Lyudmila Stanislavovna Smirnova

Lyudmila Smirnova
Full name	Lyudmila Stanislavovna Smirnova
nation	Soviet Union
birthday	July 21, 1949
place of birth	Leningrad,  Soviet Union
size	158 cm
Weight	48 kg
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Andrei Suraikin, Alexei Ulanow
society	Spartak Leningrad
Trainer	Maja Belenkaya
status	resigned
End of career	1974
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 0 × 5 × 0 × EM medals 0 × 4 × 1 ×
winter Olympics silver Sapporo 1972 Couples  World figure skating championships silver Ljubljana 1970 Couples silver Lyon 1971 Couples silver Calgary 1972 Couples silver Bratislava 1973 Couples silver Munich 1974 Couples  European figure skating championships silver Leningrad 1970 Couples silver Zurich 1971 Couples silver Gothenburg 1972 Couples silver Cologne 1973 Couples bronze Zagreb 1974 Couples

Lyudmila Stanislawowna Smirnowa ( Russian Людмила Станиславовна Смирнова ; English Lyudmila Smirnova ; born July 21, 1949 in Leningrad ) is a former Soviet figure skater who started in pair skating , and a former Soviet and Russian figure skating coach.

Smirnowa began figure skating in 1955. Her first figure skating partner was Andrei Suraikin . The couple became the strongest competitor for the towering Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov . Starting with their debut at world and European championships in 1970 up to and including 1972, Smirnowa and Suraikin finished all three world championships ( Ljubljana 1970 , Lyon 1971 , Calgary 1972 ) and all three European championships ( Leningrad 1970 , Zurich 1971 , Gothenburg 1972 ) in silver behind Rodnina and Ulanow. This ranking was also found at the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo .

Smirnova fell in love with Alexei Ulanov. This led to the separation of both figure skating couples. The separations were a done deal before the 1972 Olympic Games. Lyudmila Smirnova married Alexei Ulanow and started pair skating with him in 1973. At the European Championships in Cologne and the World Championships in Bratislava Smirnowa and Ulanow won the silver medal, both times behind Rodnina and her new partner Alexander Saizew . At the European Championships in Zagreb in 1974 it was only enough to win the bronze medal behind their compatriots and Romy Kermer and Rolf Oesterreich from the GDR. They were able to defeat the GDR couple again at the world championships in Munich and were again runner-up world champions behind Rodnina and Saizew. As a result, Smirnowa and Ulanow ended their active figure skating career in 1974.

Smirnova studied sport at the State Pedagogical University "AI Hearts" in Leningrad . She coached children and became the director of a figure skating school in her hometown of Saint Petersburg.

Private

Smirnowa was married to Alexei Ulaow until the turn of the millennium. The son Nikolai was a soloist in the ice shows “ Holiday on Ice ” and “ Disney On Ice ” for 10 years and then founded the figure skating school “Dinastija” in St. Petersburg. The daughter Irina tried her hand at figure skating without much success and competed in pair skating with Alexander Smirnov and Maxim Trankov . After her career, she appeared on the Disney On Ice show for six years.

Results

Pair skating

(with Andrei Suraikin )

Competition / year	1970	1971	1972
winter Olympics			2.
World championships	2.	2.	2.
European championships	2.	2.	2.
Soviet championships	2.	2.

(with Alexei Ulanow )

Competition / year	1973	1974
World championships	2.	2.
European championships	2.	3.
Soviet championships	3.

Web links

• Lyudmila Stanislawowna Smirnowa in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )