By Michelle Moskowitz
Sentinel Correspondent
At five-feet-ten, incredibly fit and emanating natural beauty, it is no surprise that Greenwich’s Olga Litvinenko has been crowned Miss Connecticut Teen USA and Miss Connecticut USA.
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Litvinenko, 26, has been living in Greenwich since her parents immigrated to the United States when she was three years old, in pursuit of a better life.
Fluent in Russian, Litvinenko says there is a large local Ukrainian community that has been wonderful, but it’s her fondness of Greenwich that keeps her close by.
“Greenwich will always be my home, no matter where I go or travel to,” she said. “It is such a wonderfully supportive community, and it never fails me.”
Litvinenko, who has two older brothers, both entrepreneurs, attended Greenwich public schools including Parkway Elementary School, Western Middle School, and Greenwich High School, from which she graduated in 2008.
Even as a young girl, Litvinenko liked to challenge herself and always put her best foot forward.
At GHS, Litvinenko was quite an athlete. She played on many teams, including basketball, track, cheerleading, and tennis. When she could find the time, Litvinenko was also an avid equestrian.
Litvinenko was also a conscientious student and an active part of the student body at GHS.
She was the Vice President of Fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, a Yearbook Committee member, and the CEO of her Entrepreneurship Team.
It was during her junior year at GHS that Litvinenko first started thinking about pageantry.
While she was home one day, recovering from a foot injury, she had noticed a direct mail flyer about the Miss Connecticut Teen USA competition.
Something sparked in Litvinenko right away, and she decided that she had “nothing to lose and only to gain,” especially being sidelined from her sports teams for a while.
However, there was a required entry fee of $800, which Litvinenko’s parents told her she would need to raise on her own if she wanted to compete in the pageant.
Leveraging her fundraising experience from school, coupled with her rock-solid determination, Litvinenko walked up and down Greenwich Avenue, and quite easily found the sponsors she needed.
And so she entered her first pageant. And she won, becoming Miss Connecticut Teen USA 2007.
The pageant consisted of a swimsuit and evening gown competition, as well as an interview.
“The judges want to see who you really are as a person, and being a good communicator is so important,” said Litvinenko.
While both Litvinenko and her family were enormously proud of her accomplishment, she continued to focus her efforts on her education.
She enrolled at Syracuse University, pursuing a degree in marketing and finance.
During her senior year at Syracuse University, Litvinenko decided to get back into pageantry, and competed for three years at the Miss New York USA pageant.
While she did not win a title, she placed among the top 15, which she was quite proud of, and she never let not winning get her spirits down.
“I think whether you win or don’t, you take that first step in showing your strength and bring your best efforts to light,” said Litvinenko.
Meanwhile, Litvinenko continued to pursue her career. Right after graduating from college, she started her own marketing and event-planning firm, Olga and Company.
To challenge herself even more, she became a paralegal, thinking it would complement her marketing capabilities quite well.
She was then recruited by Greenwich Asset Management firm Fifth Street, which she credits as “the best learning experience she has ever had.”
“I think I worked over 100 hours per week, but to become an expert, you have to put in the hours.”
While her career was going well, she then decided to compete in the Miss Connecticut USA, where she took the title on her second try.
“After years of running my business, working as a paralegal, and a marketing manager, I have become so much more secure with myself and have gained a lot of confidence.”
Litvinenko also works with several charities, including the T.J. Martell Foundation for cancer research and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and she serves as an ambassador for the Greenwich Junior United Way and she helps the teens raise awareness for their work in the community.
Litvinenko also presented the Making Tough Choices simulator at Greenwich High School with Greenwich United Way CEO David Rabin during Diversity Awareness Week at GHS.
Asked how she shares her experience with younger girls who may think pageantry focuses heavily on beauty, she said, “Beauty is from the inside out. As we say in the pageantry, the girls who enter are ‘confidently beautiful.’”
She has formed solid friendships with other contestants. “The girls who compete are all very supportive of one another, and we really enjoy it, both as individuals, and together as friends.”
Litvinenko will now be competing for the national Miss USA title on Mother’s Day, Sun., May 14. (Greenwich boasts one past Miss USA winner: Christy Fichtner, who won the title in 1986, and was the first runner-up to Miss Universe the same year.)
Included in this year’s competition, the public will be able to vote for the next Miss USA by casting votes online now at vote.missusa.com, via the Miss U or Vodi apps or by Twitter using the hashtag #MissUSA and #STATE. Fans can vote up to 10 times a day per account and the voting will reset each night.
When asked how Litvinenko prepares herself on the morning of a competition, she said, “I always say a prayer, ask for focus and clarity, and I say thank you for where I am in my life.”
Litvinenko says she does not feel nervous about the upcoming competition; indeed she is very much looking forward to the bonding weekend she will get to share with her mother in Las Vegas, where the competition will be held.
The 2017 Miss USA Competition will be broadcast live on FOX, Sun. May 14 at 8 p.m.
