Oleg Protopopov

Oleg Protopopov
Oleg Protopopov in 1965
Full name	Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov
Born	(1932-07-16) 16 July 1932 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Soviet Union
Partner	Ludmila Belousova
Medal record Representing Soviet Union Pairs' Figure skating Olympic Games 1968 Grenoble Pairs 1964 Innsbruck Pairs World Championships 1969 Colorado Springs Pairs 1968 Geneva Pairs 1967 Vienna Pairs 1966 Davos Pairs 1965 Colorado Springs Pairs 1964 Dormund Pairs 1963 Cortina d'Ampezzo Pairs 1962 Prague Pairs European Championships 1969 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Pairs 1968 Västerås Pairs 1967 Ljubljana Pairs 1966 Bratislava Pairs 1965 Moscow Pairs 1964 Grenoble Pairs 1963 Budapest Pairs 1962 Geneva Pairs

Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov (Russian: Оле́г Алексе́евич Протопо́пов; born 16 July 1932) is a former Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With his wife Ludmila Belousova he is a two-time Olympic champion (1964, 1968) and four-time World champion (1965–1968). In 1979, the pair defected to Switzerland and became Swiss citizens in 1995. They continued to skate at ice shows and exhibitions through their seventies.

Career

Belousova and Protopopov in 1966

Protopopov started skating relatively late, at age 15, and was coached by Nina Lepninskaya. In 1951, he was drafted into the Baltic Fleet but used each leave to skate. His first partner was Margarita Bogoyavlenskaya, with whom he won the silver medal at the 1953 Soviet Championships.

Protopopov met Ludmila Belousova in the spring of 1954 in Moscow. She moved to Leningrad in 1955 and began training with Protopopov in 1956 following his discharge. They trained at VSS Lokomotiv and competed internationally for the USSR. Belousova and Protopopov were coached initially by Igor Moskvin and then by Pyotr Orlov, but parted ways with Orlov after a number of disagreements. The pair then trained without a coach at a rink in Voskresensk, Moscow Oblast. In 1961, they decided to work with Stanislav Zhuk to raise their technical difficulty.

Belousova and Protopopov in 1968

Belousova and Protopopov in 2007

Belousova and Protopopov debuted at the World Championships in 1958, finishing 13th. Two years later they competed at their first Olympics, placing 9th. In 1962, they made the World Championship podium for the first time, earning the silver medal. They were the first pair from the Soviet Union or Russia to win a World medal since the discipline's introduction at the 1908 World Championships (which had only three pairs competing). They also won silver at the European Championships, becoming the second Soviet pair to win medals after Nina Zhuk / Stanislav Zhuk (who won silver from 1958 to 1960).

Belousova and Protopopov's first major international gold medal came at the 1964 Winter Olympics. It was the first Olympic pairs gold for the Soviet Union. Belousova and Protopopov began the forty-year Soviet/Russian gold medal streak in pair skating, the longest in Olympic sports history, from 1964 to 2006.

Belousova and Protopopov won their first World and European gold medals in 1965, and in so doing, also became the first Soviet/Russian pair to win those titles.

They became Olympic champions for the second time at the 1968 Winter Olympics. At 32 and 35 years old, respectively, they were among the oldest champions in figure skating.

The following season, they won the silver medal at the European Championships and bronze at the World Championships as Irina Rodnina began her reign with her first partner, Alexei Ulanov. Those were the pair's final appearances at major international competitions but they would continue to compete within the Soviet Union until 1972.

In total, Belousova and Protopopov won two Olympic titles and also won medals eight times at both the World and European Championships, including four consecutive World and European gold medals. After retiring from competition, they skated in shows and continue to do so. In September 2015, they renewed their long-standing tradition of skating in a charitable exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts, called "Evening with Champions".

Belousova and Protopopov contributed to the development of pairs skating, including introducing three death spirals – the backward inside (BIDS), forward inside (FIDS), and forward outside (FODS), which they dubbed the Cosmic spiral, Life spiral, and Love spiral, respectively. Dick Button stated: "The Protopopovs are great skaters not only because they were the finest of Olympic champions, but also because their creative impact was extraordinary."

Personal life

Protopopov was raised by his mother, a professional ballet dancer, and his stepfather, a poet. He graduated from Herzen University, faculty of physical education.

Belousova and Protopopov married in December 1957. Although she kept her maiden name after their marriage, the pair are commonly referred to as "The Protopopovs". Eager to keep skating the pair decided not to have children.

On 24 September 1979, Belousova and Protopopov defected to Switzerland while on tour and applied for political asylum. They settled in Grindelwald and eventually received Swiss citizenship in 1995. Switzerland remains their winter home while their summer home and training center is Lake Placid, New York. On 25 February 2003, they visited Russia for the first time after a 23-year exile, upon the invitation of Vyacheslav Fetisov. They attended the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Belousova died on 29 September 2017. She was 81.

Competitive highlights

(with Bogoyavlenskaya)

Event	1953
Soviet Championships	2nd

(with Belousova)

Event	1954–55	1955–56	1956–57	1957–58	1958–59	1959–60	1960–61	1961–62	1962–63	1963–64
Winter Olympic Games						9th				1st
World Championships				13th		8th		2nd	2nd	2nd
European Championships				10th	7th	4th		2nd	2nd	2nd
Soviet Championships	3rd	4th	2nd	2nd	2nd		2nd	1st	1st	1st

Event	1964–65	1965–66	1966–67	1967–68	1968–69	1969–70	1970–71	1971–72	1972–73
Winter Olympic Games				1st
World Championships	1st	1st	1st	1st	3rd
European Championships	1st	1st	1st	1st	2nd
Soviet Championships		1st	1st	1st	2nd	4th	6th	3rd
Prize of Moscow News							3rd	1st	2nd

External links

• Pairs on Ice profile