In a world that attracts more and more children into its ranks - future champions, as well as interesting and beautiful to watch on TV or on an ice rink.

The emergence of figure skating

The first skates on iron runners appeared in the 13th-14th centuries in Holland, which is why it is considered the ancestor of figure skating.

After the advent of skates of a fundamentally new type, popularity also came, which incredibly contributed to the rapid development of this sport, which in those days was reduced to drawing various figures on the ice without losing a beautiful pose.

The first set of rules for figure skating was published in England in 1772 and was called A Treatise on Skating. It described all the main figures known at that time. Thus, Great Britain has secured the authorship of all figures required in figure skating. In addition, in 1742 the first circles of skaters appeared here, the official rules for holding competitions were developed and approved.

The founder of the modern style of figure skating, sports historians unanimously recognize the American Jason Heinz. It was he who played the main role in its distribution throughout the world, and, in particular, in Russia.

Development of figure skating in Russia

In the Russian Empire, figure skating was very popular back in the time of Peter I, who brought the first samples of skates from Europe. It is noteworthy that the Russian emperor was the first who came up with the idea of ​​attaching skates directly to shoes and created, in fact, the prototype of modern skates.

The first Russian manual for skaters was published in 1838 in St. Petersburg and was called " Winter fun and the art of skating”, compiled by the gymnastics teacher of the military educational institution G.M. Pauli.

Figure skating itself appeared in Russia in 1865, and at the same time the first ice rink was opened in the Yusupov Garden in St. Petersburg. At that time, it was the most comfortable in all of Russia and immediately became a platform for the professional training of figure skaters. And in 1878 the first competition among Russian athletes was held.

The first skaters in Russia began to appear at the end of the 19th century. A pioneer who took part in international competitions, became A.P. Lebedev, who was a lawyer by training.

Nikolai Poduskov became a member of the first official competition, which was held in 1896 and took 4th place in single skating on skates, but open championship Russia in 1901 has already taken the last place.

Georgy Sanders, who takes part in the same competitions as Poduskov, took 3rd place, becoming a bronze medalist. In addition, he was the first to perform complex figures, the author of which was, which in turn helped another famous Russian figure skater, Nikolai Panin, who performed them at the 1908 Olympics in London, win the first Olympic gold for Russia.

Of the Soviet champions who won the highest awards in various competitions in figure skating, the most famous are Sergei Chetverukhin (silver at the Sapporo Olympics, bronze at the 1971 World Championships, silver at the World Championships in Calgary (1972) and Bratislava (1973) and bronze at the European Championships in 1969 year) and Sergey Volkov (in 1975 - world champion, champion of the USSR in 1974 and 1976).

Notable Russian male figure skaters in singles

Famous Russian figure skaters have repeatedly become champions and won prizes in various tournaments - from the Olympic Games to championships of various levels, Grand Prix and Cups.

One of the first best figure skaters in Russia was Alexei Urmanov - multiple medalist and champion of the USSR, Russia and European champion, Olympic champion in 1994.

At the 1998 Olympics, Russia again got a gold medal in men's single skating, which he won. In addition to the highest Olympic award, this famous Russian figure skater has the gold of the Russian championship, silver and bronze of the world and European championships.

One of the most famous and top athletes Russia is Alexei Yagudin, who has the main award of the athlete - the "gold" of the 2002 Olympics. He is a multiple European and world champion, winner of the Grand Prix finals in figure skating.

No less famous is the young single skater Maxim Kovtun, who has several serious victories to his credit. He is a three-time winner of the Russian Championship, took silver at the 2015 European Championship.

The most famous and titled figure skater in Russia and around the world is Evgeni Plushenko. He is the owner of the gold medals of two Olympics (2006 - in singles, 2014 - in team skating), twice took the "silver" of the Olympic Games. Plushenko 3 times won the title of world champion, seven times - the champion of Europe and as many as 10 times - the championship of Russia. He also has many other awards and titles.

Plushenko has a number sports achievements, and his hallmark was the performance of the most difficult figures of single skating at competitions. He has no equal.

Russian male figure skaters are rightfully considered among the best in the world.

Famous Russian female single skaters

Unfortunately, female single skating Russia cannot boast a long history of performances and awards in this sport.

The history of victories began only in 1976 with the advent of the figure skater. It was she who won the first awards at the European Championships, and later became the third at the World Championships.

the first Olympic medal- "bronze" - single skater Kira Ivanova won in 1983.

Success came to the skaters only when, for the first time in the history of Russia, Irina Slutskaya won the European Championship in 1996. And already in 1999, also at the European Championships, Maria Butyrskaya, Soldatova and Volchkova won all the awards. In the same year, Butyrskaya brought the "gold" of the World Championship.

Despite the fact that the best Russian figure skaters Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya no longer perform, they are the most famous and legendary figure skaters in Russia to this day.

The current leaders in Russian women's singles are Yulia Lipnitskaya and Adelina Sotnikova.

Sotnikova, the first and so far the only one, won the Olympic gold medal in women's singles. In addition, she became the winner of the Russian championships 4 times, twice won silver at the European Championships.

Figure skating experts call Adelina a child prodigy, because at the age of 13 she performed the most difficult elements of figure skating.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is also an Olympic gold medalist in team competition. In addition, she has awards of various merits at the World and European Championships, including junior ones.

Yulia is now 17 years old, Adeline is 19, and behind them is the future of women's single skating in Russia.

The best in pair skating

Russia in pair skating for titles, regalia and world famous athletes lucky much more than in singles.

Russian pair skaters by name and faces are known even to those who are very far from the world of sports.

Our couple Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova won the first Olympic "gold" back in 1964, again in 1968. They are the author of many elements that are still included in the mandatory program of performances all over the world to this day. At that time, this pair was the only one who skated in a way that no one else could.

The next couple to conquer the Olympics were Alexei Ulanov and Irina Rodnina - in 1972. The next gold Irina Rodnina won already in tandem with Alexander Zaitsev in 1976 and 1980.

The most famous figure skaters in Russia - Olympic champions in pair skating it is:

Maxim Marinin and Tatyana Totmyanina;

Roman Kostomarov and Tatyana Navka.

The leaders of pair skating today are the Russian skaters Maxim Trankov and Tatyana Volosozhar, who already have 2 Olympic gold medals (in pair skating and in team competitions) and they are not going to stop there.

The best couples in ice dancing

Sports dancing on ice as a separate discipline was included in the program of international competitions only in 1950.

In this program, Russia (then still the Soviet Union) was represented by a famous couple and Lyudmila Pakhomova, who set the tone in dancing around the world and became world champions 6 times and won gold at the 1976 Olympics.

The first, already Russian, famous dance couple and Evgenia Platova twice became the gold medalists of the 1994 and 1998 Olympics, which made them record holders in this sport.

A couple is known and among the achievements of which there is the bronze of the 2010 Olympics, the double gold of the European Championships and the 2009 world champions.

One of the most famous young dancers, and Elena Ilyinykh, brought Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals of the European and Russian championships to the medal box of Russia. The couple broke up after the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

To date, the best, strongest and famous figure skaters Russia in ice dancing - Dmitry Solovyov and Ekaterina Bobrova - champions of Europe and Russia.

Figure skating has always been for Russia the kind that brought a lot of Olympic gold.
In anticipation of the triumph of our team in the team competition in Sochi, we recall the most important victories won by Russian and Soviet skaters on Olympic ice, - in the Sport Mail.Ru photo gallery.
Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, where they became champions.

Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov - champions of the 1972 Olympics.

Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev at the 1976 Olympics. In Austria, Irina became a two-time Olympic champion.

After Lake Placid 1980. Irina Rodnina - already three times Olympic champion in pair skating, Alexander Zaitsev is a two-time champion.

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin are world champions in ice dancing. They won bronze medals at the Vancouver Olympics. According to one of the opinions, the couple could not compete for another result, not only because of the partner's injury, but also because of the poorly chosen composition and costumes.

Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin at the Vancouver Olympics during the compulsory dance. After Canadian Games the couple ended their careers due to knee problems with their partner.

Evgeni Plushenko won his second silver medal at the Vancouver Games.

Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov are twice bronze medalists of the world championships in pair figure skating. The story of Yuko, who wanted to train only with Tatyana Moskvina and changed her citizenship for this, has always aroused sympathy for the couple among the fans. The more insulting was their fourth place at the Vancouver Olympics. But even more offensive for the athletes was the fact that Sochi Games they concede due to Alexander's severe injury.

Evgeni Plushenko in 2002 became the silver medalist of the Games in Salt Lake City. It was the first Olympics and the first Olympic medal for a figure skater.

This girl needs no introduction - her titles speak for her. Irina Slutskaya - silver medalist of the 2002 Olympic Games, bronze medalist of the 2006 Olympic Games, two-time world champion (2002, 2005), the first seven-time European champion in history (1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006).

During the Olympics in Nagano, Irina Slutskaya turned 19 years old. At those Games, she took fifth place.

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Irina Slutskaya took second place, losing by one refereeing vote to American Sarah Hughes. In the same year, she became the world champion for the first time.

Maria Butyrskaya at the Olympics in Nagano stopped a step away from the podium, but a year later she became the world champion

Olympic champion in men's singles at the 1998 Games Ilya Kulik. Shortly after this victory, he ended his career.

And heroes are sometimes inexperienced: Alexei Yagudin was fifth at the Nagano Olympics.

In 2002, the whole world watched what this young man was doing on the ice. His "Winter" and "The Man in the Iron Mask" conquered everyone. After the winning performance, he sincerely and very emotionally sobbed - the winners are allowed to do this. So Alexei Yagudin became the 2002 Olympic champion. In addition to the Olympics, Yagudin won the World Championship four times and the European Championship three times. It's funny that Yagudin never won the Russian championship: he has 4 silver and 1 bronze.

Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh won silver medals in ice dancing at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (USA) in February 2002, and soon won the world championship.

The victory of Anton and Elena at the 2002 Games was overshadowed by a scandal that led to global changes in the rules of figure skating. After the award, it was decided to award the second set of gold medals - they were received by Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze are a couple in which the partner had to be taught to walk again a couple of years before the silver medal in the Nagano Olympics. From Japan they will come as vice champions, and four years later, in Salt Lake City, they will win the champion title in pair skating.

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov are champions in pair skating at Lillehammer 1994.

Zoom Alexey Urmanov - 1994 Olympic champion in men's single skating.

Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov are two-time Olympic champions in ice dancing (1994, 1998).

Olympic champions in sports dancing figure skaters Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov on the ice. Lillehammer-1994.

According to the results of the dance couples tournament of the Nagano Olympics, 5 Russians were on the podium: champions Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov (center), silver medalists - Anzhelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov (left) and bronze medalist Marina Anisina. Marina is a Muscovite who paired up with the Frenchman Gwendal Peizerat. At the 2002 Games, Anisina will take the gold that fell at the expense of France.

Olympic champions in pair skating Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev took their gold at the Nagano Games. But in addition to this championship, Arthur also has the gold of Albertville-1992 paired with Natalia Mishkutenok and the silver of Lillehammer-1994 with the same partner.

Oleg Vasiliev and Elena Valova won gold in pair skating at the 1984 Olympics, and four years later became silver medalists.

Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov are the 1980 Olympic champions in ice dancing.

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov are the first ever Olympic champions in ice dancing. Innsbruck-1976.

Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov are the silver medalists of the 1976 Olympics, the first in which dancing was included in the program of the Games, and the bronze medalists of the next 1980 Olympics.

Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov - two-time Olympic champions in pair skating (1964, 1968)

Olympic champions in figure skating Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov. X Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble.

Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin were only fifth at the 1968 Olympics. But Mishin later trained three Olympic champions (Urmanov, Yagudin, Plushenko), and Moskvina worked in pairs, who also collected a whole scattering of gold medals. Olympic awards(Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Kazakova/Dmitriev, Valova/Vasiliev)

In the last century, when our state was still called Soviet Union, the names of the skaters - our compatriots knew the whole world. Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova, Irina Rodnina, Andrey Bukin and Natalya Bestemyanova, Alexander Gorshkov and Lyudmila Pakhomova - these athletes had world fame. Today, Russian skaters, of course, although they are not considered the best on the planet, show decent results, their performances continue the traditions of Russian ice skating. The most famous, best skaters in Russia are presented in today's article.

History of figure skating

First, a little about the history of figure skating. Skating first appeared in Holland in the 14th century, this country is considered the birthplace of this sport. Ice skating has been constantly improved, skates have changed their shape. The main indicator of skill was the ability to draw various figures with runners and at the same time keep balance in beautiful poses. In England, back in 1772, they published a "Treatise on Skating", since then the authorship of all the main figures of ice skating has been assigned to this country. Sports historians consider Jason Heinz to be the founder of modern figure skating. This American played a leading role in the development of the sport around the world, including in Russia.

Even under Peter I in the Russian Empire, figure skating became popular. The emperor himself brought skates from Europe. It was Peter I who came up with the idea to attach skates directly to shoes, in fact, this became the prototype of modern skates. All figure skaters in Russia know that in 1838 the first Russian manual for figure skaters was published, compiled by Pauli. The first ice rink was opened in the Yusupov Garden in 1865. Here the skaters began to practice professionally. In 1878, the best figure skaters of Russia took part in the competition.

Figure skating is actively developing in Russia, one generation of champions is replaced by another. Today our country has much to be proud of. We present the best modern representatives of this sport.

Alexey Urmanov

Figure skaters of Russia, male single skaters, have always been considered a strong link in our country. One of these skaters is Alexei Urmanov. The skater's birthplace is Leningrad, where he was born in 1973. With early years his mother took him to the skating rink, where he began to learn the basics of figure skating. Alexei's first world championship took place in 1990, where he received a silver medal in junior competitions.

Since 1991, Urmanov has been a member of the Russian national team, in which he won bronze at the national championship. Participation in competitions in Albertville did not bring results, the guy began to train even harder in order to achieve the highest skill. Alexey devoted himself completely to training, and this often led to injuries. Anyone could envy the athlete's willpower. Thanks to perseverance, he became the European champion in 1997.

It was thanks to Alexei Urmanov that many fans became zealous fans of figure skating. His artistry touches many. Aleksey always turns ice skating into a small performance, where in a few minutes the audience manages to experience a lot of touching impressions.

Ilya Kulik

Ilya Kulik - a native of the capital, was born in 1977. From the age of five he began to study in the group of coach Gromov. Later, Viktor Kudryavtsev became his mentor, who brought up many champions.

Ilya Kulik lived up to the expectations of his coach and already in 1990 he became the winner in competitions in Norway, where the most talented skaters competed. The championship of Russia among juniors in 1994 brings victory to Kulik, he also deserves silver in the adult championship. This opened the door for him to the national team.

In 1995, Ilya Kulik for the first time became a participant in the European Championship, unexpectedly snatching a victory from Urmanov. In the new season (1995-96), Ilya begins to study with Tatyana Tarasova. An experienced choreographer makes multiple adjustments to his productions, adding complex elements, including the famous triple Axel, performed twice in a row. However, unable to cope with the excitement, Ilya fails the European Championship. But at the world championship, the skater manages to win silver. Kulik begins to prepare for the Olympic Games. Intensive training for the next season under the leadership of Tarasova gives the expected result - Olympic gold. After this triumph, Ilya moves on to professional sports and continues to delight its fans.

Alexey Yagudin

Alexei Yagudin was born in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) in 1980. He started skating at the age of four with coach Alexander Mayorov, under his wing was Alexander until the age of 12. From the age of 13, the boy began to take pride of place in competitions. In 1996 he won the World Championship. In 1997, Alexey conquered the European Championship. At the Olympic Games in Nagano, with the participation of Russian figure skaters (men), Yagudin managed to take 5th place. Since 1998, he began to train with the famous Tatyana Tarasova. He trained in the USA, participated in many tournaments, from where he returned as a winner.

The championship, held in Vancouver, was unsuccessful for the skater. He was injured, and he barely managed to reach only 5th place. The fight for the title hasn't stopped. After treatment, Alexei returns to training again. His skill reached second place after Evgeni Plushenko. The next World Championship brought him gold.

The Salt Lake City Olympics were a triumph. Yagudin performed brilliantly, the judges of the ratings were the highest and he won. In 2002, health problems began again, and in 2007, at performances in Germany, due to an injury, the skater was forced to interrupt his performance.

After treatment in the United States, the athlete returned. Began to be active in show business. He performed in a glacial show, starred in a series, judged a KVN game.

Maxim Kovtun

Young, but already famous Maxim Kovtun was born in 1995 in Yekaterinburg. Under the mentorship of Buyanova and Tarasova, the athlete became the owner the highest award Grand Prix for Beginner Talents. He has the title of master of sports, champion of Russia.

Maxim's family is athletic and from the age of 4, his father began to take him with him to a sports school. The older brothers Kovtun are also active figure skaters and participate in various ice shows.

The boy's first coach was Voitsekhovskaya. In the famous competitions where young skaters of Russia participate, Maxim managed to win the "Crystal Skate". Already at the age of 15, the skater performed an axel in three turns. At the Olympic level among youths, he wins silver.

In 2012, under the mentorship of Tarasova and Vodorezova, Maxim took fifth place in the national championship. On the international skating in Zagreb, where he was sent, he also skated fifth.

Especially for Maxim, a program was developed in which he makes five jumps with four turns.

Evgeni Plushenko

Single figure skater (Russia) Evgeni Plushenko was born in the Khabarovsk Territory in 1982. As a child, he and his parents moved to Volgograd, where he began to practice figure skating. For further training, the boy has to move to St. Petersburg. There he hones his skills in sports school. In 2005, Evgeny graduated from the Lesgaft University of Physical Education.

The first sports victory was in the 1996-97 season. At the World Championship for juniors, Evgeny became the winner. Then he took third place at the World Championships, second at the European Championships. He became the world champion in 2001 and repeated his results in 2003, 2004. Plushenko won the European Championship five times. In his sports collection, he has more than a dozen gold medals.

In 2008, Eugene with Dima Bilan performs at Eurovision, here again a victory. Evgeni Plushenko leads an active social life.

Roman Kostamarov and Tatyana Navka

Famous Russian figure skaters Roman Kostamarov and Tatyana Navka are considered one of the most beautiful and artistic couples at our rink. Roman and Tatyana were offered to perform by coach Linichuk. At that time, the athletes were in Delaware. For some time, their duet broke up, Roman performed with the figure skater Semenovich. But as soon as Navka returned to the ice after the birth of her daughter in 2000, the couple reunited again and began to show very impressive results. In 2004 in Germany they became world champions. Then they became Olympic champions, three times became champions of Russia, the same number of times champions of Europe. The result - three-time world champions. Athletes actively take part in show business, become participants in ice shows. The novel is filmed in films and television projects.

Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya

Famous Russian figure skaters Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya did not start skating together right away. Until 1996, Elena performed with Shlyakhov. After receiving a severe head injury, Berezhnaya was literally at death's door. She recovered with difficulty and went out on the ice again, learning to skate again. Anton became a new partner, who supported her in everything. Together they have achieved incredible success. Moskvina was their coach. Soon in Paris, the couple achieved significant success in competitions. Further victories rained down on athletes: prize-winning places at the Olympic Games in 1998, then in 2002. They won the Russian championships four years in a row from 1999 to 2002.

In 2006, Sikharulidze decides to leave the sport and go into business. As an amateur, he still goes out on the ice. He took part in television shows. Anton Sikharulidze headed the Committee for Physical Education and Sports for several years.

Ilya Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva

Famous Russian figure skaters Ilya Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva not only led a joint sports career. Lived in America. This couple was married, in which the son Martin was born. Unfortunately, after returning to Russia, the sports couple also broke up. But in the history of big sport, figure skaters managed to leave a significant mark. star couple for the period from 1993 to 2002 four times became the champions of the country, winners of the world and European championships. At the 2002 Olympics, they won silver.

Sports injuries made themselves felt, and skating gradually faded away. Returning from America, Ilya created the Ice Symphony company. He became the organizer of the famous ice shows, television projects, so beloved by the audience. In the production sphere, he achieved high results.

Irina Slutskaya

Russian figure skater Irina Slutskaya was born in 1979 in Moscow. From the age of four she began to train in sports club"Moskvich". From the age of six, Gromova's coach began to work with her. Already in 1993, at the Russian Championship, Irina won among juniors and became a bronze medalist at the World Championships. In Sofia in 1996 she received the European title.

In 1998, Irina becomes a participant in the Nagano Olympics and comes in fifth place. In 1999, Ira marries Sergei Mikheev, at the same time her sports career go up. Slutskaya wins prizes in all competitions, performs brilliantly in Salt Lake City.

For some time, Irina Slutskaya dropped out of the sport due to injuries, but soon returned and regained her leadership position. The ultimate goal is the Olympics. Russian figure skaters perform at the games in Turin in 2006, here Slutskaya wins bronze. This victory cost the athlete many efforts. On this, she completed her sports career.

Alexey Tikhonov

Alexey was born in Samara in 1971. The first coach of the skater was Vera Birbraer. On her instructions, at the age of 16, Alexey left for Sverdlovsk, where he trained with Rennik for a year. After that, Tikhonov arrived in the capital and became a student of Zakharov. Further in the biography - life in Japan. Upon returning to his homeland, Alexei began to participate in an ice show led by Tarasova.

The first victory in 1989 was a bronze medal at the World Championships in tandem with Irina Sayfutdinova. In 1998, he began to perform in tandem with Petrova, a year later they became European champions, confirmed the title in 2000. At the Russian Championship for four years (from 1999 to 2005) he was a silver medalist. The main victory was the gold medal of the World Championship in 2000. Repeatedly became a silver and bronze medalist at the championships and Grand Prix. In 2007, the couple announced their retirement.

Today the whole world will know the name of the new Olympic champions in pair skating. Let's hope that Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov will become them, but we also wish our rivals to perform well and please us beautiful programs. Let's remember those who already bear the title of Olympic champions.
1908. London. The first Olympic champions are the representatives of Germany, Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger.

1920. Antwerp. And the first post-war Olympic champions are Ludovika and Walter Jacobsson from Finland. At the time of the victory, by the way, the partner was 36 years old, and the partner was 38 years old.

1924. Chamonix. The first Winter Olympics were won by Helen Engelmann and Alfred Berger of Austria, leaving behind the reigning Olympic champions in their forties.


1928. St. Moritz. At previous Olympics french couple André Joly and Pierre Brunet were bronze medalists, and these won gold. In many ways, modern figure skating owes this great couple. It was they who invented the mirror step sequence, and they were also very creative and came up with new lifts and spins.


1932. Lake Placid. At this Olympics, André Joly and Pierre Brunet became the first two-time Olympic champions in history.


1936. Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Joly and Brunet did not come to this Olympics in protest against the Nazi policies of Adolf Hitler. Germans Maxi Gerber and Ernst Bayer won the home Olympics. The partner at the time of the victory was a little over 15 years old. And if the legendary French did come to the Olympic Games, the German couple would still put up a worthy resistance to them. They are the world's first performers of parallel jumps.


1948. St. Moritz. The Belgians Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Bonnier won the only gold medal for their country in figure skating.


1952. Oslo. The victory in pair skating was again celebrated by the representatives of Germany - Ria and Paul Falk. By the way, they were the first in history to jump a double parallel jump.

1956. Cortina d'Ampezzo. Austrian figure skaters are very successful in single figure skating. At this Olympics, the time has come to finally repeat the success in pair skating. Elisabeth Schwartz and Kurt Oppelt won.

1960. Squaw Valley. At this Olympics, the representatives of the North American continent achieved the only time in pair skating. Canadians Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul won.


1964. Innsbruck. With this Olympics, a grandiose and invincible procession and the total superiority of the Soviet, and then Russian school figure skating. The first victory was won by Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov.


1968. Grenoble. This time, 2 Soviet couples already claimed gold, but Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov won again, and Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik became silver. And two-time Olympic champions, by the way, still perform in various ice shows, despite the fact that she is 78 and he is 81 years old.

1972. Sapporo. The baton of Belousova and Protopopov was picked up by Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov. After the Olympic Games, the couple broke up, as the partner married Lyudmila Smirnova, a silver medalist in these competitions, and then they continued to perform together.

1976. Innsbruck. Irina Rodnina wanted to leave the big sport after the collapse of the champion couple with Ulanov, but her coach Stanislav Zhuk paired her with Alexander Zaitsev, with whom she won these Olympic Games. At least there were no couples close in class to them in the world. Ratings of 6.0 were commonplace for this couple.

1980. Lake Placid. The year before, the couple Rodnin, Zaitsev missed the season due to the birth of their son. In their absence, the American couple won the World Cup, and the American media began a real persecution of the Soviet champions, blaming them for everything that only their imagination suggested to them. The pressure was also felt at the competitions, but Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev did not give even a chance to doubt that they were the best skaters in the world at that time.


1984. Sarajevo. Soviet couples of a new generation came to the fore. The best of them were Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev.


1988. Despite the fact that Valova and Vasilyev remained in big sport after winning the previous Olympic Games, they no longer had a chance to win. The whole world was simply in love with the new Soviet couple, who did not know defeat in international competitions. They were Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. Valova and Vasiliev were second.


1992. Albertville. And again, only domestic couples competed for Olympic gold. As a result, Natalya Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev won the victory.

1994. Lillehammer. It was from these games that professional athletes were allowed to compete in Olympic Games. And several glorious athletes of the past decided to take advantage of this opportunity, but only one of them took the gold. These were the invincible Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov.


1998. Nagano. After last Olympics, a pair of Mishkutenok and Dmitriev, who then took 2nd place, broke up. They were unhappy with the decision international federation, but still Arthur really wanted to try on the Olympic gold medal again, and with a new partner, Oksana Kazakova, in fierce competition with the second Russian couple Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze made his dream come true.


2002. Salt Lake City. The time has come to become the Olympic champions of one of the most beautiful and incomparable couples in the whole world history figure skating Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, which they did. True, they also yielded to the hysterically begging North Americans, but let's leave it on the conscience of the international federation and we won't even mention these pseudo-champions.


2006. Turin. In the last decade, a school of pair figure skating was born and developed strongly, which was able to compete with the Russian one. I'm talking about China. It was in fierce competition with them that the entire Olympic cycle passed, but the main start of the four years was won by our Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin.


2010. Vancouver. And now it finally happened. The number 13 became fatal for Russia, and it was for the thirteenth time in a row that the athletes of our country won Olympic gold failed. And then there was not a single pair capable of competing with the Chinese. But, let's agree that almost half a century of dominance on the world stage means a lot. And Xu Shen and Hongbo Zhao became Olympic champions. It was with them that the history of success of Chinese athletes in figure skating began, it would not be fair if these great skaters ended their careers without becoming Olympic champions.

Who will become the next one will become known very soon, but we can say that this will not affect the historical dominance of our skaters. medal table in pair skating looks like this
GOLD TO SILVER BRONZE
USSR 8 5 1
Russia 4 2 0
Germany 3 3 6
Austria 2 2 1
France 2 0 2
Canada 1 2 3
China 1 2 2
Finland 1 1 0
Belgium 1 0 0
USA 0 3 2
UK 0 1 2
Hungary 0 1 4
Norway 0 1 0