MOSCOW, Nov 8. The International Skating Union (ISU) honored in memory of two-time Olympic champion in figure skating Oleg Protopopov.
Protopopov died on October 31 in Interlaken, Switzerland at the age of 91.
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“ISU pays tribute to Oleg Protopopov and will remember him with great warmth,” says a statement published on the ISU website.
Protopopov has lived in Switzerland since leaving the USSR in 1979. Then he and his wife and partner Lyudmila Belousova, while on tour with the Leningrad Ice Ballet, asked for political asylum. Belousova died in September 2017 at the age of 81.
In addition to two victories at the Olympic Games (1964, 1968), Protopopov and Belousova have four gold medals at the World and European Championships, three silver and one bronze medal at the World Championships and four silver medals at the European Championships. Protopopov and Belousova invented and were the first to perform many elements that were later included in the mandatory competition program for figure skaters all over the world.