[2] The pair trained at the VSS Lokomotiv sports club and competed internationally for the USSR.

In 1962, they made the World Championship podium for the first time, earning the silver medal.

[5] Belousova and Protopopov began the forty-year Soviet/Russian gold medal streak in pair skating, the longest in Olympic sports history, from 1964 to 2006.

They won their first World and European gold medals in 1965, becoming the first Soviet/Russian pair to win those titles.

[6] Those were the pair's final appearances at major international competitions but they continued competing in the Soviet Union until 1972.

[6] In September 2015, they renewed their long-standing tradition of skating in a charitable exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts, at an event called "Evening with Champions".

Dick Button stated: "The Protopopovs are great skaters not only because they were the finest of Olympic champions, but also because their creative impact was extraordinary.

"[7] Figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum stated that they "raised by several degrees the level of translating classical dance to the ice".

[10] On 24 September 1979, Belousova and Protopopov defected to Switzerland while on tour and applied for political asylum.