Elena Belova

Not to be confused with Elena Novikova.

Elena Belova

Elena Belova c. 1968
Personal information
Born	(1947-07-28) 28 July 1947 Sovetskaya Gavan, Khabarovsk Kray, Russia
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	69 kg (152 lb)
Sport
Sport	Fencing
Club	Dynamo Minsk Army Club Minsk
Medal record Representing Soviet Union Olympic Games Mexico CIty 1968 Foil, individual Mexico CIty 1968 Foil, team Munich 1972 Foil, team Montreal 1976 Foil, team Moscow 1980 Foil, individual Montreal 1976 Foil, individual Pierre de Coubertin medal 2007

Elena Belova (née Novikova on 28 July 1947) is a retired Russian foil fencer. She competed at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics in the individual and team events and won four gold, one silver and one bronze medal, becoming the first female fencer to win four Olympic gold medals. She nearly won a fifth gold in 1976, but lost her last pool match to the last-placed fencer. Belova also won eight world titles, individually in 1969, and with the Soviet team in 1970-1979.

Shortly before the 1968 Olympics she married to Vyacheslav Belov, a future world champion in modern pentathlon, and changed her last name from Novikova to Belova. She retired after the 1980 Olympics, and gave birth in 1987, aged 40. Her second husband, composer Valery Ivanov, devoted a waltz to her.

In 1970 Belova graduated from the Minsk institute of Pedagogy, she holds a PhD in this discipline. In 1997 she was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver, and in 2007 the Pierre de Coubertin Medal.