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Oksana Baiul - Olympic Great |
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Oksana Baiul was discovered by the
USSR's famed coach, Galina
Zmievskaya who was also coaching
Olympic Champion Viktor Petrenko.
Galina was impressed with Oksana and
asked her to move to Odessa to live
and train with her. Under
Galina's guidance Oksana quickly
climbed the international skating
ranks. In 1993 she placed 2nd at
Europeans and a surprising 1st at
Worlds in Prague. Oksana was
virtually an unknown in skating and
took the world by storm. Mature
beyond her years, she won the hearts
of skating fans all over the
world...>>> Book
Oksana Baiul for Your Event
Oksana was back in the Ukraine
training hard for the 1994 Winter
Olympics which were to be held in
Lillehammer, Norway that year.
Oksana repeated as a silver medalist
at Europeans that year, the last
major competition she had before the
Olympics. Oksana wowed the crowd
with her short program to Swan Lake
and ended up in 2nd after the short
program. The next day in practice,
Oksana collided with a German skater
and was badly injured. She was
rushed off the ice and received
stitches in her leg.
The day of the long program, Oksana
could still barely skate, her back
was hurting her very badly. She was
allowed to receive two injections
into her back to help numb the
pain. That same night, Oksana
skated a nearly flawless routine to
win the Olympic gold medal.
In the years following, Oksana moved
to the United States where they
opened a brand new training facility
in Simsbury, CT. Oksana became a
regular on the Champions on Ice tour
for many years, she also turned
professional. But, Oksana's
struggles however were far from
over.
In 1997, Oksana crashed her car into
a tree on a country road in CT. She
had 3 or 4 drinks before she got
into the car that night and was
arrested. For years Oksana battled
with her alcoholism, and was in and
out of rehab for a while. In that
time, she got off the Champions On
Ice tour to try and gain some
stability in her life. In 2001,
Oksana virtually disappeared off the
skating scene.
In 2000, Oksana met Eugene Sunik,
and shortly after they began
dating. It was the 1st serious
relationship she had since
completing rehab in 1998. They
eventually moved in together, and in
the summer of 2001 they became
engaged. Their wedding date is
still to be announced.
Oksana attended the 2003 World
Championships, it made her miss
skating so much she decided she had
to come back. In May of 2003,
Oksana made her comeback to
skating. She performed at
Hallmark's Mothers Day skating
show. It was the first time in
years her fan got to see her
skating. She began training with
her long-time coach, Valentin
Nikolaev, who alongside Galina
coached her to her World and Olympic
gold medals.
>>> Book Oksana Baiul for Your Event
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