Smirnova Lyudmila - a famous Soviet figure skater and actress. In a professional career, she performed in pair skating. At the Sapporo Olympics, she even won a silver award in tandem with Andrei Suraikin.
Actress Biography
Smirnova Lyudmila was born in 1949 in Leningrad. I was engaged in figure skating since 6 years. The first trainers worked with her in the Leningrad society "Spartak". Her mentor there was the honored trainer of the USSR Viktor Nikolaevich Kudryavtsev.
Lyudmila appeared in the Soviet national team in 1968, when she was 19 years old. Specialized in pair skating. She won three silver medals at the World Championships and three more times became second in European championships with Suraikin.
With a new partner, Alexei Ulanov won two more silver medals of the world championship, became a prize-winner at the European Championship.
Olympics in Sapporo
The greatest success in her career, Lyudmila Smirnova, whose biography was closely related to figure skating, was achieved in 1972, when she went to the first Olympic Games in her career.
Smirnova and Suraikin came to the competition among the contenders for medals. But they had serious competitors - Irina Rodnina and Aleksey Ulanov, who seemed to many invincible.
In both the compulsory and the free programs, Smirnova and Suraikin showed only second results. Olympic gold was taken away by the favorites of the games. Sapporo bronze medals were held by a pair of skaters from the GDR - Manuela Gros and Uwe Kagelman.
Personal life
Now Smirnova Lyudmila works as a coach. During her career she was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR and Russia, and four years ago, the title of Honored Trainer of Russia.
It should be noted that after the Olympic Games in Sapporo, Smirnova married her rival - Ulanov, and began to play with him. But they did not achieve much success in sports.
But they had a son, Nikolai, who also became a master of sports in figure skating. They also had a daughter, Irina, who was paired on ice with Maxim Trankov and Alexander Smirnov, but did not achieve success.
Actress career
Like many skaters in the Soviet Union, Lyudmila Smirnova, whose photo is in this article, tried her hand at the big screen. Mostly in films about figure skating.
Her debut took place back in 1970 in the documentary "Young Skaters". 21-year-old athlete took part in the newsreel of the publication "Soviet Sport". The issue was also devoted to other skaters - Elena Alexandrova, Andrei Suraikin, Yuri Ovchinnikov.
In the same year, the heroine of our article starred in another documentary called "Parade on Ice." Director Irina Venzher brilliantly shows the fascinating performances of the winners of the recent European championship. Skaters demonstration numbers demonstrate on the ice of the Leningrad Sports Palace "Jubilee".
In 1971, Smirnova starred in the documentary film Igor Belyaev "This amazing sport." The tape was entirely devoted to the USSR championship in figure skating, which took place in Riga. Smirnova became one of the main characters in this picture. Together with Suraikin, they fought with their key rivals - Rodnina and Ulanov. And again unsuccessfully, only second place. Bronze, by the way, turned out to be a couple of Galina Karelina and Grigory Proskurin.
In the same 1971, Smirnova again starred in a documentary. This time it is a tape of Boris Nebylitsky "Figure Skating Stars". In the picture you can see stunning performances of Soviet skaters, who at that time were considered one of the best in the world.
The film itself is dedicated to international demonstrations that took place in March 1971 for several days in the capital's Luzhniki Sports Palace. In addition to the athletes already familiar with this article, Yutta Muller, Stanislav Zhuk, Alexander Gorshkov, Sergey Chetverukhin, Jan Hoffman, Ondrei Nepela, Karin Magnussen, Sonya Morgenshtern, Angelika Buk, Beatrice Shuba and many others went on the ice.
"Two on Ice"
Many Soviet viewers remembered Smirnova Lyudmila for the documentary "Two on Ice". The actress played herself in the tape of Igor Grigoriev, which was released in 1974.
The painting is primarily dedicated to the Soviet school of figure skating. He talks about the most famous and deserved representatives of it. Among them is Smirnova. Although in 1974, the main attention, of course, was paid to a couple of Zaitsev and Rodnina. Their distinctive features were good physical preparation, programs in which there are always a lot of difficult elements: complex paths of steps, jumps, rotations and twists.
All this was also woven into programs that should not only be technically impeccable, but also interesting, emotional and creative. Of course, Smirnova is also described in the tape. After all, she and her partner in those years are the main competitors of Rodnina and Zaitsev.