Former Olympic Gold Medal Champions Continue To Dazzle On Ice

Mar 15, 2021

People who enjoyed their youthful years in the 1960s are probably not as lively today. And yet, one legendary skating couple, Oleg Alekeyevich Protopopov and Lyudmila Yevgeniyevna Belousova, continued to show off their ice-skating moves from their youthful years in 2015 at 83 and 79 years old, respectively. That’s unbelievable, right?

The story of this gold medal-winning couple goes back to 1954 when Protopopov met Belousova in the spring of 1954 in Moscow. This would be the beginning of a meaningful and long partnership between two love birds who were both passionate about professional figure skating. Protopopov began skating rather late at 15 years of age, while Belousova jump started her interests in skating at the age of 16.
As fate would have it, they both formed a friendship and partnership as professional skaters that would eventually lead them into marriage three years after meeting. The two-time Olympic gold medalists would then search for greater challenges and more technical difficulties. After a series of decisions, including changing coaches and tactics, Protopopov and Belousova debuted in their first-ever World Championships in 1958, securing the 13th spot. In 1960, the pair appeared in their first Olympics, finishing 9th. 

In 1962, a determined Belousova and Protopopov participated in the World Championship and won a silver medal after finishing in second place. This would be the start of a series of incredible wins for the couple. They went on to win at the World Championships in 1965 and continued to place in the top spot for the next three years.

In 1964, the now formidable force won their first gold medal at the Olympics, later adding a second to their portfolio in the 1968 Olympics.

“They belong at the peak of pairs skating,” the two-time Olympic champion and television commentator Dick Button said in a ‘60s interview with The New York Times. “They picked a style for themselves, a classical style, and they had an iconic devotion to it. The flat backs, the head and body stretched to the nth degree. They were not Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.”

Unfortunately, in 1979 after political upheaval in Russia, Protopopov and Belousova were exiled and defected to Grindelwald, Switzerland, spending summers in New York State, according to The New York Times. With immense experience, the couple went ahead to join the Ice Capades while still keeping their flame burning in professional skating through their 60s.

They have been instrumental in shaping and revolutionizing modern skating. Protopopov and Belousova are famous for blending skating and slow romantic dancing in one move. In 2015, a strong 83 and 79 aged Protopopov and Belousova beautifully flaunted their moves in a video that leaves many in awe to this day.

The two athletes came out of retirement to perform at An Evening With Champions, Harvard University’s annual figure skating benefit for cancer research. Profits from the event — which attracts the world’s best figure skaters, hundreds of student volunteers and thousands of audience members — all went to the Jimmy Fund, a New England-based charity that works with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

John Misha Petkevich, a Harvard alumnus and U.S. men's silver medalist, started An Evening With Champions in 1970.

“After routinely visiting the Children's Memorial Hospital in Brookline for check-ups on his knees, Petkevich remembered a particular incident in October of 1970 of a boy stricken with cancer,” An Evening With Champions writes on their website of the event’s origins. “An operation was planned, but in its execution the child was accidentally paralyzed from the waist down, and as a result was forced to to stay in the hospital for a year or more. The daily hospital bills, including intensive care and pain medication, were being covered by the Jimmy Fund.”

That experience at Children’s Memorial gave Petkevich the idea for the event, which has since featured 26 Olympic champions, 67 Olympic medalists and 181 U.S. national champions.

As some of the most celebrated figure skaters of the 20th century, Protopopov and Belousova would fall into the first and second groups as Olympic greats. And their decades of experience showed at the 2015 event.

Dressed in neon pink, the skating duo gracefully glided across the ice as Liberace’s elegant piano composition “Fascination” played in the background.

Since TheSkatingLesson uploaded the video in 2015, it has accumulated more than 1 million views, 2,000 likes and hundreds of comments praising Protopopov and Belousova’s artistry.

“Amazing couple! What a tribute to sport, human endurance and strong will! Thanks for posting! Much to learn!” one viewer wrote in response to their 2015 routine.

“I am happy to see the favorites of my childhood so beautiful and cheerful!” Tatyana Monakhova added in Russian.

In an interview at the event, Belousova explained that she and her husband continue to practice nearly every day for around two hours. She added that they prepared for three months at the Lake Placid skating rinks in New York State to perform at An Evening With Champions.

“It’s a great honor for us to skate, first of all, in front of people and to help children and people who unfortunately have diseases. And we will try to help them with our skating,” Belousova said at the event.

Two years after the Russian pair’s celebrated 2015 performance, Belousova died at 81 years old.

“Few figure-skating pairs have commanded the world’s attention as Belousova and Protopopov did in their heyday, and few were as celebrated in their home countries,” Frank Litsky writes in his New York Times obituary for the skater. “At the winter games in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964, they became the first skaters from Russia or the Soviet Union at large to win the gold in Olympic pairs.

“They gathered those laurels by ushering in a romantic, slow-moving, balletic style that has largely been supplanted today by demonstrations of power and athleticism.”

For fans of the late Belousova’s romantic and gentle skating style, there are dozens of recordings of her routines on YouTube from the 1967-78 Winter Olympic games where she and her husband won gold medals to the duo’s winning 1965 routine at the European Championships.

The videos of these two skating legends are magical.

As the sportswriter Jeré Longman put it, “It was once said that the Protopopovs developed a style that was not quite skating and not quite ballet, but more in the realm of poetry.”

Watch the video to see how these two love birds have inspired the world for decades. What do you think of Belousova and Protopopov’s performance? Let us know — and don’t forget to pass this beautiful video on to friends, family members and figure skating fans to keep Belousova’s legacy alive.