2020 his withdrawal from the competition was announced due to problems with joints caused by growing up. Ilya Yablokov was assigned as a substitute.
