Prince Lev Vladimirovich Urusov (russian: Лев Владимирович Урусов, french: Leon Ouroussoff, ,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

— ,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

diplomat. From 1910 until his death, he was a member of

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

Life

Lev Urusov was born in the family of State Councillor and Chamberlain Vladimir Pavlovich Urusov. In 1898 he graduated from Alexandrovski Lyceum in Saint Petersburg and from the same year started his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His two big assignments came in 1910-1912 when he was appointed a head of Russian diplomatic mission in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, and then in 1912-1916 when he served as the first secretary at the Russian embassy in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In 1917, after

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

in Russia, Lev Urusov emigrated to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and lived there till his death in 1933. Prince Urusov was one of the leading

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

players of Russia those years. In 1907 he won the Championship of Saint Petersburg, and the next year he became the Champion of Russia. In 1913, during his diplomatic mission in Japan, he won the Open Championship of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. In 1910, he was elected a member of

. He retained this position even after the revolution, and remained, while living in France, the only official representative of Russia in IOC. After the end of the

World War A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

he repeatingly submitted proposals for incorporating Russian teams back to the Olympic movement. Toward the 1920 Olympic he suggested that a team of Russian emigrants may compete, while four years later he asked for the participation of two teams, one composed of the emigrants and another representing

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

. The proposals were rejected, and

Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; ...

later wrote that he regretted this rejection. The rejection was based on the fact that the Soviet Russia has not been recognized yet by the IOC while the emigrants were not representing a distinct existing country. In 2008, Prince Lev Urusov was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame of Russia. Reporters were informed that no relatives of Lev Urusov remained in Russia and that his award will wait in Russia till his relatives abroad claim it.

References

External links

Lev Vladimirovich Urusov
in the Big Encyclopedia of Olympics (in Russian)
Lev Vladimirovich Urusov
in the Russian Tennis Encyclopedia (in Russian)
Lev Urusov's genealogy
at the

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portal (in Russian) 1877 births 1933 deaths International Olympic Committee members Diplomats of the Russian Empire Russian male tennis players Diplomats from Saint Petersburg Sportspeople from Saint Petersburg {{Russia-tennis-bio-stub