Viktor Petrenko

Viktor Vasyliovych Petrenko is the 1988 Olympic Bronze medalist…

Viktor Vasyliovych Petrenko is the 1988 Olympic Bronze medalist making him one of the youngest male figure skaters to win an Olympic medal and is the 1992 Olympic Champion for the Unified Team. As if Olympic Champion wasn’t enough, Viktor is also Olympic Bronze medalist, World Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalist, as well as European Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalist. Petrenko became the first flagbearer for Ukraine. Petrenko lives in the United States and works as an ISU Technical Specialist, tours professionally, and coaches figure skating.

Petrenko turned professional following his Olympic win, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, but when the International Skating Union ruled that professionals could return to competitive status in 1993, he moved back to Odessa, Ukraine and began training for another Olympics. He defeated another returning great 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,and went on to represent his homeland at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, where it was widely expected that he, 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano and World Champion Kurt Browning 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.He had many successes as a professional including winning the prestigious Challenge of Champions event which is considered the top professional event 3 times, but failed to win the other major professional event, the Landover World Professional Skating Championships, in fact never placing higher than 3rd.