[3] He dominated the 20 kilometre race walk in the 1960s and 1970s, winning four Olympic medals from 1960 to 1972 and finishing seventh in 1976.

He was convinced to take up the sport of race walking by former Soviet Union weightlifting champion Zosima Petrovich who was one of his lecturers at the Kyiv Physical Education Institute.

He had joined the Kyiv Physical Education Institute in 1953 with the intention of becoming a ski instructor.

He was believed to have afflicted with liver infection due to his malnourished childhood during World War II.

[12] After his retirement, he competed at international masters events during the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.