Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina

Irina Rodnina
Full name	Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina
nation	Soviet Union
birthday	September 12, 1949
place of birth	Moscow,  Soviet Union
size	152 cm
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Alexei Ulanow, Alexander Saizew
society	CSKA Moscow
Trainer	Tatiana Tarasova, Stanislav Schuk
status	resigned
End of career	1980
Medal table
Olympic medals 3 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 10 × 0 × 0 × EM medals 11 × 0 × 0 ×
winter Olympics gold Sapporo 1972 Couples gold Innsbruck 1976 Couples gold Lake Placid 1980 Couples  World figure skating championships gold Colorado Springs 1969 Couples gold Ljubljana 1970 Couples gold Lyon 1971 Couples gold Calgary 1972 Couples gold Bratislava 1973 Couples gold Munich 1974 Couples gold Colorado Springs 1975 Couples gold Gothenburg 1976 Couples gold Tokyo 1977 Couples gold Ottawa 1978 Couples  European figure skating championships gold Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1969 Couples gold Leningrad 1970 Couples gold Zurich 1971 Couples gold Gothenburg 1972 Couples gold Cologne 1973 Couples gold Zagreb 1974 Couples gold Copenhagen 1975 Couples gold Geneva 1976 Couples gold Helsinki 1977 Couples gold Strasbourg 1978 Couples gold Gothenburg 1980 Couples

Irina Konstantinowna Rodnina ( Russian Ирина Константиновна Роднина ; born September 12, 1949 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) is a former Soviet figure skater who started in pair skating . With three Olympic victories , ten world championship titles and eleven European championship titles , which she won alongside Alexei Ulanow and Alexander Saizew , she is the most successful pair skater in figure skating history .

Career

Before Rodnina started school, she suffered eleven times from pneumonia, after which her parents took her to her first ice rink in 1954. When she started sixth grade at the age of 13, she began professional figure skating training at the Kinder- u. Youth sports school of CSKA Moscow on Leningradsky Prospect.

Rodnina's first partner in pair skating was Alexei Ulanow . With him she was third behind Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopow as well as Tamara Moskwina and Alexei Mishin in their first Soviet championships in 1968 . In 1968 Rodnina and Ulanow contested the European Championship in Västerås, Sweden , their first major international tournament. In the one-two victory for their compatriots, they finished in fifth place. It was the only participation in a major international competition that Rodnina did not win. In 1969 Rodnina and Ulanow only took third place at the national championships, but became European champions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and also world champions in Colorado Springs when they participated in the world championship for the first time , the latter with a unanimous judge's judgment in front of their two Soviet rivals Moskwina / Mishin and Belousova / Protopopow. It marked the beginning of the longest era in pair skating history.

Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanow 1970

In 1970 the couple became Soviet champions for the first time and defended the European championship title in Leningrad and the world championship title in Ljubljana . They defeated their strongest competitors Lyudmila Smirnowa and Andrei Suraikin from now on . In 1971 the national championship, the European Championships in Zurich and the World Championships in Lyon had the same results. However, Rodnina and Ulanow lost the freestyle classification at the World Cup against their national competitors. In 1972 Rodnina and Ulanow dominated again. They became European champions for the fourth time in a row in Gothenburg . At their first Olympic Games they won the gold medal in Sapporo ahead of their long-term rivals Smirnowa and Suraikin with victories in both the short program and the freestyle . However, this success had a history. Alexei Ulanov was fed up with Rodnina being seen as the stronger part of the couple and had fallen in love with the couple's arch-rival, Lyudmila Smirnova. Even before the Olympic Games, the couple's separation for the next season was a done deal. After the Olympic freestyle, Rodnina left the ice in tears. The world championship in Calgary was the last joint appearance of the ice skating couple Rodnina / Ulanow. With a unanimous decision of the judges, they became world champions for the fourth time in a row. Rodnina had injured herself while lifting during training the day before the competition. She had to be treated in the hospital for a concussion and intracranial hematoma. Nevertheless, she completed the short program without any errors and also received some top marks. At the end of the freestyle, she felt dizzy, but despite increasing weakness, she managed not to put the world title in jeopardy. After the end of her last appearance with Alexei Ulanov, who was to continue his career with Lyudmila Smirnova, she considered resigning.

In April 1972 Rodnina's trainer Stanislaw Schuk recommended her to try it out with the young Leningrad figure skater Alexander Saizew as a pair skating partner. Saizew stood out for his good jumping technique and his quick learning of new elements. Rodnina continued with him seamlessly from her past successes. In 1973 Rodnina and Saizew were already Soviet champions and won the gold medal in Cologne at their first joint European championship and in Bratislava at their first joint world championship. At the World Cup, they managed to do this even though the music was out. Nevertheless, they kept their concentration and ran the freestyle to the end. For this they got standing applause and a unanimous judge's verdict in their favor. They won both the European title and the world championship title ahead of Rodnina's former partner Alexei Ulanow and her long-term competitor Lyudmila Smirnova . The dance style of the couple Rodnina / Saizew was celebrated as a "revolution" at the time. The two had turned their backs on romantic ice skating and given their freestyle a new direction in figure skating with fast elements. In 1974 the couple defended their Soviet league title, their European Championship title in Zagreb and their World Cup title in Munich . They succeeded in doing this in 1975 at the European Championships in Copenhagen and the World Championships in Colorado Springs . Shortly afterwards, in April 1975, Rodnina and Saizew married. In 1976 they continued their triumphant advance. They became European champions in Geneva and world champions in Gothenburg . In Innsbruck they played their first joint Olympic Games . Your Olympic victory was safe. They won both the short program and the freestyle and were placed in first place by all the judges. They relegated Romy Kermer and Rolf Oesterreich from the GDR , as in the previous and following world championships, to second place. In 1977 Rodnina and Saizew became Soviet champions for the fourth and last time. It was the sixth national championship title for Rodnina. In Helsinki the couple became European champions for the fifth time in a row and in Tokyo for the fifth time in a row world champions. This made them the first, and to date, the only couple to have won five titles at world championships. In 1978 they won the European Championship in Strasbourg and won their sixth and last World Cup title in a row in Ottawa, Canada . This makes Irina Rodnina and Alexander Saizew the most successful couple at world championships to this day . In 1979, the couple did not contest competitions because Rodnina was pregnant and gave birth to a son. This fact led to the fact that 1979 was the first year since 1968 in which Rodnina was neither world nor European champion. In 1980 Rodnina and Saizew returned. They won their seventh and final European Championship title in Gothenburg . They overtook Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler , who had six European titles, and became the most successful pair at European figure skating championships . The Olympic Games in Lake Placid should be her last appearance, as Rodnina could not contest the following World Championship due to a shoulder injury. The reigning world champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner from the USA could not take part because Gardner was injured and so Rodnina and Saizew had no trouble defending their Olympic title. After Andrée Brunet and Pierre Brunet in 1932 and 1936 and Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopow in 1964 and 1968 , they were the third and last couple to defend Olympic gold. Rodnina and Saizew won all the competitions they participated in in their careers over a period of eight years.

With a total of three Olympic victories , ten world championship titles and eleven European championship titles, Rodnina is by far the most successful pair skater in history. Besides the single skater Sonja Henie, she is the only figure skater to have achieved three Olympic gold and ten world championship titles.

After her competitive career, Rodnina worked as a trainer, she led the Czechs Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný to the 1995 world championship title . In 1985 Rodnina divorced from Alexander Saizew. In 1990 she moved to the USA and married the businessman Leonid Minkowski, from whom she has a daughter and is also divorced. In 2000 Rodnina returned to Russia and lives in Moscow again. Her son studied ceramic design at Stroganov University in Moscow and her daughter studied journalism in the United States.

Rodnina was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1972, the Order of Lenin in 1976 and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland 3rd class in 1999 . In 1989, Rodnina was inducted into the Figure Skating Hall of Fame . She also received the Jacques Favart Award, the highest honor of the International Skating Union .

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , she lit the Olympic flame together with Vladislav Alexandrovich Tretyak .

Results

Pair skating

(with Alexei Ulanow )

Competition / year	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
winter Olympics					1.
World championships		1.	1.	1.	1.
European championships	5.	1.	1.	1.	1.
Soviet championships	3.	3.	1.	1.

(with Alexander Saizew )

Competition / year	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980
winter Olympics				1.				1.
World championships	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
European championships	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.		1.
Soviet championships	1.	1.	1.		1.

Political activity

Rodnina is chairman of the "Sporty Russia" Central Council, which aims to "develop mass sports".

In 2006 she was a member of the Social Chamber of Russia , whose members are appointed by the President to conduct public hearings on legislative projects.

Rodnina has been a member of the Russian State Duma for the ruling United Russia party since 2007 .

Between 2007 and 2019, Rodnina worked on a total of 46 draft laws. In December 2012, she voted for Law No. 272-FZ, which, among other things, prohibits the adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Internet presence "Sportliches Russia" (Russian) ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Официальный сайт Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации. Retrieved June 30, 2020 . 
3. ↑ "Putin snubbed Americans with an adoption ban" SPIEGEL ONLINE December 28, 2012

Web links

Commons : Irina Rodnina  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Irina Konstantinowna Rodnina in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )