Career
Pakhomova began figure skating at age seven, when her grandmother brought her to Children and Youth Sports School by the Young Pioneers Stadium. Her first ice dancing partner was the nine-years-older Viktor Ryzhkin, formerly her coach, with whom she trained at CSKA Moscow under Stanislav Zhuk. They won three Soviet national titles and placed 10th at the 1966 World Championships.
After her partnership with Ryzhkin ended, 19-year-old Pakhomova invited Alexandr Gorshkov, also 19 and training at CSKA Moscow, to skate with her. He was much less experienced and some experts were skeptical of her choice. Despite the initial experience gap, Gorshkov said Pakhomova was a strong personality who was determined they would become champions.
Pakhomova and Gorshkov began training in May 1966, under coach Elena Tchaikovskaya, and made their international debut in December of the same year. They competed for Dynamo. A personal relationship developed between Pakhomova and Gorshkov and he proposed they get married; she responded they would marry only if they became World champions. They won the World title in 1970 and married the same year.
Pakhomova and Gorshkov won five World Championships from 1970 to 1974. Following the 1975 European Championships, Gorshkov began feeling ill and underwent a lung operation, with their coach Elena Tchaikovskaya donating blood. They flew to Colorado Springs, Colorado for the 1975 World Championships, unsure about their participation. During the first practice session, Gorshkov had trouble breathing and needed to be given oxygen – they withdrew from the event. In the Soviet Union, rumors circulated that Gorshkov had died on the flight to the United States and the chairman of the Soviet Sports Committee called him to check if he was still alive.
Pakhomova and Gorshkov returned to competition the following season. They won their sixth World title in 1976 in Goteburg, Sweden. At the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, Pakhomova and Gorshkov won the first Olympic gold medal awarded for ice dancing. They retired from competition later that year. Pakhomova began coaching at CSKA and continued to go out onto the ice even after her cancer made it very difficult. Her husband said she did not want to change anything in her life and it was not in her nature to give up. Her students included World Junior champions Elena Batanova / Alexei Soloviev and European silver medalists Natalia Annenko / Genrikh Sretenski.
Pakhomova was posthumously inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1988, along with Gorshkov.
Read more about this topic: Lyudmila Pakhomova
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