31 Dec 1946
Born in Moscow Lyudmila Pakhomova — Soviet figure skater, Olympic champion. The "Queen" of ice dancing.
I wanted to skate in such a way that after me no one would even want to look at me.
My father is a pilot, a major general of aviation. My mother is a doctor.
She began figure skating at a sports school at the age of seven. For a long time, she was considered a hopeless skater. But by the time she was 17, she became the USSR champion, competing in a pair with her coach. By Viktor Ryzhkin.
She won major awards with her husband. Alexander Gorshkov: In 1970, they became world figure skating champions—the first from the USSR. They repeated their triumph five more times. They were known as the "golden pair."
In 1976, they became the first world champions in ice dancing: previously, it hadn't been included in the Olympic program. The decision to expand the program was made after a series of successful (and technically challenging) performances by Soviet figure skaters.
Pakhomova and Gorshkov didn't like skating to the usual classical music—they said it was boring. The pair preferred to perform to folk tunes like "Solovey," "Vdol' Po Piterskoy," and even ditties.
The signature number, the tango "La Cumparsita," became so popular that even the Wolf and the Hare danced it in "Well, Just You Wait!"
With this number in 1976, they both ended their sports careers - at the ice ball in the Sports Palace (Pakhomova was 30 years old).
Back in 1970, she received a diploma as a choreographer, and from 1978 she coached the USSR national team.
She was a leader not only in sports and in pairs with her partner, but also in life.
This girl is incredibly demanding not only of those around her, but most of all of herself. After her first year at GITIS, she decided to re-enroll in the first year to relearn everything she had previously learned, but insufficiently.
(choreographer Vyacheslav Pakhomov)
Where does this lifelong passion of mine come from? It's as if some wizard came and cast a spell on me and said, "You will do this. For the rest of your life."
In 1979, she was diagnosed with a lymphatic tumor. Even while lying in her hospital bed, she kept a notebook of assignments for her students.
How long God has given me, how long I will live is unknown, I need to raise champions
Her students included world junior champions TAtyana Gladkova и Igor Shpilband, winners of the Universiade in Sofia and prize winners of the USSR championships Natalia Annenko и Genrikh Sretensky.
She died in 1986, at 39.
