RODNINA, IRINA

born Sept. 12, 1949, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R. Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaytsev (U.S.S.R.). in full Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina Soviet figure skater who, with her partners, first Alexei Ulanov and later Aleksandr Zaytsev, won 10 successive world championships (196978) and three successive Olympic gold medals, equaling the record of Sonja Henie. Rodnina graduated from the Central Institute of Physical Culture, Moscow, and taught as well as skated. After winning the gold medal in the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan, the Rodnina-Ulanov partnership, which had begun in 1968, was broken up, and Rodnina chose Zaytsev as her new partner after Soviet skating officials had conducted a nationwide search. The two were married in 1975. They won gold medals in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and again in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., giving Rodnina three gold medals for three successive Olympics. The Rodnina-Zaytsev team introduced side-by-side double axels (a jump movement) and was considered more athletic than lyricalthe characteristic of their predecessors the Protopopovs.