Lyudmila Pakhomova

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov were the leading ice dancing pair at the start of 1970s. They began skating competitively in 1967 and married in 1970. Pakhomova and Gorshkov won their first international medals in 1969 – a silver at the World Championships and a bronze at the Europeans. They were World champions from 1970-74 and won their sixth world title in 1976, also winning six European titles (1970, 1971, 1973-76), while placing second in 1972. They also won six Soviet titles (1969-71, 1973-75), while Pakhomova won three additional Soviet titles in ice dancing with her first partner, Viktor Ryzhkin, in 1964-66. At the 1976 Olympics they won the first Olympic gold medal awarded for ice dancing. After her sporting career Pakhamova worked as a figure skating coach, from 1978 until her untimely death, serving as the coach of Soviet national team. Pakhomova died of leukemia in 1986, at only 39-years-old. In 1988 she was inducted posthumously to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame along with her husband Aleksandr Gorshkov.