Oleg Protopopov, two time Olympic gold medalist, has died

[Skater Boy]

This video, to the best of my ability to understand the translation, implies that their dramatic drop in the Soviet standings was politically motivated, not as we understand "political judging" and such, but political in terms of national politics.

They went from winning two Olympics and every World and European championship in between... to off the podium at the Soviet Championships in two years.

While I don't doubt that political maneuvering was possible, and maybe even contributed to their steady decline in standings, I think there were other reasons, too.

• They were getting older. She was 32 or so, and he was late 30's. It was very rare in that day to skate that late.
• The sport was changing, away from their beautiful balletic style, and towards high-speed athleticism.
• They wouldn't have been the first (or last) champions to try for glory just one more time, when really the torch had already been passed, in this case to Irina Rodnina.

But whatever. They remain my all-time favorite pair. Interestingly, the two pairs that remind me the most of these Soviet legends were both American. Tai and Randy, and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand. I can't think of a pair today that approaches the grace of these pairs.

I totally respect we have different opinions and views. I would be curious why you think these two American teams embodied the Protopov's skating Tai and Randy were very athletic in their days. Meno and Sand were very perfunctory nice but not special. I didn't realize that the Soviet skating regime had sort of finished with them. Sad. Such beautiful skaters.

 

[TontoK]

I totally respect we have different opinions and views. I would be curious why you think these two American teams embodied the Protopov's skating Tai and Randy were very athletic in their days. Meno and Sand were very perfunctory nice but not special. I didn't realize that the Soviet skating regime had sort of finished with them. Sad. Such beautiful skaters.

Sure, I'll give a go at responding, while recognizing that tastes vary.

For me, the extraordinary thing about the Protopopovs were their musicality, their commitment to their point of view, the attention to elegant line and detail.

The two teams I cited had those qualities, not EXACTLY the same, of course, but looking at the big picture. I don't think that is likely to be repeated under COP, just because the rules don't allow for it. The Protopopovs spirals, for example, had beautiful line, and they held a single position a long time, so we had time to appreciate the grace of a relatively simple move. Today's skaters can't afford the time to do that. This is similar to Tai and Randy's camel spins and Jenni and Todd's glorious descent into a death spiral... both of which would be lucky to get Level 1 today.

I don't think the Protopopovs represented the end of the Soviet era... in fact they were the beginning of it. But subsequent champions brought something new to the table, evolving the discipline in a different direction. I can appreciate the fierier qualities of someone like Irina Rodnina, and still miss the grace of the Protopopovs. It's not either/or.

Edit: I may have misinterpreted what you meant by Soviet regime finished with them...