Viktor Petrenko
| Viktor Petrenko | |
|---|---|
Petrenko in 2002.
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| Personal information | |
| Country represented |
Ukraine Soviet Union |
| Born |
27 June 1969 Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Residence | New Jersey |
| Height | 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) (5'10") |
| Former coach | Valentyn Nikolayev |
| Retired | 1994 |
|
Medal record
|
|
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Figure skating | ||
Representing the  Unified Team
|
||
 |
1992 Albertville | Singles |
Representing the  Soviet Union
|
||
 |
1988 Calgary | Singles |
Viktor Vasyliovych Petrenko (Ukrainian: 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. He is the 1992 Olympic Champion for the Unified Team. Petrenko became the first flagbearer for Ukraine. Petrenko currently lives in the United States and works as an ISU Technical Specialist, tours professionally, and coaches figure skating.
Viktor was born in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, the first of two sons born to engineers Tamara and Vasyl Petrenko. His younger brother Vladimir Petrenko was also a competitive skater and the 1986 World Junior champion. The Petrenko family spoke Russian which was dominant in Odessa, as well as 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 own 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, so 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 Odessa.
For the Soviet Union, Petrenko was the 1984 World Junior Champion and won the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. He then went on to win his first two European Championships in 1990 and 1991. 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 and with a free skate that was ranked above American Paul Wylie's by seven of the nine judges, he won the gold medal, the first ever for a singles skater from the former Soviet Union. A month later he 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.
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