The tragedy of the Ukrainian gymnast who lost the Olympic gold in one move: Podkopaieva's successor even left the country

Viktoriia Karpenko, a native of Kherson, was seen as the successor to Olympic gymnastics champion Liliia Podkopaieva, especially after her silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in the all-around. She was one step away from gold at the 2000 Sydney Games, but one careless move put an end to all hopes, after which the career of the leader of the Ukrainian national team went downhill.

OBOZ.UA recalled one of the most dramatic moments of the Olympics in Australia, which ended in a personal tragedy for Karpenko and a huge disappointment for our entire team.

Karpenko entered the world stage on the eve of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, taking part in the 1995 World Championships in Sabai, Japan. There, the 14-year-old girl demonstrated that she had potential for the future, but was not yet up to the top level.

The star of that forum was another Ukrainian, Liliia Podkopaieva, who won the absolute championship, leaving behind Putin's future henchwoman, Russian Khorkina, and also celebrated her victory in the vault and won silver on the uneven bars and the balance beam.

Viktoriia continued to progress, but she injured her femur and was unable to compete for a place at the 1996 Olympic Games. In general, injuries "stole" from Karpenko not only a lot of health but also time. The following year, she broke her finger during training and was forced to watch the 1997 World Championships as a spectator.

In 1998, however, Viktoriia finally began her climb to the top. In March, the Ukrainian unexpectedly won the America's Cup, where she was better than the US champion Vanessa Uthler and the future Olympic medalist Kristen Maloney. It was said that this was a surprise even for our national team coaches.

In April, Karpenko became a silver medalist at the European Championships not only in the team but also on the uneven bars. She was one step away from winning the absolute championship, finishing fourth.

The real breakthrough for the gymnast from Kherson was the 1999 World Championships in China, where Karpenko showed a powerful performance in the all-around and took second place, losing some hundredths to the titled Romanian Maria Olaru. This is where Viktoriia was looked at differently, and in an instant, she became one of the contenders for the Olympic gold medal in Sydney 2000, along with Romanians Amanar and Olaru and Russian Khorkina.

In early 2000, Karpenko continued to gain momentum, winning four medals at the European Championships in Paris, a warm-up event for the Australian Games. Taking third place in the all-around, she also won silver on the uneven bars, floor exercise, and team competition.

Viktoriia arrived in Sydney in great shape. By the way, her personal trainer was a well-known national specialist Oleh Ostapenko, who in 1992 led Tetiana Lysenko to the status of a two-time Olympic champion in the balance beam and team championship, and four years later the Atlanta Games became a triumph for another Ostapenko student, Liliia Podkopaieva, who won two golds, including an all-around, and one silver.

She should have followed the path of her titled predecessors and Karpenko. Moreover, before the last rotation in the all-around at the 2000 Olympics, she was at the top of the standings. All that was left was to do the floor exercise, which was one of Viktoriia's strengths, and take the gold or at least the silver.

But during her performance, the Ukrainian made a mistake that was hard to predict. After a bunch of jumps, when she had already landed on both feet, she seemed to catch her fingers on the flooring, stumbled, fell on one knee, and went off the carpet. It was a fatal mistake. She received only 8.725 points for her performance, and because the density of the results was so high, she fell from first to 12th place. The Romanian Simona Amanar celebrated the victory.

Of course, the drama in the all-around had an impact on Viktoriia's performance in the floor exercise. That's why her best result in Sydney was fourth place on the uneven bars. After that, Karpenko's career took a sharp decline. Or even entered a steep decline.

Whether the gymnast was tormented by injuries or her failure at the Olympics was too much of a psychological blow, the athlete disappeared for two years until it became known in October 2002 that the longtime leader of the Ukrainian national team would no longer compete for our country. The 1999 world vice-champion decided to represent Bulgaria.

"There is simply no place for me in the national team. The Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation did not object to my moving to Bulgaria. Now I live and train in Sofia at the National Center-Rakovski complex, and my coach is Georgi Videnov, the coach of the Bulgarian women's national team. I still want to perform successfully at the Olympic Games. Gymnastics still occupies a prominent place in my life. I intend to perform at least until the end of 2004. I hope that gymnastics fans will understand my decision," Viktoriia explained at the time.

The Ukrainian national team had a slightly different opinion about Karpenko's performances, but since she was not eager to return to the national team, they did not force her to do so and even found an acceptable option for everyone.

"I believe that if Viktoriia Karpenko had stayed in Ukraine, she would have had more opportunities to continue her sports career. And she would have earned more money," Viktor Lutoienko, the head coach of our women's national team, said at the time.

"Unfortunately, Viktoriia didn't compete for a year after the Olympics, she gained a lot of weight. But we still kept her in the national team, paid her salary. However, instead of successful performances, we received only promises from her – she never represented Ukraine at several important international competitions. We offered Karpenko the option of moving to Bulgaria to continue her career," the coach explained.

But Karpenko did not do well in her new country. She briefly returned to competition in 2003, taking second place at the national championships and winning the Cup. Viktoriia won prizes at various international competitions, but at the World Championships, she even qualified for the all-around, taking 37th place. After that, due to injuries and certain personal circumstances, she took a break for another three years. And participation in the 2004 Olympics was out of the question...

Karpenko made another attempt to return in 2006, but it was not successful either. Someone wrote that injuries prevented her from regaining her form, but some believed that Viktoriia had never recovered from that fateful mistake in Sydney, which cost her not only $50,000 in prize money but also her future career.

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