Ukraine Disowns Viktor Petrenko, Who Skated in Russia

As Russia commenced its invasion of Ukraine in February, Viktor Petrenko, just one of Ukraine’s most obvious Olympic champions, posted the message “NO WAR” to his Instagram account. Times later on, Petrenko’s daughter explained her father had been stranded in Kyiv, Ukraine’s funds, where by he was having shelter right after returning from a commemoration of his 1992 Olympic determine skating title that had been held in his hometown, Odesa.

Petrenko appeared to be a person of the quite a few Ukrainian athletes who would defiantly serve as wartime ambassadors for their besieged country. But due to the fact then, his standing as a winner has deteriorated in his native region.

In June, Petrenko declared his intention to go away the Ukrainian figure skating federation. A day later on, he was provisionally expelled, a federation formal reported. And in July, Petrenko was formally ousted, and fired from his placement as a vice president, after he participated in an ice clearly show in Sochi, Russia.

On Monday, the workplace of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that Zelensky experienced stripped Petrenko of a month to month stipend specified to top athletes and other Ukrainians of good achievement, citing Petrenko’s effectiveness in Russia.

The ice show was arranged by Tatiana Navka, a 2006 Olympic ice dancing champion, who is the spouse of Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman. In March, the United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Peskov and Navka for their ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and explained that Navka had a home empire well worth extra than $10 million.

A further skater in the display, referred to as “The Scarlet Flower,” is Kamila Valieva, the Russian teen whose good examination for a banned substance was made community through the Beijing Olympics in February and who bungled her closing plan of the Video games less than the excess weight of worldwide scrutiny. The clearly show is scheduled to keep on by means of September, while it is not distinct if Petrenko is even now carrying out in it.

In January, before the war begun, Petrenko posted on Instagram that he was undertaking in St. Petersburg, Russia. But the Ukrainian skating federation explained it was “outraged” by Petrenko’s skating in Russia right after the invasion occurred.

“The former athlete manufactured his shameful determination in spite of the bloody whole-scale war that Russia has been waging,” the federation mentioned in a statement, in accordance to a translation. The deaths of 1000’s of Ukrainians, the statement claimed, “did not develop into an obstacle for Viktor Petrenko to go out on the ice” in Russia “and execute in the exact workforce with the supporters of this awful war.”

Ukraine’s Olympic Committee also denounced Petrenko’s habits, declaring it was “unacceptable” to execute “on the territory of the aggressor state, which is waging a brutal war from Ukraine.”

On Monday, Petrenko, 53, did not answer to a ask for for comment. His daughter, Victoria, who lives in New York, reported she was at function and not able to discuss with a reporter.

Galina Zmievskaya, who coached Petrenko to his gold medal and now teaches skating in Hackensack, N.J., also did not answer to a request for comment.

Anastasiya Makarova, the normal secretary of Ukraine’s determine skating affiliation, mentioned in a WhatsApp concept Monday that Petrenko wrote a letter to officials on June 21, ahead of he skated in Russia, stating that he preferred to go away the federation.

Petrenko stated in the letter that he was investing most of his time outside Ukraine while conducting his professional skating things to do, Makarova mentioned. Petrenko spends a great deal of his time coaching and carrying out in ice shows throughout Europe. Skating, like the relaxation of lifestyle in Ukraine, has been disrupted by the war.

He was provisionally expelled from the federation a working day later on, then formally ousted on July 9 by the federation’s council, Makarova explained. “Unfortunately, I do not know why he took component in the show” in Russia, Makarova stated.

Petrenko received a bronze medal when competing for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Winter season Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, finishing 3rd in the so-referred to as Battle of the Brians won by Brian Boitano of the United States over Brian Orser of Canada.

4 a long time later on, Petrenko gained gold at the 1992 Winter season Olympics in Albertville, France. Only two months before, the Soviet Union experienced dissolved. Petrenko competed throughout that tumultuous time period not for Ukraine but for what was called the Unified Team in Albertville, composed of athletes from previous Soviet republics.

In 1994, when the Winter and Summer months Online games commenced becoming held in independent several years, Petrenko finished fourth at the Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, this time skating for the blue and yellow flag of his indigenous Ukraine.

In the early 1990s, however, he joined an exodus of more than 100 skaters and coaches from the former Soviet Union who came to the United States to proceed their professions for the duration of a period of time of financial chaos in Russia, when revenue for skating was scarce and some rinks ended up turned into shopping malls and auto dealerships. Inevitably, Petrenko returned to Europe to coach and skate in ice demonstrates.

In the small, shut-knit globe of elite figure skating, at least one particular popular Russian mentor, Tatiana Tarasova, arrived to Petrenko’s defense for carrying out in Sochi. She advised Tass, the Russian information agency, that Petrenko was “one of the greatest persons I know” and that “it’s unsightly that he’s forbidden” to do his occupation.