Elena Dmitriyevna Novikova-Belova (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Елена Дмитриевна Новикова-Белова,

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

''Novikova'', born 28 July 1947) is a retired Russian

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ma ...

fencer, known professionally simply as Elena Belova. She competed at the

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

and 1980 Olympics in the individual and team events and won four gold, one silver and one bronze medal, becoming the first female fencer to win four Olympic gold medals. She nearly won a fifth gold in 1976, but lost her last pool match to the last-placed fencer. Belova also won eight world titles, individually in 1969, and with the Soviet team in 1970–1979. Shortly before the 1968 Olympics, she married Vyacheslav Belov, a future world champion in

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

, and hyphenated her last name from Novikova to Novikova-Belova. She retired after the 1980 Olympics, and gave birth in 1987, aged 40. After divorcing Belov, she married her second husband, composer Valery Ivanov, who devoted a

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

to her, while keeping the surname Novikova-Belova. In 1970, Belova graduated from the Minsk Institute of Pedagogy, she holds a PhD in this discipline. In 1997 she was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver, and in 2007 the

Pierre de Coubertin Medal The Pierre de Coubertin Medal is a special decoration awarded by the International Olympic Committee that "pays tribute to institutions with a pedagogical and educational role and to people who, through their research and the creation of intell ...

.Elena Belova Awarded Pierre de Coubertin Medal
National Olympic Committee of Belarus. On 14 May 2021, Jovian asteroid 24426 Belova, discovered by astronomers with the

LINEAR In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties: * linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping''); * linearity of a '' polynomial''. An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x) ...

program in 2000, was in her honor.

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* * * 1947 births Living people People from Sovetskaya Gavan Russian female foil fencers Soviet female foil fencers Olympic fencers for the Soviet Union Fencers at the 1968 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in fencing Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Recipients of the Pierre de Coubertin medal Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Summer World University Games medalists in fencing FISU World University Games silver medalists for the Soviet Union Sportspeople from Khabarovsk Krai 20th-century Russian sportswomen {{Russia-fencing-bio-stub