Viktor Petrenko

Viktor Vasyliovych Petrenko (Віктор Васильович Петренко; born 27 June 1969) is a Ukrainian former competitive figure skater who represented the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and Ukraine during his career.

Representing the Soviet Union, Petrenko was the 1984 World Junior Champion.

His younger brother Vladimir Petrenko also became a competitive skater and the 1986 World Junior champion.

The Petrenko family spoke Russian, which had become dominant in Odesa.

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 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 and she took him on as a pupil at Spartak in Odesa.

He won the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games, 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 Boitano, 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.

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 won a surprising victory at this event.

Petrenko won his first two European Championships 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.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union 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'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.

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, in spite of the mistakes.

He is the 1992 Olympic Champion for the Unified Team.

Petrenko became the first flagbearer for Ukraine.

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.

Petrenko turned professional following his Olympic win, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada.

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 (ISU) Technical Specialist, tours professionally, and coaches figure skating.

Viktor Petrenko was born in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, 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.