Runaway skaters. Why did the star couple Protopopov-Belousova abandon their homeland? Figure skaters lyudmila belousova and oleg protopopov: a story of great love and resonant escape from the ussr escape from the ussr

Photo: Silver medalists of the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships.

Soviet skaters Belousova and Protopopov were idols of thousands of Soviet boys and girls. The fans called Lyudmila and Oleg “swallows” for their ease and grace in performing the most difficult elements. They first achieved success in 1962, when they won the USSR Championship and brought home European and world silver medals. And before that star couple for a whole year she trained at the skating rink arranged in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today it is impossible to imagine that Luda first started skating at 16, and Oleg at 15, and also that they were already 19 and 22 years old, respectively, when they started training together. Nevertheless, those who once trained in the Assumption Church were the first among fellow figure skaters to perform many complex technical elements, becoming for a long time world first-magnitude stars in figure skating.

"Prayer place"

As you know, the church is not a place for dancing, especially on ice. At the same time, the recollections of the athletes who attended the skating rink in the Assumption Church diverge.

Someone argued that the training took place in front of the holy faces, who gazed at the skaters from the icons and images that were still preserved in the hall. In turn, the famous skater Igor Bobrin recalled:

"The little rink is twenty-five by twenty-five, a piglet, and from above, where the choirs stood, the parents looked at their offspring ..."

And the honored coach of Russia Alexei Mishin wrote in his memoirs about this rink:

“Now there is a courtyard of Optina Hermitage, but then the temple frescoes were whitewashed and smeared with oil paint. It was in this place that I first began to practice single skating, and then pair skating with Tamara Moskvina on the same ice, along with such geniuses as Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov, Nina and Stanislav Zhuk ... To provide support, we ran on skates on a wooden platform , then jumped onto the ice and made an element. We were engaged in general physical training in church basements, where we were surrounded by monumental walls one and a half meters thick and such low vaults that only in some places it was possible to lift our partner in our arms. There we pulled the barbell, played ping-pong. But the aura of this prayed place certainly influenced me. "

Who knows, maybe this "aura of a prayer place" really helped Belousova and Protopopov achieve impressive success in sports and gain mutual love before which even inexorable time turned out to be powerless. In the fall of 2015, Lyudmila Evgenievna was 79 years old, and Oleg Alekseevich was 83, and nevertheless, the loving couple successfully performed on ice in the USA in the Evening with Champions program!

Talents and fans

Rumor regarding folk idols always contradictory. Ill-wishers believed that the rink in the church was flooded at the personal request of the country's main skaters, who had nowhere to train. Admirers of Belousova and Protopopov were sure that it was the piety and conscientiousness of their favorite athletes that contributed to the closure of the ice rink in the Church of God and the beginning of the construction of the Yubileiny ice palace. However, the truth in such cases is often somewhere in between.

Belousova and Protopopov were themselves fans of other talents. These are great composers - Beethoven, Aist, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, to whose music they performed in the ice palaces of the world and won medals of the highest standard.

At the 1968 World Championships in Geneva, all the judges unanimously gave them 6.0 for artistry! Lyudmila and Oleg stood for art on ice, not physical strength.

In 1979, they remained defectors in Switzerland and lost their titles of honored masters of sports in their homeland. The sculptor Ernst Neizvestny compared them with the sculptures "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" who suddenly fled from the USSR. And for them the main thing was the opportunity to work calmly, further creative development and, of course, love. Love, sharpened by steel skates on a skating rink in an old St. Petersburg church - what just does not happen in life!

General secretary and skaters

Among the legends and traditions of St. Petersburg, there is also a story about the creation of an ice rink right in. According to one of her versions, figure skaters Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov once complained to Khrushchev that there are not enough skating rinks in the city even for training athletes from teams of masters. He ordered to react, and the zealous performers first of all ... covered the floors of the Assumption Church with ice!

Another version of this story looks different. At one of the meetings with cultural and sports figures in 1964, Khrushchev announced the need to build more houses in Leningrad due to the shortage of housing. “And skating rinks,” the young Oleg Protopopov, who was present at the meeting, allegedly added. After that, the construction of sports facilities really revived in the city, but there is most likely no direct connection with the church of the former courtyard in this story.

And with examples he shows what role a fragile woman can play in the life of a strong man, and what she gets instead, coming to the conclusion that what happened is, first of all, a human tragedy, a gap in the living.

It is far from always that a person's departure from life makes one think, build a belated retrospective in one's thoughts, recall some events and rethink them anew. But now it does not go out of my head: Lyudmila Belousova is gone. Lovely ... That's what those who skated alongside always called her, that's how she introduced herself to me when we met her in 1995 at the European Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund. Then it did not even seem unnatural: Belousova was not even sixty, she looked a good two decades younger and left the impression of an unusually modest, very friendly and at the same time slightly shy woman-child. Perhaps this impression was formed because only Oleg spoke in that interview. Oleg Alekseevich Protopopov.

Unlike his wife, he not only did not feel discomfort with an emphatically respectful treatment of himself, but he himself constantly made it clear that he did not consider and never considered himself an ordinary skater.

I just know my own worth, '' he remarked harshly, talking about how he negotiated a fee with representatives of one of the famous American shows, flatly refusing the originally proposed conditions and immediately receiving a much more favorable offer.

Then, I must confess, I was jarred by his phrase: "I know that the Russians would agree to ride for five hundred dollars, but we, alas, are not Russians."

I don't think it was shocking. Rather, on the contrary: a completely familiar demeanor. Even when Mila and Oleg skated in Russia and for many years were part of the national team of the country, one of the famous skaters of that time noticed that Protopopov always needed a retinue. He always had it: someone wore a camera, someone solved everyday issues, and someone simply admired the idol, since the idol encouraged it in every possible way.

Then it seemed to me that the forced emigration in 1979 left too much of an imprint on the character of Protopopov, because of which Lyudmila and Oleg found themselves together for many years against the rest of the world. But as our acquaintance continued, I began to understand: Protopopov was always like that. Irreconcilable, uncompromising, one hundred percent confident in his own righteousness and his own superiority, no matter what he does. And Mila - she just served him. Devotedly, every minute, all-consuming. Such alliances, as they say, are formed in heaven. And even with the death of one of the spouses they cannot be destroyed.

That very first conversation of ours sat in my memory for a long time. Protopopov categorically told me about his plans to prepare for the Olympic Games in Nagano and take part in them. For a little over an hour that we talked, or rather dived with Oleg (everything that he was talking about sounded too absurd), Mila did not say a word. She just nodded to the beat of some words and phrases of her husband.

Many years later, I realized that I had made a grandiose mistake then: I did not understand that the door had opened for me, allowing me to look into someone else's and rather solitary life, to understand who they are - these legendary skaters. This did not imply any assessments, no discussions, no attempts to fit what was heard to one or another stereotype. It took some time before the understanding came: Mila and Oleg were simply different. Not like everyone else. Although it would probably be more correct to use a different formulation here: they have never been like everyone else.

And these two have always been one. This is probably why, even now, when Mila is gone, it is still impossible to talk about her in isolation from the only person who has been around for more than sixty years and, in fact, ruled over her whole life.

Protopopov (and therefore Belousova too) was characterized by an extremely selfish attitude towards his own sports career. At one time, it was a great revelation for me that the skaters worked for a long time with one of the most outstanding coaches of that period, Igor Borisovich Moskvin. Mila and Oleg never mentioned this, and Moskvin himself was never inclined to advertise his own participation in their fate. On this score, Alexey Mishin once remarked very accurately, saying that Moskvin's work was very wrongly assessed, first of all, by Oleg himself, who sincerely believed that he was training himself, and allowed himself statements that were quite offensive for Igor Borisovich.

Moskvin himself evaluated his work somewhat differently.

I can’t boast that I made this pair, ”he once told me. - Mila and Oleg made themselves. At a certain stage, I just developed their skating in the right direction.

Perhaps this was the main thing: Belousova and Protopopov, with their unique lyrical and airy style of skating, perfectly fit into the picture, which at that stage turned out to be most in demand. The world was not yet ready for the grotesque that Aleksey Mishin and Tamara Moskvina were ready to offer, or for the transcendent complexity over which Stanislav Zhuk, who had not yet become great, with Irina Rodnina and Aleksey Ulanov pondered all day long. The world just wanted love and beauty. Both Belousov and Protopopov made both their calling card.

Surprisingly, the backbone of the couple in training has always been the quiet and wordless Mila. It was she who extinguished all Oleg's outbursts in endless disputes on the ice, and at home she simply turned into a silent fairy - the keeper of the hearth and family.

Mila always supported me too, - Moskvin recalled. - She was an ideal skater: light, beautiful, she did not need to be convinced of something, forced to try some things. She just listened to the task and silently went to carry it out. Oleg, on the contrary, constantly needed to prove something.

Having left Russia for Switzerland in 1979, Belousova and Protopopov cut their way back to the only country where thousands of people, despite the disgrace of the skaters, still admired them. In Switzerland, 43-year-old (at the time of departure) Lyudmila and 47-year-old Oleg could only continue to skate. They simply would not have earned anything else for their future life.

While Mila and Oleg were skating with me, we were pretty friendly, - said Moskvin. - We went on vacation together, lived together at training camps in a hotel in Voskresensk, where Mila in her room constantly cooked pancakes for everyone on an electric stove, which she constantly carried with her. We often went on ski trips, that is, the relationship was much closer than official.

Then, when they had already left the sport, I heard that they had a conflict with the leadership of the ice ballet, where they skated then. But I never thought that the denouement could turn out to be just that.

In Leningrad, they lived not far from Tamara and me, and, to be honest, I was moved when I received a thick envelope with photographs in the mail. There was also a letter enclosed: “Dear Igor and Tamara!

There were collected all the photographs where the Protopopovs and I were captured together or in the same company. That is, they did not want their departure to create at least some difficulties for those people who knew them and with whom they were close at one stage or another.

Many years later, I asked Moskvin how he felt about the fact that former students, who are already over 70, continue to go on the ice in front of the public.

If a person really loves it, why not? - the coach answered calmly. - Take me. If I now suddenly decided to remember my youth and started sailing again, who could blame me for that? As for the Protopopovs, I have a certain respect for the fact that people are so devoted to figure skating. In a way, they remind me of the mathematician who proved Poincaré's conjecture but turned down a major prize. I didn’t go to receive it only because I regretted wasting time on the trip, distracted from my work. Oleg is a normal person in this respect. He always gladly accepted everything that was due to him. But he loved figure skating like no other. She and Mila had a wonderful glide, although that's not even the point. And the fact that this slide was meaningful. Filled up. Including technically. That's great rarity.

I myself saw Belousova and Protopopov on the ice only once - at the 1996 European Championships in Sofia. During the previous year, the skaters performed in charity shows a couple of times, and the organizers of the competition invited the Protopopovs to Sofia not only as guests of honor, but also so that the legendary skaters took part in the opening ceremony of the competition. Oleg and Mila trained at night: the day ice was given to the participants, and the opening rehearsals began late in the evening.

And it was by nightfall that the stands were actively filled with spectators.

My first impression of the skating of Belousova and Protopopov was strong. The two-time Olympic champions did not make any jumps, supports, or throws, and, probably, they could not. But some special magic of the absolute unity of movements, gestures, and feelings emanated from the ice. The skates glided on the ice without a single rustle. At the same time, I did not leave the feeling that this skating was not intended for the audience: it was too intimate. Apparently, the tribunes felt the same, numb in some kind of silent admiration.

Belousova and Protopopov came to Sofia free of charge. Their performance at the opening ceremony was given by the organizers for one and a half minutes and a little less than half of the skating rink (participants of the festive crowd were standing on the rest of the ice area).

After that, I regretted more than once that I saw it. Protopopov went out on the ice in a straw-colored wig (under the spotlights, artificial hair looked red), his face was covered with a thick layer of makeup with a blush painted on it, his eyes and lips were drawn. His partner was in a short red dress ("We still fit into the suits we skated in in 1968") with a red bow in her hair.

The contrast with the night training was striking: there, on the ice, there were Masters for whom it was as natural to skate as to breathe. Here are two middle-aged people, desperately, but in vain, trying to hide their age. These attempts - ridiculous, and most importantly, absolutely unnecessary - completely obscured the pair's skating and forced to remember the statement of the outstanding Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev: "You can dance at thirty or sixty. But at sixty you don't need to look at it."

Remembering all this now, I again come to the same conclusion: when you are dealing with unique personalities, it is hardly worth approaching them with generally accepted standards. I was desperately sorry for Mila, when in 1997, having got the opportunity to talk with the legendary figure skater in private during the World Championships in Lausanne (Oleg was invited to comment on the performances of sports couples that day), she talked about her life in Grindelwald.

- Do you have any favorite women's affairs,- I asked her then. She shrugged her slender shoulders:

Perhaps the kitchen. I cook a lot, everything is eaten, as a rule, on the same day. I used to sew, now there is no need for this. We have a small vegetable garden - three beds. At one time, cucumbers were grown, now greens. Just for fun. There are also three cherries - my sister brought it from Moscow. But the birds are constantly pecking at the berries. A stray cat lived for 12 years. When we went on tour, she even cried. She died two years ago. We buried her right outside the house, under the tree.

- What a big purchase did you make for yourself last years?

None. I do not need anything.

- And what a gift in last time gave it to your husband?

We do not give gifts to each other. It is enough that we ourselves have each other. I never even wanted to have children in my life. If we had them, how could we skate for so long?

In the same way, I felt sorry for Oleg, who, in the same place, in Lausanne, told how in 1982, when the skaters finished skating in the famous American show Ice Capades, instead of buying their own home, by mutual decision, they decided to make a film. About myself.

All the money (according to Protopopov, about a million francs) was spent on buying professional equipment, renting a skating rink, shooting. The lighting installations were ordered from Germany. The film (16 hours of pure skating without a single take) was filmed by a 17-year-old skater whose parents moved to Switzerland from Czechoslovakia in 1968. Lyudmila sewed costumes for each of the show pieces herself. On the same typewriter brought from St. Petersburg.

I tried to edit the film myself, made a cassette with a duration of 1 hour and 20 minutes, - said Protopopov. “Everyone who has seen it agrees that the work is highly professional and the film itself is unique. We tried to contact companies that produce cassettes or television material of this kind, but everyone wants to get the film for free. If there are wealthy people who can truly appreciate what we have, perhaps I will agree to sell the film. There are no such proposals yet.

There, in Switzerland, Protopopov began to write a book. When he said that he himself, it happens, reads what he wrote for hours and could not tear himself away, I suddenly realized that he would never give this book to any editor in the world: for him she (like the film, by the way) is a worn out and suffered child ... And their own children are not given to the alteration. Or maybe the whole point is that he did not seek to show off his life with Milaya. He once said that he would never want to see someone auction this life.

Returning from that championship, I wrote:

"... You can condemn the legendary athletes for selfishness, which still happens to show through in their actions and statements. Or you can just envy the couple who carried fantastic devotion to each other and their favorite sport throughout their lives. What difference does it make what we think of them we? They have earned the right to have their own opinion about the world of figure skating, in which they will undoubtedly remain forever as his greatest legend ... "

In fact, Belousova and Protopopov in their long sports career, in which, as applied to figure skating, the prefix "after" did not appear at all were not at all unhappy. Arguing about a life in which the fates of the spouses were welded together so tightly that they could not break, Oleg Alekseevich once said that until now, no matter what the talk was about, he sets only maximum goals for himself (and therefore for Mila), because the maximum goal is disciplined, it helps to keep the psyche fresh. He was going to live a very long time, subordinated to this idea the entire everyday life, carefully studied any information about healthy eating, about cleansing all vital organs. Workouts, all sorts of recovery activities and even vacations were organically integrated into the same system, for each of which the couple prepared extremely carefully.

Unfortunately, Protopopov never managed to make life play by its own laws: in 2009 he suffered a stroke. Then the legendary figure skater managed not only to fully recover, but began to treat himself with double exactingness. But a few years later, Lyudmila was diagnosed with cancer ...

And now she is gone forever, leaving those who knew and loved her bright memories, and Oleg - a terrible test: to continue living alone. May God give him strength for this ...

MOSCOW, September 29 - R-Sport, Elena Dyachkova. Outstanding Soviet figure skater, two-time Olympic champion, four-time European and world champion, paired with Oleg Protopopov,.

Belousova was born on November 22, 1935 in Ulyanovsk; as a child, she moved to Moscow with her family. She started figure skating very late by modern standards - at the age of 16. Belousova trained in tandem with Kirill Gulyaev, but he decided to end his career, and the athlete thought about performing in singles, but at one of the seminars in 1954 she met Oleg Protopopov.

For the sake of joint performances, Belousova moved to Leningrad, where her partner lived. The couple began to train with Igor Moskvin, then worked with Pyotr Orlov, but later the skaters decided to abandon the coach and began to work together, independently inventing their own programs.

Brilliant career

In December 1957, Belousova and Protopopov got married. In the same year, they won silver at the USSR championship, and in 1958 they took part in international competitions for the first time - the European Championship. In 1960, the duo made their debut at the Olympic Games held in the American Squaw Valley without winning any medals. Four years later, at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck, Austria, Belousova and Protopopov took first place, becoming the first representatives of the USSR to win Olympic gold in pair skating. And in 1968, the duo was able to defend the championship title by winning the Olympics in Grenoble, France.

“When I watched their skating, I often just cried: they had incredible energy, - which with her husband Nikolai performed side by side with Belousova and Protopopov. - People, especially at the demonstration performances, perceived their skating in the same way. , which is now called the concept of "chemistry." Before them, no one skated like that, and after that, to be honest, I can not name anyone who could cause me such emotions. "

On account of Belousova and Protopopov, four victories at the European and world championships each, six times they became the winners of the USSR championship. The duo retired in 1972. After that, for several years, the skaters performed at the Leningrad Ballet on Ice. In September 1979, Belousova and Protopopov, while on tour in Switzerland, refused to return to the USSR and asked for political asylum.

Former athletes lived in Switzerland, in 1995 they received Swiss citizenship. Belousova and Protopopov remained in sports and regularly took part in the show. After a more than 20-year absence, the skaters returned to their homeland for the first time only in February 2003, after which they repeatedly came to Russia, were guests of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

The two-time Olympic champion said that he would always remember how Belousova and Protopopov congratulated him and his partner Tatyana Volosozhar on their victory in Sochi. “Having won in 1964, it was this pair that gave rise to the greatness of the Russian pair skating school, from 1964 to 2006, only Russian pairs won the Games. And 50 years after their victory, Belousova and Protopopov came to Sochi to support us and see how the medals are returning to Russia, "the athlete wrote on his Instagram account.

“I will always remember the moment when they descended to the edge of the ice, the legend, and with tears congratulated us on our victory. the world ", -.

Died in Switzerland

Messages about the death of the great skater appeared on the Internet on Friday evening and could not find confirmation for a long time. The first information that Belousova passed away was confirmed by the honored coaches of Russia Alexey Mishin and Tamara Moskvina. “I was informed that Lyudmila Belousova had died. Sports life we spent in the same dressing room. She was very kind and simple ", -.

"Unfortunately, everything was confirmed, Lyudmila Evgenievna died. This is a huge loss. They were our close friends," Moskvina said.

Bronze medalist of the 1984 Olympic Games, Oleg Makarov, now living in the United States, told R-Sport that Belousova had died in Switzerland. "They wrote to me in the morning that she left for Switzerland. And the last time I saw them in August was in Lake Placid, where they hold training camps every summer. And this information came as a shock to me. Lyudmila is a legend!" - he said.

"She had cancer, which happened about a year and a half ago. She was treated in Switzerland ... And everything seemed to be getting better, in August they looked good ...", -.

Remain the benchmark for everyone

The President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation expressed his condolences on the death of the famous figure skater. "Lyudmila was a very pleasant, intelligent person, a very pleasant woman in communication. I, like the whole world, perceived them with Oleg as one whole. It was a unique, amazing couple! For our country they are pioneers, for the first time for the USSR and Russia they won the gold Olympic medal in pair skating ", -.

“They have always been not only outstanding athletes, but also creative people - they have created their own unique style, their programs are unforgettable and are still the standard. They were fanatically devoted to figure skating, devoted their entire lives to it,” the head of the federation emphasized.

At the age of 81, two-time Olympic champion figure skater Lyudmila Belousova died. Cancer was the cause of death.

On September 29, the famous figure skater Lyudmila Belousova died in Switzerland at the age of 82.

According to those who knew the skater, in recent years she has been battling cancer.

So, skater Oleg Makarov (bronze medalist of the 1984 Olympics in pair skating) said that in 2015, Lyudmila Belousova was found to have cancer... "She had cancer, which happened a year and a half ago. And they left to live in Switzerland ... And it seems that everything was getting better for them, in August they looked good." However, then there was a deterioration, which led to the death of a 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 carried away different kinds sports - gymnastics, tennis, speed skating. She began to practice figure skating quite late - at the age of sixteen, after watching the Austrian film "Spring on Ice".

In 1951, the first artificial skating rink in the USSR was built in Moscow, and Belousova entered the children's figure skating group.

By 1954, she was already a "public instructor" for young figure skaters in the Dzerzhinsky Park, she herself was engaged in senior group... Belousova trained in tandem with Kirill Gulyaev, who soon announced that he was ending up with sports. Belousova decided to compete in singles.

In 1954, at a seminar in Moscow, she met Oleg Protopopov... They decided to just ride together, tried some elements. It seemed to the athletes that they fit together. Protopopov at that time served in Leningrad in the Baltic Fleet, and Belousova studied at the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers.

Then Belousova was transferred to the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers, moved to Leningrad and in December 1954 the athletes began to train together under the guidance of I.B. Moskvin, for some time - P.P. Orlov. From time to time we worked together, put their own programs. Belousova played for the Leningrad sports societies Dynamo and Lokomotiv.

By 1957, they were silver medalists of the USSR championship and masters of sports. In December 1957, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov got married.

On international scene debuted in 1958. The technical arsenal of the athletes was not rich, besides, inexperience affected, so they got nervous and did not perform very well at the 1958 European Championship - they made mistakes while performing simple elements.

At the 1959 European Championships, they allowed a fall, the judges gave an average score of 5.0-5.1. At their first 1960 Olympics in the United States, the pair scored by a wide margin, ranging from 4.6 / 4.5 by the Canadian judges to 5.2 / 5.2 by the Austrian and Swiss judges.

In the 1960s, the couple grew significantly both technically and artistically. For the first time they performed a 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. Dzhelinek with one judge's vote and only one tenth points.

At the 64 Olympics, they unexpectedly beat Kilius and Boimler with an advantage of one judge's vote, thanks to the high level of coordination, synchronization and harmony of skating, beautiful spirals, a combination of twine and axel jumps in one and a half turn, double salchow, several supports, including a toothed lasso in two turns. Almost all judges gave marks of 5.8-5.9.

Their programs of 1965-68 became masterpieces, in which the image of lovers was revealed with inspiration, with a subtle psychologism, almost absolute synchronization 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 (speech)

In 1966, a new pair of Zhuk - Gorelik, who lost to them at the World Championship by only one referee's vote, formed the sharpest competition for them.

At their third Olympics (1968), the couple won both programs. In the free program, evaluated by the journalists as a triumphant, free program to the music of Rachmaninov and Beethoven, the following were purely performed: a combination of double rittberger - steps - axel one and a half turn, double salchow, 7 various supports, including a toothed lasso and lasso-axel, as well as a huge spiral in length in camel position, lasting 15 seconds. Only the first starting number in the strongest warm-up did not allow the judges to score 6.0, while six judges put 5.9 / 5.9, two 5.8 / 5.9, and the judge from the GDR 5.8 / 5.8 was booed by the audience.

At the 1968 World Cup, almost all the judges gave 5.8 / 5.9, and the judges from Germany and the German Democratic Republic both gave 5.7 / 6.0.

However, then the pair began to lose to younger Soviet pairs, which made the program extremely difficult. At the 1969 World Championships, the athletes made several mistakes and took third place.

In 1970, at the USSR championship, they were in the lead after the execution of the compulsory program, but in terms of the sum of the two types, they remained only fourth and did not make it to the national team (later they announced a conspiracy).

At the 1971 USSR Championship, the pair was only sixth, and in April 1972 - the third, but in the absence of the strongest pairs, after which the athletes left amateur sports.

After leaving the big sport, the athletes did not part with figure skating, they worked in the Leningrad Ballet on Ice.

On September 24, 1979, while on tour in Switzerland with the Leningrad Ballet on Ice, Belousova and Protopopov asked the leadership of this country for political asylum and refused to return to the USSR.

Athletes were stripped of the titles of honored masters of sports, their names were deleted from all Soviet reference books telling about the Olympic achievements of the USSR, and the athletes themselves were openly called traitors. Belousova and Protopopov explained their step by the fact that in their native country the couple was not allowed to develop further, they did not want to quit sports and believed that abroad their talent would be appreciated more. Lived in Grindelwald.

In 1995 they received Swiss citizenship, after which they were able to speak 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 with Protopopov to Russia 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, gave repeated interviews.

In September 2015, 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova and 83-year-old Oleg Protopopov performed on ice in the USA at the "Evening with Champions".

Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov in Moscow. 2015 year

Sports achievements of Lyudmila Belousova:

Winter Olympic Games: 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).

Oleg Alekseevich Protopopov. Born on July 16, 1932 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Soviet figure skater, two-time Olympic champion (1964 and 1968) in pair skating paired with Lyudmila Belousova. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1962; deprived in 1979).

In childhood, he survived the blockade of Leningrad.

He was raised by his stepfather, the poet Dmitry Censor, who saved them and their mother during the war. As Protopopov recalled, the Censor pulled them out of the besieged city when they were already on the verge of death.

It was his stepfather who gave him the first skates in his life. However, he began to seriously engage in figure skating only at the age of 15 - in 1947 with coach Nina Vasilievna Lepninskaya.

In 1951 he was preparing to take part in all-Union competitions, but was drafted into the army in the Baltic Fleet. He was demobilized in 1956, but during the service he continued to practice figure skating - he was released from the ship for training.

At first he performed in tandem with Margarita Bogoyavlenskaya, with whom he won the bronze medal of the 1953 USSR championship.

In 1954 he began performing with Lyudmila Belousova, whom I met at a seminar in Moscow. They decided to just ride together, tried some elements. It seemed to the athletes that they fit together. Belousova moved to Leningrad and in December 1954 the athletes began to train together under the guidance of I.B. Moskvin, for some time - P.P. Orlov. From time to time we worked together, put their own programs. By 1957, they were silver medalists of the USSR championship and masters of sports.

In December 1957, the skaters got married and have not parted since then.

They made their international debut in 1958. The technical arsenal of the athletes was not rich, besides, inexperience affected, so they got nervous and did not perform very well at the 1958 European Championship - they made mistakes while performing simple elements.

In the 1960s, the couple grew significantly both technically and artistically. Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova came up with and were the first to perform many of the elements, which later became part of the compulsory competition program for figure skaters around the world. So, for the first time they performed a todes forward on the inner edge, the so-called. "Cosmic spiral".

In 1963, the couple staged a free program to jazz music, getting average marks already at the level of 5.7-5.8. At the 1964 European Championships in the compulsory program, the couple received higher marks than M. Kilius - H.-Yu. Boimler (FRG), but lost to them in most places, in the free program a pair from FRG also bypassed the Soviet pair and won. At the 64 Olympics, they unexpectedly beat Kilius and Boimler with an advantage of one judge's vote, thanks to the high level of coordination, synchronization and harmony of skating, beautiful spirals, a combination of twine and axel jumps in one and a half turn, double salchow, several supports, including a toothed lasso in two turns. Almost all judges gave marks of 5.8-5.9.

speech by Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov

In 1966, a new pair of Zhuk - Gorelik, who lost to them at the World Championship by only one referee's vote, formed the sharpest competition for them.

At the 1968 World Cup, almost all the judges gave 5.8 / 5.9, and the judges from Germany and the German Democratic Republic both gave 5.7 / 6.0.

However, then the pair began to lose to younger Soviet pairs, which made the program extremely difficult. At the 1969 World Championships, the athletes made several mistakes and took third place. In 1970, at the USSR championship, they were in the lead after the execution of the compulsory program, but in terms of the sum of the two types they remained only fourth and did not make it to the national team (later they announced a conspiracy). At the 1971 USSR Championship, the pair was only sixth, and in April 1972 - the third, but in the absence of the strongest pairs, after which the athletes left amateur sports.

He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1965, 1968), the Jacques Favard Prize of the International Skating Union.

After leaving the big sport, the athletes did not part with figure skating, they worked in the Leningrad Ballet on Ice.

In 1978, the apartment of Belousova and Protopopov in Leningrad was robbed, all the medals were stolen.

They tried to join the CPSU, as they honestly admitted, for career reasons. But they were not accepted. Oleg Protopopov said: “They waited in line for three years, but they did not accept us. They said, they say, the party of workers and peasants, among the candidates there are no less worthy people than you. Yes, on our part it was a opportunistic calculation ... We wrote statements, took recommendations from Tamara Moskvina, director of the St. Petersburg Sports Palace "Jubilee" Sergei Tolstikhin, but nothing helped. "

Flight from the USSR

On September 24, 1979, Belousova and Protopopov, being with the Leningrad Ballet on Ice on tour in Switzerland, asked the leadership of this country for political asylum and refused to return to the USSR.

In the USSR, athletes were stripped of the titles of honored masters of sports, their names were deleted from all Soviet reference books telling about the Olympic achievements of the USSR, and the athletes themselves were openly called traitors.

Belousova and Protopopov themselves explained their step by the fact that in their native country the couple was not allowed to develop further, they did not want to quit sports and believed that abroad their talent would be appreciated more.

Oleg Protopopov on the reasons for emigration:

"At one time they spread rumors that we were asking to come back, but that was not the case. Yes, I was born in Leningrad and was not going to leave anywhere. I even told Ekaterina Furtseva, the Minister of Culture, who called me and Lyuda to Moscow, that I wanted to die. v hometown... But then the circumstances changed. At some point, they felt like they were in prison. The only way to escape was emigration. And this decision, believe me, was not at all easy. We were forced to accept him. As before they were kicked out of the big sport.

It's a matter of the past, today, probably, few remember, but we were preparing for the Olympics-72, we were going to go to Sapporo. The Rodnina - Ulanov pair were considered favorites, our students Smirnova - Suraykin were the second, but we could count on a solid third place. Least. I remember trying to convince Sergei Pavlov, the country's main athlete: “There is a chance to take the entire Olympic podium! Opportunity must not be missed. " Naive moron! This is me about myself ... They did not even think to take us anywhere: the bronze in pair skating was already promised to the GDR team, and for this the Germans promised to support Sergei Chetverukhin in the singles competitions, where the USSR's positions were weaker.

In fact, we were sold, although in form everything looked pretty decent. Before the Olympics, the coaching council gathered and ... Nobody supported our candidacies. The games were won by Rodnina and Ulanov, although Lyuda Smirnova and Andryusha Suraikin, to whom we staged a free program, should have won. They skated cleanly, but Ulanov did not fulfill required element, did not jump a double somersault, which was a gross violation. Nevertheless, the judges forgave the mistake. Now such a trick would not work ...

Then they spat on the rules, did what they wanted. In the 70th year at the USSR championship in Kiev, we were in the lead after the first day, and Rodnina and Ulanov were eighth. It ended with the fact that they won, and we were thrown back into fourth place. Is this possible with normal refereeing? We had to crawl on the belly in order to fall so low! ".

Lived in Grindelwald.

In 1995 they received Swiss citizenship, after which they were able to speak at the opening of the European Championship in Sofia (1995).

In November 2005, they visited Russia at the invitation of the St. Petersburg Figure Skating Federation.

We attended the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

In September 2015, 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova and 83-year-old Oleg Protopopov performed on ice in the USA at the "Evening with Champions".

Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova. Moscow. 2015 year

Oleg Protopopov's height: 175 centimeters.

Personal life of Oleg Protopopov:

He was married to figure skater Lyudmila Belousova, his ice partner. They got married in December 1957 and lived together all their lives.

They had no children.

According to the couple, they did not give birth to children so as not to become hostages. Soviet system... Apparently, their plan of escape to the West matured a long time ago. Belousova said: “We saw how Viktor Korchnoi suffered. He left for the West, while Bella and her son stayed in the USSR. Vitya was actually blackmailed, saying: if you beat Karpov, forget about the family. We know this firsthand, Bella’s in Switzerland was the same lawyer as ours. The Soviet system did not forgive those who tried to swim against the tide. "

Sports achievements of Oleg Protopopov:

Winter Olympics: gold (1964, 1968);