Alevtina Kolchina, winner of an Olympic gold medal for the Soviet Union in cross-country skiing at Innsbruck 1964, has died at the of 92 ©Getty Images

Soviet Union Olympic cross-country gold medallist Alevtina Kolchina has died at the age of 92, it has been announced.

Kolchina was a member of the Soviet team that won the 3x5 kilometres relay at Innsbruck 1964.

It was the fifth Olympic medal of her career, which also included a silver in the 3x5km relay at Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 and bronze at Grenoble 1968.

Competing individually, Kolchina also won a bronze medal in the 5km at Innsbruck 1964 and Grenoble 1968.

In addition, she won gold medals and a silver in the World Cross-Country Championships and was crowned Soviet champion 13 times.

Her husband, Pavel Kolchin, was a member of the Soviet Union team that won the Olympic gold medal in the 4x10km at Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956.

Alevtina Kolchina won a total of five Olympic medals and also won 13 World Championship titles ©Getty Images
Alevtina Kolchina won a total of five Olympic medals and also won 13 World Championship titles ©Getty Images

For her successes in the World Championship, Kolchina and her husband received the Holmenkollen medal in 1963, the first husband and wife to win the award.

Kolchina, born in Perm Oblast in what is now Russia, was the first Soviet Union skier and the only third woman to win the Holmenkollen medal.

In 1973, the family moved to Otepää in Estonia, where the Kolchinas worked as national cross-country ski coaches.

Their son, Fjodor Koltšin placed 15th in the Nordic combined discipline at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

Pavel Kolchin died in 2010.

Alevtina Kolchina died on March 1.