Lyudmila Titova

Lyudmila Titova

Lyudmila Titova at the 1968 Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1946-03-26) 26 March 1946 (age 70) Chita, Russia
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	64 kg (141 lb)
Sport
Sport	Speed skating
Club	Burevestnik, Zenit
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Women's speed skating Olympic Games 1968 Grenoble 500 m 1968 Grenoble 1,000 m 1972 Sapporo 500 m World Championships 1970 Milwaukee Sprint 1971 Helsinki Allround 1972 Eskilstuna Sprint European Championships 1971 Leningrad Allround

Lyudmila Yevgenyevna Titova (Russian: Людмила Евгеньевна Титова) (born 26 March 1946) is a retired Russian speed skater.

After winning three national titles in 1966, she made her international debut at the World Allround Speed Skating Championships of 1966. She finished 18th overall, not having qualified for the final distance, but was second in the 500 m event. Next year, she did not compete much because of exams at the Moscow Aviation Institute where she studied.

In 1968, Titova became Soviet allround champion and two weeks later participated in the world all-round championships again, winning both the 500 m and the 1,000 m, while finishing 6th overall. Two weeks after that, at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, she became Olympic Champion on the 500 m and won silver on the 1,000 m, finishing 0.3 seconds behind Dutch skater Carry Geijssen who skated a new Olympic record.

Titova became the 1970 World Sprint Champion (the first time they were held and named ISU Sprint Championships then) and although she loved the sprint distances and found the 3,000 m boring, it did not prevent her from competing in allround events, and she even won silver at the European Allround Championships in 1971 and bronze at the World Allround Championships that same year.

At the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Titova won bronze on the 500 m and finished 4th on the 1,000 m, 0.23 seconds too slow for bronze. Later that same year, she won bronze at the World Sprint Championships and became Soviet Sprint Champion. She then semi-retired until the 1975 World Sprint Championships, where she was disqualified. Next year, she participated in the 1,000 m at the 1976 Winter Olympics, finishing 7th. Titova's last time in a competition was two months later, when she won bronze at the Soviet Sprint Championships.