Olympic champion Oksana Baiul: biography, personal life and career

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Everyone predicted the Olympic gold of Lillehammer-1994 in the women's single skating American Nancy Kerrigan. As a result, the representative of the United States was content with silver, and 16-year-old Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won. The 1994 Olympics brought Ukraine the first gold medal earned by a young athlete. What was the background to this triumph and how did the champion's sports career continue? How did the personal life of the athlete develop? All this will be discussed in the article.

Youth

Oksana Baiul is a figure skater whose biography is interesting and rich. She is of interest to many of her fans, since Oksana's life is filled with rumors, intrigues, scandals. But let's talk about everything in order…

Future Olympic champion Oksana Baiul was born on November 16, 1977 in Dnepropetrovsk. At the age of two, the girl and her mother were left alone, her father left the family, a couple of years later Oksana's mother died of cancer. Later, the grandmother who raised her granddaughter also died. In 1991, the girl was left an orphan in the literal sense. The girl had nowhere to live, and shespent the night on the bunk of her native ice rink. How did Oksana Baiul survive in such conditions? The biography says that later Galina Zmievskaya, a well-known coach who raised the 1992 Olympic champion in men's singles Viktor Petrenko, took the talented girl to her. Oksana's second coach was Valentin Nikolaev, he was responsible for the jump component of the programs.

Oksana Baiul: biography, awards, international successes

According to Oksana, expressed in many interviews, the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent independence of Ukraine helped her achieve the highest sports peaks. She was not able to get into the national team of the Union, but the Ukrainian federation itself called Baiul to Kyiv and pre-scheduled international tournaments in which the figure skater was to participate.

In 1993, Soviet figure skater Oksana Baiul made her debut at the European Championships in Helsinki. A minute and a half after the start of the free program, the athlete found herself skating with an unlaced boot. Baiul drove up to the judges' table with a request to roll the program over again. After the meeting, the judges allowed this to be done. As a result, Oksana won silver at her debut European Championship, losing only to the dark-skinned Frenchwoman Surya Bonaly.

In the same year, Baiul made his debut at the world championship in Prague. The figure skater impressed the judges with the complexity and elegance of her skating. As a result, Oksana became the first debutant of the World Championships, who immediately managed to win the tournament on the first try. In addition, shegot even with the Frenchwoman Bonaly, who took second place in this tournament.

Athletes continued to find out who was stronger at the next European Championship, held in 1994 in Copenhagen. Here the Frenchwoman Bonaly won again, and Baiul became the second. Experts believed that it was these two athletes, as well as the American Nancy Kerrigan, who would claim the Olympic gold in Lillehammer-94. How did Oksana Baiul show herself? The Olympics for the figure skater was a real test…

Olympic triumph

The main rival at the 1994 Olympics was American Nancy Kerrigan. A memorable short program choreographed by coach Galina Zmievskaya brought Baiul second place, with an American figure skater in the lead after the first day of the competition.

The next day Oksana had an unpleasant incident in training. During the warm-up, there was a serious collision with the figure skater from Germany Tatyana Shevchenko. The girls did not see each other when they tried to make the jump. Falling, Tatyana injured Oksana's shin. She had to get stitches. Also, from a strong blow to the ice, the athlete had a backache. All these troubles happened the day before the free program, which was supposed to determine the Olympic champion-94.

In an interview, Oksana recalled that she heard the conversations of her coaches Zmievskaya and Nikolaev, where they decided whether to perform in the free program Baiul. As a result, the coaches came to the conclusion that they should wait until the morning.

Another unpleasant momentit was a strange letter. A cross was drawn with feces on a white sheet, and the text below said that Baiul would not become a champion because she was made of the same material. The girl showed the letter to the coach Galina Zmievskaya, but she encouraged the ward, saying that it was a sign of money. After that, Baiul firmly decided to perform.

According to Oksana, before going out on the ice, she exuded incredible confidence. The figure skater confidently performed all the triple jumps and combinations and was about to finish her performance with a triple sheepskin coat, but through the noise of the audience she heard screams from the coaches. Zmievskaya and Petrenko shouted: "You need a combination!" Baiul immediately changed the program and performed two triple jumps with the last note. It only remained to wait for the judges' assessments.

Oksana was sitting in a chair and, without ceasing, roared from pain and nervous tension. Victor Petrenko reassured her, who said: "We won." According to the results of the assessments, Oksana was second in terms of technique, after Kerrigan. Everything was decided by the voice of the German judge Jan Hoffman, who put Baiul in second place in the short program. In the free program, he put the skater in first position. As a result, six judges gave preference to the Ukrainian woman against five who supported the American.

The awards ceremony for the figure skaters was delayed. Someone started a rumor that this was due to the fact that Baiul had been dressing up for a long time. American Kerrigan joked that it makes no sense to dress up, because she will whine anyway. It is noteworthy that the American TV channel demonstrated these words, and the image of the impeccable Kerrigan was spoiled.

Oksana Baiul at the Olympicsstill won, no matter what. In fact, none of the organizers expected the victory of the Ukrainian, so all the hitches were related to the search for the country's flag and the national anthem.

Thus, Oksana Baiul's amateur career ended triumphantly, and she switched to professional sports.

Moving to America and starting a professional career

Even at the Olympics in Norway, with the light hand of Zmievskaya and Nikolaev, a contract was signed to move Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko to America. In the fall, they were to perform with a show program in Las Vegas. Even a young girl who did not know English had to radically change her life in a completely different country. In the famous gambling capital, Oksana decided to test her luck on slot machines. Here, a police officer approached her and tried to notify her about the prohibition of gambling for minors. The situation was saved by Viktor Petrenko, who told the policeman that Oksana was his younger sister.

Later Baiul broke up with coach Galina Zmievskaya. They finished the autumn programs and went in different directions. The girl began to solely own her fees. For some performances, Baiul was paid $ 10,000 each, which immediately affected the growth of the material well-being of the skater. Oksana bought a cozy apartment on the 17th floor in New Jersey.

Alcohol addiction

Alcohol ruined many talented people, it almost happened to Oksana Baiul. A lot of materials appeared in the press about the incidents of a drunk skater. Mostthe most famous of them was a car accident that Baiul got into with her friend Ararat Zakarian. The car went off the road and crashed into a tree. Fortunately, both participants in the accident survived, but Oksana was deprived of her driver's license. The court also sentenced her to community service and compulsory treatment for alcoholism. The Olympic champion was in rehabilitation for three months.

Resuming sports career

Having recovered from alcohol addiction, Oksana Baiul resumes her career as a figure skater. A well-known Russian coach, Natalia Linichuk, extended a helping hand to her. Oksana came to Moscow for training, and later she learned that Valentin Nikolaev, the coach who led the athlete to Olympic gold, had moved to the States. Their union was restored. Despite the scandalous reputation, Oksana has always remained the favorite of the American public. It is not surprising that immediately after returning to the ice, she was taken to the famous Tom Collins show.

Attempt suicide

At the show, Oksana met the newly minted Olympic champion, 19-year-old Ilya Kulik. The relationship lasted only three weeks, after which Ilya left the girl. Figure skater Oksana Baiul decided to survive another shock with the help of sleeping pills. The suicide attempt became a sensation in the American press.

New love and new parting

After breaking up with Kulik, Oksana vowed not to fall in love again and kept her promise for quite a long time. In 2000, at a Christmas party in New York,the girl met businessman Yevgeny Sunik, a descendant of Russian emigrants. It is curious that Sunik did not know who his beloved was, since he was not at all interested in figure skating. With this, he bribed Oksana.

She first met a man who saw in her first of all a beautiful woman, and not a famous athlete. Their union lasted five years. During this period, the couple had a common business. The company was engaged in the production of costumes for figure skating.

The couple broke up suddenly. According to Oksana, the quarrel occurred immediately after her return from Dnepropetrovsk, where the girl went to see her father. There are several versions of the couple's separation. The most likely of them is the refusal of Evgeny's relatives to accept Oksana. They constantly mentioned bad heredity and claimed that she would not be able to bear him a child.

According to Baiul's coach, Valentin Nikolaev, Evgeny intended to make Oksana the perfect housewife, which could not suit such an ambitious person.

Jewish roots of the athlete

Father left Oksana's mother at the age of two and left for another family. Being an adult, the girl decided to find him and found him in her native Dnepropetrovsk. Sergey Baiul's life was not easy, he drank all his life. Oksana also met her paternal grandmother. Despite the fact that the father was completely absent in the life of the girl, he followed her career, kept newspaper articles about the figure skater. Once drinking, dad mentioned that Oksana's grandmother and her mother -Jewish women. This made a strong impression on the girl. Upon arrival in the United States, Oksana went to the synagogue. She celebrated her 32nd birthday there.

Today, Oksana Sergeevna Bayul is providing financial support to an orphanage in Odessa, which is under the patronage of a Jewish charitable organization.

Books

In the States, Baiul became the author of two books published in 1997. One of them "Oksana: my story" was autobiographical in nature, the other was called "Secrets of Skating".

Oksana Baiul: victories, medals and awards

In her sports career, Baiul became a two-time champion of Ukraine, a two-time silver medalist of the European Championships, a world champion in 1993, but her main achievement, of course, is the 1994 Olympic gold.

The figure skater has an honorary badge of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, issued immediately after the triumph at the Olympics.

Oh. Baiul today

In 2010, Oksana came to Ukraine and entered the university at the faculty of coaching. She had plans to open her own figure skating school in her homeland, but she failed to find a common language with the federation. In addition, Oksana has a long-standing conflict with ex-coach Galina Zmievskaya, which has lasted from 1997 to this day. Today, Baiul is trying to return the stolen (in her opinion) money in court by filing a lawsuit against Zmievskaya and Petrenko.

Is Oksana Baiul married now? The personal life of the skater is of interest to many of her fans. Now Oksana Baiul lives in a civil marriage with an AmericanItalian-born businessman Carl Farina.

The story of Oksana Baiul is very exciting and interesting. Her life is full of ups and downs. She had to drink a bitter cup… Well, now all that remains is to wish the champion good luck!