The Commission for Physical Education and Sports is ready to contribute to the burial of Belousova and Protopopov in St. Petersburg

Chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee for Physical Culture and Sports Anton Shantyr said the organization is ready to help resolve the issue of burial of two-time Olympic figure skating champions Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova.

As Vyacheslav Fetisov, a two-time Olympic hockey champion and family friend, previously reported to , Protopopov’s will indicated that he should be buried with his wife Belousova in St. Petersburg.

“So far, no one has presented such an initiative, they have not contacted us for help,” Shantyr told .

— If they contact you, will you support them?

– We will support and assist. It’s a purely human story and they are great athletes, so it’s important from the state’s point of view.

Protopopov died on October 31 at the age of 91. During his sports career, the skater performed in tandem with his wife Lyudmila Belousova. The duo won the USSR championships six times, the world and European championships four times and won gold at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games. Belousova and Protopopov were invited to Switzerland for demonstrations in 1979, where they stayed. In August 1995, they obtained Swiss nationality and settled in the town of Grindelwald. Belousova died in September 2017.