Career
At age thirty-two, Kovalenko made his official debut for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the men"s 66 kg class.
At age thirty-two, Kovalenko made his official debut for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the men"s 66 kg class.
He won a bronze medal for the 66 kg division at the 2006 World Wrestling Championships in Guangzhou, China. He defeated Algeria"s Mohamed Serir by a technical superiority (a score of 0–12) in the preliminary round of sixteen, before losing out the quarterfinal match to Bulgarian wrestler and 2005 World champion Nikolay Gergov, with a three-set technical score (1–2, 5–2, 1–3), and a classification point score of 1–3.
He is also a two-time medalist at the European Championships (2005 in Varna, Bulgaria and 2006 in Moscow, Russia), and a member of SKA Saint St. Petersburg in Saint St. Petersburg, under his personal coach Grigori Davidyan.