PROTOPOPOV, OLEG; AND BELOUSOVA, LYUDMILA

born July 16, 1932, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia, U.S.S.R. born Nov. 22, 1935, Ulyanovsk [now Simbirsk], Russia, U.S.S.R. Oleg Protopopov in full Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov; Lyudmila Belousova in full Lyudmila Yevgeniyevna Belousova Russian-born figure skaters who twice won gold medals in the pairs championship in the Olympic Winter Games (1964, in Innsbruck, Austria, and 1968, in Grenoble, France). They also won the world pairs title four consecutive years (196568), consistently receiving the highest marks for artistic as well as technical excellence. Protopopov and Belousova met in 1954 (when he completed his service in the Soviet navy), began to skate together, and soon were married. They first entered major competition in 1958. In 1979 the pair defected, requesting political asylum in Switzerland, and joined the American ice show Ice Capades.