Alexei Nikolaevich Ulanov (; born 4 November 1947) is a retired pair skater who represented the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. With Irina Rodnina, he is the 1972 Olympic champion and a four-time (1969–1972) world champion. With his then-wife Lyudmila Smirnova, he is a two-time world silver medalist.

Career

Ulanov began figure skating in 1954 and became a member of the USSR National Team in 1964. Rodnina / Ulanov began skating together in the 1960s and won several

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

and European Championships. They were coached by Stanislav Zhuk and trained at the Armed Forces sports society in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. The culmination of their career was their 1972 Olympics win. By this point Ulanov had fallen in love with fellow skater Lyudmila Smirnova. Rodnina and Ulanov separated, and Ulanov began skating with Smirnova. Smirnova and Ulanov competed together for two seasons. They won silver medals at the 1973 World and European Championships. The next season, they won European bronze and world silver medals. Ulanov was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

in 1972.

Personal life

Ulanov and Smirnova married and later divorced after having two children, Nikolai Ulanov and Irina Ulanova. Irina became a pair skater, who skated with Alexander Smirnov and Maxim Trankov for about three years. Ulanov moved to the United States in 1995 and currently lives in South Florida.

Results

With Rodnina

With Smirnova

References

External links

Rodnina and Ulanov pair profile

Smirnova and Ulanov competition results

Navigation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulanov, Alexei 1947 births Living people Figure skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters for the Soviet Union Soviet male pair skaters Russian male pair skaters Figure skaters from Moscow Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Armed Forces (sports society) sportspeople Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics 20th-century Russian sportsmen