Viktor completes
18 years with COI, and
he's still a major star

May 8, 2005

Olympic Champion Viktor Petrenko just completed his 18th year with the Champions On Ice Tour. That’s right, 18 years after winning the Gold Medal, there is no slowing down for him.

“I’m holding the tour record so far,” he said. He has no plans to stop touring.

He’s still one of the crowd-pleasers on the tour, and each year shows a different side of him -- sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes sexy. On the latest tour, he took on the persona of a Broadway dancer, compete with tux, cane and hat.

“I like to try new things, see how the audiences react,” he said. “You have to keep pushing yourself, keep growing as a skater.”

Viktor is also taking on another role he said several years he never would: coaching.

“Yes, I’ve been coaching a little,” he laughed, after being reminded that he vowed it was something he would never do. “I should say I’m learning how to be a coach. I teach beginners up to the high level. I hope I’m learning to be a good coach, one my students will trust.”

Making a move

He and his wife, Nina, a coach and choreographer, and 7-year-old daughter, Victoria, who is also a skater, have moved to a new ice rink in Wayne, N.J.
‘It was time for a change,” he said.

Viktor, because of his expertise, a/o serves as a technical specialist at competitions. “The old system no longer worked,” he said. “I know skating. I have been in it for more than 30 years. To be a technical specialist, you have to attend seminars and pass an exam. He was a technical specialist at four events this season, including the World Championships. The specialist calls out the jumps as they are performed on the ice. There are computers that the specialists use so they can freeze any part of the jump to make sure it was completed or two-footed.

“We call exactly what is happening on the ice,” he said. “We call jumps, revolutions, spins, report how difficult they are while the judges look at the quality of the skating. We can review any and all elements. We have one to two minutes to review elements.”

Through all the years of competing and touring, Viktor has managed to stay well enough to keep going. “Although I don’t know any athlete who hasn’t had injuries, you have to stay prepared. Don’t overuse your body. You have to push it and take risks, but your body will tell you when you’re overdoing it. You have to listen to your body.”

The Olympics

Viktor says his most memorable Olympics was not the one where he won the Gold Medal, but his first Olympics.

“I came to compete, but I had never been to the Olympics before. You get to meet all the athletes from your country, not just the ice skaters. You are all sharing the same space. You see different sports every day. That was an atmosphere I had never experienced before. The first one, there wasn’t a lot a pressure, because I really wasn’t considered a contender. But when you’re in contention for a medal, everything becomes different.”

Viktor says all skaters dream of stepping on that Olympic podium some day and being called an Olympic champion.

“It was my dream since I was 14,” he said. After I won the Junior World Championships, I began to believe that I could reach the very top.
Winning Olympic Gold involves a bit of luck, a lot of work and some tears. “You have to be your very best at exactly that moment,” he said.

He keeps his medal at home in his library. And looks at it now and then.

Viktor, who is from the Odessa, Ukraine, remembers returning home from the Olympics after winning Gold. “My whole city stood up and cheered. It was a very special moment.”

He has adjusted well to life in the United States. He came in 1992 and his family came in 1994. It was a smooth transition, he said.

He loves being close to New York. “It’s a great city,” he said. “There is so much in the city to educate you.”