Ilia Kulik is the second skater from Russia to win an Olympic Gold medal (the first one was Alexei Urmanov in 1994. In 1992, the Ukrainian Viktor Petrenko won competing for the CIS). Kulik was one of the two skaters who completed a quad Toe-Loop in the 1998 Olympics. Kulik's younger sister Svetlana is a swimmer on the Moscow city team. Kulik could not compete in the 1998 European Championships because of a back injury, defined as a compressed disc.