Olympic champion Oksana Baiul: biography, personal life and career

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

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Oksana Baiul is a figure skater whose biography is interesting, saturated. She is interested in many of her fans, as Oksana's life is full of rumors, intrigues, scandals. But let's talk about everything in order ...

Future Olympic champion Oksana Baiul was born on November 16, 1977 in Dnepropetrovsk. In two years the girl and her mother were left alone, his father left the family, a couple of years later, Oksana's mother died of cancer. Later, the grandmother, who brought up her granddaughter, also died. In 1991, the girl remained an orphan in the literal sense. The girl had nowhere to live, and she slept on the bed of her home rink. How did Oksana Baiul survive in such conditions? The biography tells that Galina Zmievskaya, a well-known coach, who brought up the 1992 Olympic champion in the men's single skating of Viktor Petrenko, later took Galina Zmievskaya to her talented girl. The second coach of Oksana was Valentin Nikolayev, he was responsible for the jumping component of the programs.

Oksana Bajul: 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 could not get through to the national team of the Union , but the Ukrainian federation itself summoned Bayul to Kiev and pre-recorded the international tournaments in which the figure skater was to participate.

In 1993, Soviet figure skater Oksana Baiul debuted at the European Championships in Helsinki. Fifteen minutes after the start of the free program, the athlete found herself riding with a loose boot. Bajul has approached to a judicial table with the request to roll over the program anew. After the meeting, the judges were allowed to do so. As a result, at the debut for herself European championship Oksana won silver, second only to the dark-skinned Frenchwoman Suria Bonali.

In the same year, Bajul debuted at the World Championship in Prague. The figure skater struck the arbiters with the complexity and elegance of their skating. As a result, Oksana became the first debutant of the world championships, which immediately managed to win the tournament on the first attempt. In addition, she quarreled with the Frenchwoman Bonali, who took second place at this tournament.

The athletes continued to find out which of them is stronger at the next European Championship, held in 1994 in Copenhagen. Here again defeated the Frenchwoman Bonali, and Bayul became the second. Experts believed that it was these two athletes, as well as the American Nancy Kerrigan, who will qualify for the Olympic gold of Lillehammer-94. How did Oksana Baiul prove herself? Olympiad for the figure skater was a real test ...

Olympic triumph

The main rival at the 1994 Olympics was the American Nancy Kerrigan. The memorable short program, delivered by coach Galina Zmievskaya, brought Bayul second, the American figure skater led after the first day of the competition.

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

In the interview, Oksana recalled that she had heard the conversations of her coaches Zmievskaya and Nikolayev, where they were deciding whether to perform in an arbitrary program Baily. As a result, coaches came to the conclusion that they should wait until morning.
Another unpleasant moment was a strange letter. A cross was drawn on a white sheet of feces, and the text below said that Bail would not become a champion, because it was made of the same material. The girl showed a letter to coach Galina Zmievskaya, but she cheered the ward, saying that it was a sign to the money. After that, Bajul firmly decided to speak.

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

Oksana was sitting in her armchair and, without ceasing, roared with pain and nervous tension. He was reassured by Viktor Petrenko, who said: "We won." According to the results of the assessments, Oksana was second behind the technique, after Kerrigan. Everything was decided by the voice of the German judge Jan Hoffman, who placed Bayul in second place following the results of the short program. In an arbitrary program, he placed the skater in the first position. As a result, six judges gave preference to the Ukrainian against five supporting the American.
The ceremony of awarding the figure skaters was delayed. Someone started a rumor that this was due to the fact that Baiul dressed for a long time. American Kerrigan joked that she did not have the sense to dress up, because she would still be whining. It is noteworthy that the American television channel demonstrated these words, and the image of the impeccable Kerrigan was spoiled.

Oksana Bajul at the Olympics still won, no matter what. In fact, none of the organizers expected the victory of the Ukrainian, so all the hiccups were related to the search for the flag of the country and the national anthem.

So Oksana Baiul's amateur career ended triumphally, and she moved to professional sports.

Moving to America and starting a professional career

Even at the Olympics in Norway, with the easy hands of Zmievskaya and Nikolayev, a contract was signed to move Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko to America. In the fall, they had to perform with a show program in Las Vegas. Another 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 check the luck on the slot machines. Here, a policeman approached her and tried to notify him about the prohibition of gambling for minors. The situation was saved by Viktor Petrenko, who told the policeman that Oksana is his younger sister.

Later, Bayul parted with the coach Galina Zmievskaya. They dokatali autumn programs and went in different directions. The girl began to have her own fees alone. For some speeches, Bayul was paid 10,000 dollars, which immediately affected the growth of the material well-being of the figure skater. Oksana purchased a cozy apartment on the 17th floor in New Jersey.

Alcohol dependence

Alcohol ruined a lot of talented people, it almost happened with Oksana Baiul. In the press there were many materials about the incidents of the intoxicated figure skater. The most famous of them was a car accident, to which Bayul came with his friend Ararat Zakaryan. The car flew off the track and crashed into a tree. Fortunately, both participants of the road accident survived, but Oksana was deprived of a driver's license. Also, the court sentenced her to public works and forced treatment from alcoholism. Three months the Olympic champion was on rehabilitation.

Renewal of sports career

Cured of alcohol addiction, Oksana Baiul resumes the career of a figure skater. A well-known Russian coach - Natalia Linichuk - handed her a helping hand. Oksana came to trainings in Moscow, and later she learned that Valentin Nikolaev, a coach who had led the athlete to Olympic gold, moved to the States. Their union was restored. Despite the scandalous reputation, Oksana has always remained the favorite of the American public. Not surprisingly, immediately after returning to the ice, she was taken to the famous Tom Collins show.

Attempted suicide

At the show, Oksana met a newly-defended Olympic champion, 19-year-old Ilya Kulik. Relations lasted only three weeks, after which Ilya threw the girl. The figure skater Oksana Baiul decided to go through another shock with the help of sleeping pills. Attempted suicide became a sensation for the American press.

New love and a new parting

After parting with Kulik Oksana zarklas no longer fall in love and quite a long time restrained his promise. In 2000, at a Christmas party in New York, the girl met with businessman Eugene Sunik, a descendant of Russian emigrants. It is curious that Sunik did not know who his lover was, since he was not interested in figure skating at all. This he bribed Oksana.

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

The couple broke up suddenly. As Oksana says, the quarrel occurred right after her return from Dnepropetrovsk, where the girl went to see her father. There are several versions of the separation of the pair. The most likely of them is the refusal of Yevgeny's relatives to take Oksana. They constantly mentioned the bad heredity and claimed that she could not give birth to a child.

According to coach Bajul, Valentina Nikolaeva, Eugene intended to make of Oksana an ideal wife-housewife, that could not arrange such an ambitious personality.

Jewish roots of the sportswoman

Father threw Oksana's mother in two years and went to another family. Being an adult, the girl decided to find him and found her in Dnepropetrovsk. Life at Sergei Bayul was not easy, he drank all his life. Oksana also met her grandmother on the paternal side. Despite the fact that the father was completely absent from the life of the girl, he followed her career, kept newspaper articles about the skater. Once drinking, my father mentioned that Oksana's grandmother and her mother are Jewish. This made a strong impression on the girl. Upon her arrival in the US, Oksana went to the synagogue. There she met her 32nd birthday.

Today Oksana S. Bayul is providing material support to the orphanage in Odessa, sponsored by a Jewish charitable organization.

Books

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

Oksana Baiul: victories, medals and awards

In her sports career, Bayul 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 was of course the 1994 Olympic gold.
The figure skater has the honorary mark of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, issued immediately after the triumph at the Olympics.

O.Bayul today

In 2010 Oksana came to Ukraine and entered the university in the faculty of coaching. She had plans to open her own school of figure skating at home, but it was not possible to find a common language with the federation. In addition, Oksana has a long-standing conflict with ex-trainer Galina Zmievskaya, which lasts from 1997 to this day. Today, Bayul in court tries to recover the stolen (in her opinion) money by filing a lawsuit against Zmievskaya and Petrenko.

Is Oksana Baiul now married? The personal life of the figure skater interests many of her fans. Now Oksana Bajul lives in a civil marriage with the American businessman of Italian origin - Karl Farina.

The story of Oksana Baiul is very exciting and interesting. Her life is full of ups and downs. Bitter cup she had to drink ... Well, now it remains only to wish the champion luck!