43 Facts About Oksana Baiul

Oksana Baiul is the 1993 world champion and the 1994 Olympic champion in ladies' singles.

Oksana Baiul is the first Olympic champion of independent Ukraine in any sport.

Oksana Baiul has lived in the United States since 1994.

Oksana Baiul was born on 16 November 1977 in Dnipro, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, an industrial city famous for manufacturing Soviet missiles.

Oksana Baiul was raised by her mother, Marina, a French teacher, and her maternal grandparents.

Oksana Baiul's grandfather died in 1987, and her grandmother in 1988.

Oksana Baiul's father appeared at her mother's funeral, but Baiul wanted nothing to do with him.

Oksana Baiul lived with the wife of her coach, Stanislav Koritek, who had moved to Canada, and then with friends.

Oksana Baiul's expenses were covered by the state because of her promise in skating.

In January 1997, Oksana Baiul was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing her car into a tree in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Oksana Baiul confirmed that her Romanian maternal grandmother was Jewish.

Oksana Baiul decided to identify as Jewish because of the custom of matrilineality in Judaism.

Oksana Baiul's grandmother took her to skating lessons, saying it was ballet on skates.

Oksana Baiul's grandfather was supportive of her skating, which she began at age three in Dnipro.

Oksana Baiul believed that she could be a future prima ballerina and that skating was a fine training ground for dance.

Oksana Baiul was coached by Koritek until he was offered a coaching job in Toronto, Ontario, in March 1992.

Oksana Baiul accepted due to lack of support for the sport in Ukraine as it struggled economically after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Oksana Baiul took her on as a student, arranging for the girl to move to her home in Odesa.

Oksana Baiul began competing and took the silver medal at the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki, finishing second to Surya Bonaly of France.

Oksana Baiul competed in skates with crooked blades because it was too late to try a new pair.

In 1994, Oksana Baiul won the silver medal at the European Championships in Copenhagen, again finishing second to Bonaly.

Oksana Baiul received two Olympic-approved pain-killing injections of anaesthetics in her lower back and shoulder, which enabled her to compete in the free skate.

Oksana Baiul added one additional triple jump towards the end of her skating program that was not originally planned in her program.

Oksana Baiul won the Olympic gold medal at the age of 16 years and 101 days, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions.

Oksana Baiul was announced as the winner after Surya Bonaly and Katarina Witt completed their respective programs out of medal contention.

In May 1994, at age 16, Oksana Baiul signed an agreement with the American talent agency William Morris Endeavor.

Oksana Baiul said later that her drinking problems began during this tour.

Oksana Baiul required arthroscopic knee surgery in the summer of 1994, after which she was advised by her doctor not to return to the ice for two months.

Oksana Baiul resumed skating in two weeks and returned to performing in six.

Oksana Baiul portrayed Clara and Dorothy Gale in the CBS productions of The Nutcracker on Ice and The Wizard of Oz on Ice, respectively.

Oksana Baiul decided to part ways with Zmievskaya the same year.

Oksana Baiul had completed a rehab program and, in August 1998, she began training under Natalia Linichuk at the University of Delaware's skating center.

Oksana Baiul has continued to skate professionally from time to time, including an engagement with the touring show Broadway on Ice.

In December 2006, Oksana Baiul traveled to Russia and skated at the Red Square ice rink in Moscow, alongside champions from Russia, China, France, and other countries.

Oksana Baiul had a role in the skating stage musical, Cold as Ice.

On 8 March 2009, and again on 14 March 2010, Oksana Baiul made guest appearances at the Kate Wollman Skating Rink at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, as part of its annual show.

Oksana Baiul took part in meet-and-greet sessions with skating students after each performance.

Oksana Baiul was part of the celebrity panel of judges on the ABC show Master of Champions, which aired briefly in 2006.

Oksana Baiul sued NBCUniversal in February 2013 for their alleged illicit promotional use of her likeness.

In January 2015, Oksana Baiul publicly accused her former coaches Galina Zmievskaya, Viktor Petrenko, and their manager, Joseph Lemire, of fraud, claiming they 'have been stealing money' from her for more than a decade.

On 27 March 2010, Oksana Baiul skated at a figure skating exhibition for One Step Closer HIV AIDS.

Oksana Baiul performed her signature Swan Lake program and was part of the meet-and-greet after the show.

Oksana Baiul created a program to donate sled dogs to underprivileged Inuit children.