Viktor Vasyliovych Petrenko ( uk, Віктор Васильович Петренко; born 27 June 1969) is a Ukrainian former competitive
figure skater
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...
who represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Ukraine during his career. He is the
1992 Olympic Champion for the Unified Team. Petrenko became the first flagbearer for Ukraine.
Petrenko moved to the United States in 1994 with his family and associates, living first in Simbury, Connecticut, the site of an international skating center. He works as an
International Skating Union
The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...
(ISU) Technical Specialist, tours professionally, and coaches figure skating.
Early life
Viktor Petrenko was born in
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
,
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
, the first of two sons born to engineers Tamara and Vasyl Petrenko. They both got involved in ice skating, training and competing from a young age. His younger brother
Vladimir Petrenko
Vladimir Vasilyevich Petrenko ( uk, Володимир Васильович Петренко: Volodymyr Vasylovych Petrenko, russian: Владимир Васильевич Петренко; born in 1971) is a former competitive figure skater who ...
also became a competitive skater and the 1986
World Junior champion.
[
The Petrenko family spoke Russian, which had become dominant in Odessa. It was also a means of inter-ethnic communication throughout the USSR. Viktor Petrenko attended a Russian-speaking school where he chose to study English as a foreign language. Because ]Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
was not used in his family or his school, he never learned to speak the native language of his country fluently.
Petrenko was often sick as a young child, and doctors suggested to his parents that they put him in a sport in order to improve his strength and stamina. When he was five years old, they took him to the local ice rink and started him in figure skating. At the age of nine, his talent was noticed by Ukrainian figure skating coach Galina Zmievskaya
Galina Yakovlevna Zmievskaya (russian: Галина Яковлевна Змиевская, uk, Галина Яківна Змієвська, ''Halyna Yakivna Zmievs'ka'') (born 1952) is a Ukrainian-American figure skating coach in the United Stat ...
and she took him on as a pupil at Spartak Spartak may refer to:
In sports
*Spartak (sports society), an international fitness and sports society that unites some countries of the former Soviet Union
In Russia
*FC Spartak Moscow, a football club
*FC Spartak Kostroma, a football club
*PFC ...
in Odessa.[
]
Career
Rising star 1984-1988
Representing the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, Petrenko was the 1984 World Junior Champion.[ He won the bronze medal at the ]1988 Olympic Games
1988 Olympics refers to both:
*The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
*The 1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul ...
,[ and became one of the youngest male figure skating Olympic medalists.
He also won the bronze medal at the 1988 World Figure Skating Championships. His podium finish came as a surprise, because three former World Champions ]Brian Orser
Brian Ernest Orser, (born 18 December 1961) is a Canadian former competitive and professional figure skater and coach to Olympic champions. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist, 1987 World champion and eight-time (1981–88) Can ...
, Brian Boitano
Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985–1988 U.S. National Champion.
He turned professional foll ...
, and Alexander Fadeev were competing in this event. Capitalizing on disastrous short and long programs by Fadeev, Petrenko skated well enough at the championships to earn the bronze.
Disappointment 1989
Expected to succeed to the position of top skater with the retirement of the Brians, Petrenko lost the Soviet Nationals to a resurgent Fadeev. At Worlds, a fall in the short program combined with a subpar long program cost him a medal. Upstart and eventual career rival Kurt Browning
Kurt Browning, (born June 18, 1966) is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is the first skater to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition. He is a four-time World Champion and Canadian national champion.
Career ...
won a surprising victory at this event.
Road to Albertville 1990-1991
Petrenko won his first two European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
in 1990 and 1991.[ He was frustrated in trying to win a World title. He won the short program at both the 1990 and 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, but his mistakes in the long program dropped him to silver both times.
The 1991 decision was particularly close. Petrenko skated a strong program, only stepping out of a triple loop, and omitting a planned triple axel-triple toe which he turned into a triple-double. He lost in a controversial 6-3 split by the judges. Browning completed 3 triple-triples, and edged Petrenko out of the gold because of the superior technical difficulty of his program.
]
Olympic and World Champion 1992
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in December 1991,[ athletes from former Soviet states went to the Olympics together for the last time in 1992 on a Unified Team.][ Petrenko competed for this Unified Team. With a free skate that was ranked above American ]Paul Wylie
Paul Stanton Wylie (born October 28, 1964) is an American figure skater, and the 1992 Olympic silver medalist in men's singles skating.
Personal life
Paul Stanton Wylie was born on October 24, 1964 in Dallas, Texas to Bob Wylie (a geophysicist ...
's by seven of the nine judges, he won the gold medal. It was the first ever for a singles skater from the former Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.[ His skate was not his best, and some contested his win. His triple axel-triple toe in both programs gained him scores over both Wylie and European Champion ]Petr Barna
Petr Barna (born 9 March 1966) is a Czech former competitive figure skater who competed for Czechoslovakia. He is the 1992 European champion, the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, and a seven-time Czechoslovak national champion.
Personal life
Ba ...
, in spite of the mistakes.
A month later Petrenko went to the 1992 World Championships and won the gold medal there, as well, earning two 6.0's for presentation in his free program and receiving first-place ranking from all nine judges.[ In doing so he finally defeated his arch nemesis Kurt Browning, who took silver (after placing a disappointing 6th in Albertville). Petrenko used the same free program for the 3rd straight year, with his polish and familiarity gaining high marks for the artistic strength of the program.
]
Professional career and reinstatement
Petrenko turned professional following his Olympic win, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. Ukraine was still struggling economically and he thought he had more opportunity in the US. When the International Skating Union
The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...
ruled in 1993 that professionals could return to competitive status, Petrenko returned to Odessa, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and began training for another Olympics.[
He defeated another returning competitor, Brian Boitano, to win Skate America with a commanding 8-triple long program. He won his third European Championships in January 1994, competing for the first time for the independent nation of Ukraine.][ He represented his homeland at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. It was widely expected that he, 1988 Olympic gold medalist ]Brian Boitano
Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985–1988 U.S. National Champion.
He turned professional foll ...
and World Champion
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
Kurt Browning
Kurt Browning, (born June 18, 1966) is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is the first skater to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition. He is a four-time World Champion and Canadian national champion.
Career ...
would be the main challengers for medals. After the short program, Petrenko was in ninth place after stepping out of his triple axel and not completing the rotation on his triple lutz, and Boitano and Browning were in eighth and twelfth, respectively. His strong performance in the free skate pulled him up to a fourth-place finish, and might well have been enough to defend his title had he delivered a clean short program.
Later life
After 1994 Petrenko competed as a professional. He had many successes, including winning the prestigious Challenge of Champions event three times. It is considered the top professional event. He failed to win the other major professional event, the Landover World Professional Skating Championships, and never placed higher than 3rd.
In 1992, Petrenko had convinced his coach Galina Zmievskaya
Galina Yakovlevna Zmievskaya (russian: Галина Яковлевна Змиевская, uk, Галина Яківна Змієвська, ''Halyna Yakivna Zmievs'ka'') (born 1952) is a Ukrainian-American figure skating coach in the United Stat ...
to take in Oksana Baiul
, altname= Oksana Baiul-Farina
, birth_date=
, birth_place=Dnipro, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
, residence=
, height=
, formercoach= Galina Zmievskaya Valentyn Nikolayev Stanislav Koritek
, formerchoreographer= Sarah Kawahara
, formertrain ...
, a 14-year-old Ukrainian orphan who was talented in skating. The coach became both her guardian and coach, having Baiul live with her. Petrenko covered Baiul's expenses. With their guidance, Baiul won the 1993 World Figure Skating Championship
The World Figure Skating Championships (''"Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the categories of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Gen ...
and the gold medal at the 1994 Olympic Games.[
That year Petrenko married Zmievskaya's oldest daughter, Nina Milken, on 19 June 1992. Their daughter Victoria was born on 21 July 1997.
After the ]1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...
, Petrenko and Nina, Zmievskaya, Baiul and Viktor's brother Vladimir all left Ukraine and moved to Simsbury
Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 24,517 at the 2020 census. The town was incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670.
History
Early history
At the beginning of the 17th century, the ...
, Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
. Petrenko and Baiul were invited to train for competition. Zmievskaya and Vladimir Petrenko joined the coaching staff at the new International Skating Center of Connecticut.[
In 1996 Petrenko performed as the Scarecrow for the CBS television special ''The Wizard of Oz on Ice''.
In March 2001, Petrenko organized the ''Viktory for Kids'' ice show in Simsbury, Connecticut. He invited celebrity friends from the international figure skating community to perform in order to raise public awareness and funds for the thousands of children still being affected by elevated radiation levels from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that had occurred in his Ukrainian homeland fifteen years earlier. $108,000 was raised, and later that year was used to open ''The Viktor Petrenko Neonatal Intensive Care Unit'' in Odessa, with state-of-the-art medical technology.][
In October 2003, Petrenko organized a second "Viktory for Kids" show, this time in Danbury, Connecticut. In addition to Petrenko, the show included Olympic champions ]Ekaterina Gordeeva
Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva (russian: Екатерина Александровна Гордеева; born 28 May 1971) is a Russian figure skater. Together with her husband, the late Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 and 1994 Olymp ...
(with her daughter, Daria Grinkova etrenko's goddaughter, Ilia Kulik
Ilia Alexandrovich Kulik (; born 23 May 1977) is a Russian figure skater. He is the 1998 Olympic Champion, the 1995 European Champion, the 1997–1998 Grand Prix Final champion, and the 1995 World Junior champion.
Career
Kulik began skating ...
, Evgeni Plushenko
Evgeni Viktorovich Plushenko (, born 3 November 1982) is a Russian former figure skater. He is a four-time Olympic medalist (2006 gold, 2014 team gold, 2002 & 2010 silver), a three-time World champion (2001, 2003, 2004), a seven-time European ...
, Brian Boitano
Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is an American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985–1988 U.S. National Champion.
He turned professional foll ...
, and Oksana Kazakova
Oksana or Oxana (, ; be, Аксана), sometimes transliterated as Aksana, is a female given name of Ukrainian origin. The closest equivalent is the Russian name '' Kseniya'' (russian: Ксения, links=no), but the two names coexist in use i ...
/ Artur Dimitriev
Artur Valeryevich Dmitriev (russian: Артур Валерьевич Дмитриев; born 21 January 1968) is a Russian former pair skater who competed internationally for the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Russia. He is a two-time Olymp ...
.
In January 2004, Petrenko was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) after crashing his car into a utility pole in Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.[ His record was cleared after he completed an adult alcohol education program.][
Petrenko, wife Nina and mother-in-law Zmievskaya left the International Skating Center of Connecticut in 2005 and moved to New Jersey, where they began coaching together at the Ice Vault Arena in Wayne. They have coached American men's figure skater ]Johnny Weir
John Garvin Weir (; born July 2, 1984) is an American figure skater and television commentator. He is a two-time Olympian (representing the United States in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, respectively), the 2008 World bronze medalist, a t ...
since the summer of 2007.[
Petrenko toured as a performing skater with the US company of ]Champions on Ice
Champions on Ice was a touring ice show in the United States. The show featured a large cast of both professional and Olympic-eligible figure skaters along with novelty acts such as skating acrobats. The shows were focused primarily on solo perf ...
for a record twenty seasons, until COI went out of business after the 2007 season.[ He is an ISU Technical Specialist for Ukraine][ and was the Assistant Technical Specialist for the men's event at the ]2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...
. In June 2008, he was elected to the Presidium of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation.[
In 2022, Petrenko has been fired from his post as vice president of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation (UFFK) and expelled from the organization for taking part in an event in Russia that was organized by Kremlin spokesman ]Dmitry Peskov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.[Tatyana Navka
Tatyana Aleksandrovna Navka (russian: Татьяна Александровна Навка; born 13 April 1975) is a Russian former competitive ice dancer and wife of Dmitry Peskov. With her dance partner Roman Kostomarov, she is the 2006 Olymp ...]
Programs
Results
References
External links
Athlete Profile - Petrenko
Champions on Ice
*
Navigation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrenko, Viktor
1969 births
Living people
Soviet male single skaters
Ukrainian male single skaters
Olympic figure skaters of the Soviet Union
Olympic figure skaters of the Unified Team
Olympic figure skaters of Ukraine
Figure skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team
Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union
International Skating Union technical specialists
Spartak athletes
Sportspeople from Odesa
Olympic medalists in figure skating
World Figure Skating Championships medalists
European Figure Skating Championships medalists
World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists
Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics
Goodwill Games medalists in figure skating
Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games
K. D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University alumni