Oleg Alexeyevich Protopopov

Oleg Protopopov
Full name	Oleg Alexeyevich Protopopov
nation	Soviet Union
birthday	16th July 1932 (age 88)
place of birth	Leningrad,  Soviet Union
size	175 cm
Weight	71 kg
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Margarita Bogojawlenskaja, Lyudmila Belousova
Trainer	Igor Moskvin, Peter Orlov
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic medals 2 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 4 × 3 × 1 × EM medals 4 × 4 × 0 ×
winter Olympics gold Innsbruck 1964 Couples gold Grenoble 1968 Couples  World figure skating championships silver Prague 1962 Couples silver Cortina d'Ampezzo 1963 Couples silver Dortmund 1964 Couples gold Colorado Springs 1965 Couples gold Davos 1966 Couples gold Vienna 1967 Couples gold Geneva 1968 Couples bronze Colorado Springs 1969 Couples  European figure skating championships silver Geneva 1962 Couples silver Budapest 1963 Couples silver Grenoble 1964 Couples gold Moscow 1965 Couples gold Bratislava 1966 Couples gold Ljubljana 1967 Couples gold Västerås 1968 Couples silver Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1969 Couples

Oleg Alexejewitsch Protopopow ( Russian Олег Алексеевич Протопопов ; English Oleg Protopopov ; born July 16, 1932 in Leningrad , Russian SFSR , Soviet Union ) is a Soviet figure skater who started in pair skating .

education

Protopopov studied sport at the State Pedagogical University "AI Hearts" in Leningrad .

Career

Protopopov began his pair skating career with Margarita Bogojawlenskaya . Together they finished third at the Soviet championships in 1953 and 1954. Protopopov met Lyudmila Belousova in 1953 at a competition held in Moscow . On August 28, 1954, they completed their first pair run together. Their coach was initially Igor Moskvin , then Peter Orlov . Then they trained independently in Voskressensk near Moscow, where they were supported by Stanislav Schuk , whom Protopopov knew from Leningrad. They got married in 1957.

Oleg Protopopow and Lyudmila Belousova 1968 in Karl-Marx-Stadt

The couple made their debut at world and European championships in 1958. At that time they were the second best Soviet figure skating couple after Nina and Stanislaw Schuk , behind whom they were Soviet runners-up from 1957 to 1959 and 1961. In 1960 in Squaw Valley they played their first Olympic Games and finished them in ninth place.

In 1962 Protopopov and Belousova became Soviet champions for the first time. They defended this title until 1968 with the exception of 1965. As reigning Soviet champions, they also won their first major international medals in 1962. In Geneva they became vice-European champions behind Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler and in Prague they became vice-world champions behind Canadians Maria and Otto Jelinek . Both at the European Championships in 1963 and 1964 , as well as at the World Championships in 1963 and 1964 , they won the silver medal behind Kilius and Bäumler. At the Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 1964, however, they managed to defeat the favored Germans. It was the first Olympic gold for the Soviet Union in figure skating. In 1965 Protopopow and Belousova became European champions for the first time in Moscow and world champions for the first time in Colorado Springs . It was the first title for the Soviet Union at world and European championships in figure skating. The couple were able to defend the World Cup title in Davos in 1966 , in Vienna in 1967 and in Geneva in 1968 , as well as the European title in 1966 in Bratislava , 1967 in Ljubljana and 1968 in Västerås . In 1968 they also defended their Olympic title at the Olympic Games in Grenoble , relegating their compatriots Tatjana Schuk and Alexander Gorelik to silver. They were at the height of their careers.

In 1969 they played their last world and European championships. Both times they had to admit defeat to the competition from their own country. At the European Championships it was still enough to get silver behind Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanow , at the World Championships they were pushed to bronze by Tamara Moskwina and Alexei Mishin . In 1970 and 1971 Protopopow and Belousova competed in the Soviet championships, but failed to make it onto the podium, and in 1972 they finished third again. They impressed with their elegance, but were no longer nominated for the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo , because the taste had meanwhile switched to the athletic running style embodied by Irina Rodnina and Alexej Ulanow and the association said that Protopopov and Belousova were too old.

From 1972 Protopopow and Belousova appeared as soloists in the ice ballet in Leningrad. In 1979 they asked for asylum during a guest tour in Switzerland . In 1995 you received Swiss citizenship and lived in Grindelwald .

Although both were now over the age of 70, they continued to occur. In 2003 they accepted an invitation from the Russian Minister of Sports Vyacheslav Fetissov and on February 25, 2003 they returned to their Russian homeland for the first time in over 20 years.

Lyudmila Belousova died in 2017.

Results

Pair skating

(with Lyudmila Beloussowa )

Competition / year	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
winter Olympics								9.				1.				1.
World championships						13.		8th.		2.	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	3.
European championships						10.	7th	4th		2.	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	2.
Soviet championships	3. *	3. *	3.	4th	2.	2.	2.		2.	1.	1.	1.		1.	1.	1.	2.	4th	6th	3.

* with Margarita Bogojawlenskaja

Oleg Protopopow and Lyudmila Belousova 1963 in Berlin

Web links

Commons : Oleg Protopopov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Oleg Alexejewitsch Protopopow in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )