On September 29, just shy of her eighty-second birthday, Lyudmila Evgenievna Belousova died. Even, perhaps, some thirty or forty years ago, with this news, many in the then common USSR would have immediately remembered who Lyudmila Belousova was. Nowadays only specialists and devoted amateurs remember this. figure skating those who know its history, and those who watched figure skating on TV in the sixties and seventies of the last century, along with football and hockey. Soviet figure skating and Soviet hockey thundered throughout the world. And football. Well, football is always football. And, to be honest, the Soviet football championship, with all its flaws and failures, was in every way stronger than the current championships of post-Soviet countries. With all due respect, as they say. But in order to immediately make it clear who passed away on September 29, it is better to write this: the most famous Soviet figure skater, four-time European champion, four-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion in pairs figure skating Lyudmila Belousova. She is also an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. But she was stripped of this title in 1979.
Lyudmila Belousova was born in Ulyanovsk on November 22, 1935. She lived through the pre-war and war years in this city. And almost immediately after the war, in 1946, the family ended up in Moscow. As a child, like most Soviet children of those times, Lyudmila was interested in the most different types sports. Just remember the biography of Anatoly Tarasov, who combined football and hockey in his life at the highest level. So is little Lyudmila - skating, tennis, gymnastics. There was no thought about figure skating. They say that she became a figure skater due to the coincidence of two reasons. Firstly, the growing girl went to the Austrian film “Spring on Ice”, where she was mesmerized by what she saw, and secondly, an ice skating rink was built in Moscow artificial ice- the first in the Soviet Union. This was in 1951. And then Belousova went to study figure skating. That is, at sixteen years old. Which, even by the standards of that time, let’s face it, was a bit late.
Fateful meeting
At first, Belousova was going to skate in singles. But in 1954, at a seminar, I met Oleg Protopopov. What kind of spark flashed between them is not known for certain. But it clearly flashed. At first they just decided to try riding together. We tried it. And it immediately seemed to them that they suited each other. As the well-known cartoon bear would say, “this is for a reason!” And really for good reason. Natural love happened. And to the credit of this couple, it must be said that they carried it through until Lyudmila’s death. But this is getting ahead of ourselves. And then Belousova transferred from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers to a similar Leningrad institute. Because Oleg served in the Baltic Fleet. And they rode together.
The technology failed
Apparently, the late start in figure skating affected Lyudmila’s technical equipment. And Oleg, according to experts, which they expressed in the media, at that time probably did not have a very rich technical arsenal. Therefore, at first, athletic heights were given to them with great difficulty. Yes, by 1957 they won silver in the championship Soviet Union, became masters of sports. But at the 1958 European Championships, the athletes made a number of mistakes in simple technical elements and were unable to perform adequately. The next year, also at the European Championships, there was a general decline. Perhaps banal inexperience also took its toll. Failures followed them until the early sixties. But they worked hard and found their way.
Let's hit the “physics” with lyrics!
Perhaps Belousova and Protopopov did not have the technical equipment that was required at the highest level, perhaps something was not given to them due to some purely, excuse me, physical reasons, but they found a zest that gave direction for a long time all pair skating. They improved their technology. They showed how to write what is called todes on the inner edge, or “cosmic spiral.” They had great support. And they began to skate very clearly, very synchronously, very feeling each other. And most importantly - the lyrics. Artistry. And it bore fruit. In 1962, the couple won the Soviet Union championship. By the way, this was their eighth attempt. Then they took silver at the European and World Championships. And in 1964 their finest hour came, they won the Olympics!
Lovers on ice skates
From that moment on, they consistently won the European and World Championships. From 1965 to 1968 inclusive, the upper steps of the pedestals were “reserved” for them. They perfected the very artistry they worked so hard on. It was just very beautiful! Not a sport, but a real art. Perhaps this is Oleg’s great merit. He understood the art of dance since childhood. His mother was a ballerina. He grew up listening to classical music. And he wanted to devote himself to her. But they say that he was not accepted into music school without detecting absolute pitch. Maybe this is just a fantasy.
But, be that as it may, Belousova and Protopopov danced to the beautiful classical music of the best examples. They won the 1968 Olympics to the music of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.
End of sports career
Yes, 1968 was the last year of their unconditional leadership. The very next year they became only third at the world championship. Then they began to lose the union championships one after another and stopped getting into the national team. After the 1972 championship, where they were among the top three winners, but only because the strongest couples did not perform, Lyudmila and Oleg left the sport.
Pure art
Like many outstanding (and simply strong) figure skaters, Belousova and Protopopov, having graduated sports career, have not gone into oblivion. They went to the Leningrad Ice Ballet. And everything was fine. This is where truly pure creativity is found, not constrained by rigid boundaries. sporting requirements. However, then came what is called a bolt from the blue. The ballet went on tour to Switzerland. And there, on September 24, 1979, Belousova and Protopopov announced that they refused to return to the Soviet Union and asked for political asylum. They were granted political asylum. They signed a contract with the American Ice Ballet and, according to Protopopov, a month later they were “already touring with all their might.” After this, they were deprived of the titles of Honored Masters of Sports of the USSR, their names stopped appearing in reference literature about their achievements Soviet sports. They were declared traitors. By the way, they received Swiss citizenship only in 1994.
No politics
Interestingly, the athletes themselves always noted that, despite the request for political asylum, they did not run away for political reasons. Or rather, Oleg Protopopov spoke more and more in various interviews. According to him, they were patriots and were ready to give everything for their country, so they sometimes performed despite their illnesses. The athlete cites the example of the Grenoble Olympics, where he began bleeding due to kidney stones. And he says that the reasons for their action were of a creative nature: “There was always something about us that didn’t suit Russia: sometimes we were too athletic, sometimes too theatrical, then vice versa.”
Did time just run out?
There is obvious resentment in these words. Someone remembers their losses at the Union championships, their failure to make the national team and says that the athletes were pushed in favor of new couples. This point of view has the right to life. But another point of view has the right to life. The point is that pair skating By the time they descended from the heights, things began to change rapidly. It became more and more athletic, speedy, acrobatic or something. If we remember who replaced them and who, after them, made up the international glory of Soviet pair skating, a lot will become clear to us.
After all, it was... Irina Rodnina! Perhaps their time has simply passed.
Incomprehensible escape
And yet, why did the couple leave the Union in such a scandalous way? After all, conversations about creativity can hardly be taken into account. Leningrad Ice Ballet - why not creativity?! Someone is looking for a reason in money. Of course, in our ice ballet they did not pay the same as in the American one. But perhaps those who say that the main reason is not money, but... a banal insult are also right. The athletes believed in themselves too much and did not believe that their time in sports was over.
It’s not for nothing that they continued to ride and ride and ride at a very advanced age. Some still consider them traitors. Someone remembers how much they did for Soviet sports, for the country and... does not hold any grudges. Some even say that in the USSR even great athletes turned out to be of no use to anyone after finishing their career, and therefore it is not surprising that Protopopov and Belousova left. Although this does not seem to be their case. They could well be realized in ice ballet.
Love to the grave
The only thing that can be said is that they definitely did not betray either each other or their art. How many stories do we know of various celebrity couples from the spheres of sports and art, whose love did not stand the test of time and, in the end, crumbled like a sand castle. But the story of Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov is truly a love story.
Life brings to your attention a selection of performances from the legendary pair of Soviet figure skaters, who performed on world arenas for 61 (!) years.
Leningrader Oleg Protopopov and Ulyanovsk native Lyudmila Belousova met in 1954 at a coaching seminar in Moscow. They suited each other so well both on and off the ice that a few months later they moved to Leningrad together. There was no luck with mentors, so in 1957 the couple decided to train on their own. The same year the skaters got married.
Year after year, the couple progressed, consistently took medals at the USSR Championship, and in 1960 they went to the first Olympics in Lake Placid, but only took ninth place there.
1962 World Championships in Prague - silver
1962 was a breakthrough year. They finally managed to win the national championship, and in March the athletes won their first World Championship medal - silver, losing to Canadians of Czech origin Maria and Otto Jelinek in Prague. The performance at the 1963 World Cup in Italy turned out to be much more difficult - immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis. As Belousova herself recalled, the Soviet skaters were greeted with whistles and roars; at first the music could not be heard. But Oleg and Lyudmila skated their program under incredible pressure and again took second place. Unfortunately, the video of that performance either did not survive, or the International Federation did not really want to advertise it.
Olympic Games 1964 in Innsbruck - gold
The real triumph came at the next Olympics, in Austria. Belousova and Protopopov were ahead of the German couple Kilius/Baumler in the fight for the victory. Moreover, after the Games, silver was taken away from the Germans because they signed a professional contract before the competition. Many years later, it became known that others had signed the same agreements, and after a long battle, in 2013 (!) the awards were returned to their owners.
Well, the performance of our skaters was called incomparable. The judges gave scores of 5.8–5.9.
1968 Olympic Games in Grenoble - gold
In the mid-1960s, the performances of Belousova and Protopopov began to be considered the standard of beauty of lines, technical equipment and artistry. Indeed, this couple’s exploration of the love theme came out most naturally. And another example of this was the 1968 Olympics in France, where our athletes, to the music of Rachmaninov and Beethoven, took the second gold, without giving their opponents a single chance in either the mandatory or the free program.
1983 Landover World Pro Championship - Gold
After their victory in Grenoble, Lyudmila and Oleg began to lose to young couples. Despite genuine popular love, the leadership of Soviet figure skating gradually removed the duo from the team. They were no longer allowed to attend the 1972 Olympics, and they ended their careers, continuing to work in the Leningrad Ice Ballet.
And in 1979, the main event in the life of the spouses took place - the escape from the Soviet Union. After another tour in Switzerland, the couple did not return to Leningrad, but asked for political asylum. In the USSR, athletes were called traitors, deprived of the title of Honored Master of Sports and all regalia. Since then, the skaters have settled in the town of Grundewald. The couple continued to perform for money and professional level I also staged cool numbers. For which she also received numerous awards at the world championships among professionals.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belousova and Protopopov returned to Russia several times, for the first time in 2003 at the invitation of the then head of Rossport, Vyacheslav Fetisov. In 2014 we attended the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
"An Evening with Champions" 2015 at Harvard University
And a year and a half later they took to the ice themselves - as part of an annual charity event organized by students at Harvard University. Oleg Alekseevich was 83 years old at the time of his speech, Lyudmila Evgenievna was 79. Comments are unnecessary here.
May your memory be blessed, Lyudmila Evgenievna!
Soviet figure skating star Lyudmila Belousova, who performed in a duet with Oleg Protopopov, has passed away. About this on your Twitter page reported producer of one of the American skating shows 6ABC Kristen Beatty.
“Today Lyudmila Belousova died at the age of 81. It was an honor for me to skate with her in the show and receive advice from her when I performed in pairs,” Beatty commented on Belousova’s passing on her microblog.
The cause of the figure skater’s death could have been cancer. Bronze medalist of the 1984 Games in pair skating Oleg Makarov, who was closely acquainted with the star couple, told the R-Sport portal about this.
“Belousova had cancer. They discovered it a year and a half ago. They were treated in Europe. And everything seemed to be getting better for them, in August they looked good. But I can’t talk about the reasons, because they only told me in the morning according to American time,” - said Makarov.
Lyudmila Belousova performed in tandem with her husband Oleg Protopopov. They have repeatedly climbed to the highest step of the podium at various world competitions. In particular, they won gold at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck and the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble. Also, the legends of domestic figure skating have four victories at the world championships and four golds at the European championships.
After completing their careers in amateur sports, the skaters continued to skate with the Leningrad Ballet on Ice and went on tours abroad with it. In 1979, Belousova and Protopopov, after performing in Switzerland, asked for political asylum in this country. For their act, the skaters were deprived of the titles of Honored Masters of Sports of the USSR, and they were forbidden to return to their homeland.
However, this did not bother the champions. Having accepted Swiss citizenship, the couple continued to skate professionally, performing around the world in various show programs. For the first time after leaving, Lyudmila Belousova visited Russia only in 2003.
Despite their rather respectable age, the skaters did not part with the sport for a minute. It is worth noting that the last time Belousova went on the ice was not so long ago. In the fall of 2015, the legendary duo once again delighted the audience by performing a three-minute program at the annual “An Evening with Champions” show in Allston (Massachusetts, USA).
The passing of Lyudmila Belousova’s life shocked her colleagues in the sports department. According to Russian coach Mikhail Mishin, this is an irreparable loss for the entire national figure skating industry and especially for him.
"I am half of my sports life spent with her and Oleg in the same locker room. “I offer my condolences to Oleg and all her fans, figure skating fans,” Mishin continued. - I visited their skating rink in Switzerland several times and stayed in their modest apartment. They devoted their whole lives not to accumulating wealth, but to their business, which they served - figure skating,” TASS quotes Mikhail Mishin as saying.
It is still unknown where the legend of Russian figure skating will be buried, in Switzerland or at home.
Twice Olympic champions in figure skating, 83-year-old Oleg Protopopov and 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova demonstrated amazing form for their age by skating a 3-minute program at one of the charity shows.
Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov went through fire, water, copper pipes, and also exile and oblivion together. But nothing could separate these talented and strong people.
Belousova and Protopopov not only became figure skating champions in 1964 and 1968, they also invented and for the first time performed all the elements of figure skating, which later became mandatory for the athletes’ performance program.
So Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Prototopov skated at the 1968 Olympics, where they became champions.
This sports couple- not only partners on the ice, they have been married since 1957. In 1979, after a performance in Switzerland, they refused to return to the USSR. Then they were declared traitors to the Motherland and deprived of their sports titles.
Today they live in the small Swiss town of Grindelwald and, despite their advanced age, will continue to be active. social life. At the end of September, at the “Evening with Champions” show in the USA, 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova and 83-year-old Oleg Prototopov took to the ice and skated a 3-minute program, amazing the audience with their sports uniform. All proceeds from ticket sales went to cancer research. We provide our readers with a unique opportunity to see the entire performance of this wonderful couple.
To be fair, it should be said that not only stars, but also ordinary people engage in charity work. Turkish. What a wedding!
Two-time Olympic champion figure skater Lyudmila Belousova has died at the age of 81. The cause of death was cancer.
On September 29, the famous figure skater Lyudmila Belousova died in Switzerland at the age of 82.
According to reports from those who knew the skater, she had been battling cancer in recent years.
Thus, figure skater Oleg Makarov (bronze medalist of the 1984 Olympics in pair skating) said that in 2015 Lyudmila Belousova was diagnosed with cancer. “She had cancer, which happened about a year and a half ago. And they went to live in Switzerland... And everything seemed to be getting better for them, in August they looked good.” However, then a deterioration occurred, which led to the death of the famous athlete.
Together with her husband, she won victories at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck (1964) and Grenoble (1968).
Later the family moved to Moscow.
As a child, she was fond of various sports - gymnastics, tennis, speed skating. She started figure skating quite late - at the age of sixteen, after watching the Austrian film “Spring on Ice”.
In 1951, the first in the USSR was built in Moscow artificial skating rink, and Belousova entered the children's figure skating group.
By 1954, she was already a “public instructor” of young figure skaters in the Dzerzhinsky Park, and she herself trained in senior group. Belousova trained in tandem with Kirill Gulyaev, who soon announced that he was finishing up with the sport. Belousova decided to compete in singles.
In 1954, at a seminar in Moscow, she met Oleg Protopopov. They decided to just ride together and tried to perform some elements. It seemed to the athletes that they suited each other. Protopopov at that time served in Leningrad in the Baltic Fleet, and Belousova studied at the Moscow Institute of Railway Transport Engineers.
Then Belousova was transferred to the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, moved to Leningrad and in December 1954 the athletes began training together under the leadership of I. B. Moskvin, and for some time - P. P. Orlov. At times we worked together and staged our own programs. Belousova played for the Leningrad sports societies Dynamo and Lokomotiv.
By 1957 they were silver medalists USSR championships and masters of sports. In December 1957, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov got married.
They made their debut on the international stage in 1958. The technical arsenal of the athletes was not rich, and inexperience also affected them, so they became nervous and did not perform very well at the 1958 European Championships - they made mistakes while performing simple elements.
At the 1959 European Championships there was a fall, the judges gave an average score of 5.0-5.1. At their first Olympics in 1960 in the USA, the pair received scores with wide discrepancies: from 4.6/4.5 from the Canadian judge to 5.2/5.2 from the Austrian and Swiss judges.
In the 1960s, the couple grew significantly both technically and artistically. For the first time they performed todes forward on the inner edge, the so-called. "cosmic spiral"
The first success came in 1962: the skaters finally won the USSR Championship for the first time (on the eighth attempt!) and took 2nd place at the European Championships and the World Championships, where the pair lost to the Canadian pair O. and M. Jelinek by one judge’s vote and only one tenth points.
In 1963, the couple choreographed a free program to jazz music, receiving average scores of 5.7-5.8. At the 1964 European Championships, the pair received higher marks in the compulsory program than M. Kilius - H.-Y. Bäumler (Germany), but lost to them in most places; in the free program, the pair from Germany also beat the Soviet pair and won.
At the ’64 Olympics, Kilius and Boimler unexpectedly beat by one judge’s vote, thanks to high level consistency, synchronicity and harmony of skating, beautiful spirals were performed, a combination of split jumps and an Axel in one and a half revolutions, a double Salchow, several lifts, including a jagged lasso in two revolutions. Almost all judges gave scores of 5.8-5.9.
Their 1965-68 programs became masterpieces, in which the image of lovers was revealed with inspiration, with subtle psychologism, almost absolute synchronicity of all movements, amazing beauty and smoothness of lines were achieved. Belousova - Protopopov led the world pair skating along the path of artistic enrichment of programs.
Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov (performance)
In 1966, their fiercest competition came from the new pair Zhuk - Gorelik, who lost to them at the World Championships by only one judge's vote.
At their third Olympics (1968), the couple won both programs. In the free program to the music of Rachmaninov and Beethoven, which was assessed by journalists as triumphant, the following were purely performed: the combination of double loop - steps - axel in one and a half turns, double Salchow, 7 different lifts, including a jagged lasso and lasso-axel, as well as a huge spiral in length in the libel position, lasting 15 seconds. Only the first starting number in the strongest warm-up did not allow the judges to give scores of 6.0, while six judges gave 5.9/5.9, two 5.8/5.9, and the judge from the GDR gave 5.8/5.8 was booed by the audience.
At the 1968 World Championships, almost all judges gave scores of 5.8/5.9, and judges from Germany and the GDR both gave 5.7/6.0.
However, then the couple began to lose to younger Soviet couples, who made the program extremely difficult. At the 1969 World Championships, the athletes made several mistakes and took third place.
In 1970, they were in the lead at the USSR Championship after completing the compulsory program, but in the sum of two types they remained only fourth and did not make it into the national team (later they announced a judicial agreement).
At the 1971 USSR Championship the couple was only sixth, and in April 1972 - third, but in the absence of the strongest couples, after which the athletes left amateur sports.
Leaving big sport, the athletes did not part with figure skating, they worked at the Leningrad Ice Ballet.
On September 24, 1979, while on ice with the Leningrad Ballet on tour in Switzerland, Belousova and Protopopov asked the leadership of this country for political asylum and refused to return to the USSR.
The athletes were deprived of the titles of Honored Masters of Sports, their names were deleted from all Soviet reference books telling about Olympic achievements USSR, and the athletes themselves were openly called traitors. Belousova and Protopopov explained their step by saying that in their native country the couple was not allowed to develop further; they did not want to give up the sport and believed that their talent would be valued more abroad. Lived in Grindelwald.
In 1995, they received Swiss citizenship, after which they were able to perform at the opening of the European Championship in Sofia (1995).
On February 25, 2003, for the first time in more than 20 years, she flew to Russia with Protopopov at the invitation of Vyacheslav Fetisov. In November 2005, they visited Russia at the invitation of the St. Petersburg Figure Skating Federation.
We attended the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and gave numerous interviews.
In September 2015, 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova and 83-year-old Oleg Protopopov performed on ice in the United States at “An Evening with Champions.”
Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov in Moscow. 2015
Sports achievements Lyudmila Belousova:
Winter Olympics: gold (1964, 1968);
World Championships: gold (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968), silver (1962, 1963, 1964), bronze (1969);
European Championships: gold (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968), silver (1962, 1963, 1964, 1969);
USSR Championships: gold (1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968), silver (1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1969), bronze (1955).
