When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, Viktor Petrenko, one of Ukraine’s most famous Olympic champions, posted the message “NO WAR” to his Instagram account. The next day, Petrenko’s daughter said her father was trapped in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where he is taking refuge after returning from the 1992 Olympic figure skating title celebrations held in his hometown, Odesa.
Petrenko seems to be one of many Ukrainian athletes who will despite serving as wartime ambassadors for their besieged country. But since then, his champion status has deteriorated in his hometown.
In June, Petrenko announced his intention to leave the Ukrainian figure skating federation. A day later, he was temporarily deported, a federation official said. And in July, Petrenko was officially ousted and fired from his position as vice president, after he took part in an ice performance in Sochi, Russia.
On Monday, the office of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that Zelensky deprived Petrenko of a monthly stipend for top athletes and other Ukrainians with excellent records, citing Petrenko’s achievements in Russia.
The ice performance was organized by Tatiana Navka, 2006 Olympic ice dance champion, wife of Dmitri S. Peskov, Kremlin spokeswoman. In March, the United States Department of the Treasury impose sanctions about Peskov and Navka because of their relationship with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and said that Navka has a net worth of more than 10 million dollars.
Another figure skater on the show, called “The Scarlet Flower”, is Kamila Valievaa Russian teenager has tested positive for banned substances went public during the Beijing Olympics in February and who broke her last routine at the Olympics under international scrutiny. The show is scheduled to continue through September, though it’s unclear if Petrenko will still perform in it.
In January, before the war began, Petrenko post on Instagram which he is performing in St.Petersburg, Russia. But Ukraine’s skating federation said it was “outraged” by Petrenko skating in Russia after the invasion.
“The former athlete made his shameful decision despite the bloody all-out war Russia is waging,” the federation said in a statement, according to a translation. The statement said the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians “do not become an obstacle for Viktor Petrenko to go out on the ice” in Russia “and perform in the same team as the supporters of this terrible war”.
Ukraine’s Olympic Committee also denounced Petrenko’s conduct, saying it was “unacceptable” to carry out “on the territory of the aggressor state that is waging a brutal war against Ukraine”.
On Monday, Petrenko, 53, did not respond to a request for comment. His daughter, Victoria, who lives in New York, said she was at work and could not speak to reporters.
Galina Zmievskaya, who coached Petrenko to a gold medal and now teaches skating in Hackensack, NJ, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Anastasiya Makarova, general secretary of the Ukrainian figure skating association, said in a WhatsApp message on June 21 that Petrenko wrote a letter to officials on June 21, before he skated in Russia, said he wanted to leave the union.
Petrenko explained in the letter that he is spending most of his time outside of Ukraine while conducting his professional skating activities, Makarova said. Petrenko spends most of his time training and performing in ice shows across Europe. Skating, like the rest of his life in Ukraine, was interrupted by the war.
Makarova said he was temporarily expelled from the federation a day later, then formally ousted on 9 July by the federation council. “Unfortunately, I don’t know why he was on the show” in Russia, Makarova said.
Petrenko won a bronze medal competing for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, finishing third in the so-called Battle of the British. won by Brian Boitano of the United States compared to Brian Orser of Canada.
Four years later, Petrenko won gold at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Just two months earlier, the Soviet Union had dissolved. Petrenko competed during that tumultuous period not for Ukraine but for the so-called United Team in Albertville, which consisted of athletes from the former Soviet republics.
In 1994, when the Winter and Summer Olympics began to be held in separate years, Petrenko finished fourth at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway, this time skating for his hometown’s blue and yellow flags. Ukrainian flavor.
However, in the early 1990s, he joined an exodus of more than 100 skaters and coaches from the former Soviet Union to the United States to further their careers in turbulent economic times. in Russia, when money for skating was scarce and some rinks were turned into shopping centers and car dealerships. Eventually, Petrenko returned to Europe to coach and skate in ice shows.
In the small, intimate world of elite figure skating, at least one famous Russian coach, Tatiana Tarasova, came to Petrenko’s defense to perform in Sochi. She told Tass, the Russian news agency, that Petrenko was “one of the best people I know” and that “it was too bad he was banned” from doing his job.
