Oleg Protopopov, two-time Olympic champion in figure skating (together with his wife Ludmila Belousova) died on Friday at the age of 91.

In the doubles category, two Soviet teams won two Olympic titles (1964 and 1968), as well as four European and four world titles.

They revolutionized this discipline by creating numerous procedures, including three death spirals (Space Spiral, Life Spiral and Love Spiral).

In 1979, they left the USSR during a tour in Switzerland, asking for political asylum in the country they would never leave, writes lequipe.fr.

In 1995, barely naturalized, they gave a big interview when, despite their age, they thought to please Switzerland by trying to qualify for the Olympic Games.

In love with their sport, they continued to perform on ice rinks around the world until 2016, when Oleg Protopopov turned 84 years old, writes News.ro.

Always very critical of the politics of their native country, they returned to Russia only in 2003 at the invitation of former hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov, and then again for the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Bilousova died in 2017 at the age of 84.