Oksana Baiul on the Rosie show | Golden Skate

Oksana Baiul on the Rosie show

Triplethreat16

Rinkside
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Feb 4, 2012
Oksana Baiul was on Rosie's talk show on the OWN network. Did anyone see this? I think it was originally on in Jan, but I caught a re-run. It was nice to see her again, I hadn't seen her lately. She said that is writing a book and that she has "a lot to say".
 

drivingmissdaisy

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Feb 17, 2010
She is definitely someone who I wish stayed eligible longer. It was sad she went through such lows both before and after her defining moment.
 

Skater Boy

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Feb 24, 2012
She had so much potential but she seemed lost without her parents. People tried but she was a lost little girl; at least she came back but that innocense was lost and nothing could bring it back.
 

Jammers

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I always wonder how much better Oksana would have been if she had a stable home life and a lived in a country with much better training facilities. It's amazing she did as well as she did training in the Ukraine which had lost the support of the Soviet Union. Imagine if she had the support and training of someone like Nancy Kerrigan had for instance. Oksana really did have it all.
 
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Nadine

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Oct 3, 2003
So what did she say exactly? How did she look? What's going on in her life????

Though I am a huge fan of Oksana's, I haven't followed her life much since she stopped appearing on screen, only now & then when somebody mentions her name, like this thread. Oops, just found an old bookmark that still works!: http://www.oksanastyle.com/news.htm

The last time I looked up Oksana on the 'net I got a bit sad & emotional; she was skating at a fabulous old resort/villa/hotel up in the New York mountains somewhere. In fact I think she's been living & skating there for some time now? Anyhow, the youtube video showed her looking so ethereal & magical in the moonlight skating outside underneath a huge type of gazebo, to "The Swan". It choked me up; rough beginning with so much loss in her young life, then power & fame & fortune, finally humility...

Her skating, the way she expressed herself, both in thought & also out there on the ice, will always live on in my memory. Truly a Gift from God.

Can't wait till her new book comes out, will keep an eye out for it, to add to my collection. I have every single one, and will definitely not miss this one, have them all memorized, as well as her poignant quotes. :love: :love: :love: :love:
 

Triplethreat16

Rinkside
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Feb 4, 2012
There are a couple of short clips on YouTube from the show, where you can see how she looked, but it doesn't show most of the interview. There are also some pics on her Facebook fan page. She didn't talk in too much detail about what's going on in her life. She brought her gold medal and said she had kept it in a shoe box for years. She also said that she was working on a book and wants to do some touring overseas. 
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I found the clip showing her making her entrance onstage for the segment. Very over the top, but fun. I felt that her English hadn't really progressed as one would expect after all these years, until a hysterically funny remark she made. Rosie was asking why she kept the medal in the shoebox. After a vague collection of phrases from Oksana about not having the time even to change clothes from winter to summer, Rosie said something about how it must be hard to get a medal like that through airport security these days. Oksana gave a big smile and said, "I travel first class, thank you very much." I'm still chuckling over that.

She looks pretty fit, I'm glad to see. I don't know what she's doing these days, but she hasn't let herself go, visually, at least. I still sense a wounded quality about her, but I hope that she's having a good and accomplished life.
 

dorispulaski

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I always wonder how much better Oksana would have been if she had a stable home life and a lived in a country with much better training facilities. It's amazing she did as well as she did training in the Ukraine which had lost the support of the Soviet Union. Imagine if she had the support and training of someone like Nancy Kerrigan had for instance. Oksana really did have it all.

Nancy had her own problems. Her mom is blind and her brother murdered her dad.
 

Jammers

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Yes but having a blind mother is still better then having no parents at all for support.
 

chuckm

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Aug 31, 2003
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She is definitely someone who I wish stayed eligible longer. It was sad she went through such lows both before and after her defining moment.

That wouldn't have worked out too well. Within 18 months of winning the OGM, Oksana grew 4 inches, gained 25 lbs, and lost her jumps in the process.
 

Jammers

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If Oksana hadn't lost interest competing and stayed an amateur she might have gotten in better shape and not lost her jumps. But once she won the OGM medal she turned pro made a lot of money and lost her drive to compete. Like she said when she skated as well as she did in Lillehammer she had done all she set out to do. No matter the wonky jumps very few skaters have ever had the presence on the ice that Oksana did circa 1993-1995.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I gather that it was a very close family. But alas, one member had some sort of mental problems. There is often no cause for such a situation--the parents and even the offspring with the problems have no role in initiating the original mental disorder. It's just one of those unexplainable awful things, like cancer, often with a biochemical cause. When it happens, it makes a hole through which all sorts of dreadful stuff can get into the family unit and wreak havoc. As I recall, Elizabeth Punsalan's brother had similar problems, and it led to a similarly devastating outcome--he killed their father. Whatever the law ultimately decides in such a situation in terms of fault, the damage cannot be undone. So you could still use Nancy's family as an example of a stable family, in the sense that everyone supported her aspirations and the parents did the best they could for her. The really bad event, the killing of Mr. Kerrigan, didn't happen until Nancy was around forty, so it had no effect on the level of support she had in her early athletic career.
 
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chuckm

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If Oksana hadn't lost interest competing and stayed an amateur she might have gotten in better shape and not lost her jumps. But once she won the OGM medal she turned pro made a lot of money and lost her drive to compete. Like she said when she skated as well as she did in Lillehammer she had done all she set out to do. No matter the wonky jumps very few skaters have ever had the presence on the ice that Oksana did circa 1993-1995.

Oksana lost her jumps because of puberty. No amount of training could have made up for the huge growth spurt and the fact she went from a tiny waif to a woman in a very, very short time span.
 

skateluvr

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Oct 23, 2011
I always wonder how much better Oksana would have been if she had a stable home life and a lived in a country with much better training facilities. It's amazing she did as well as she did training in the Ukraine which had lost the support of the Soviet Union. Imagine if she had the support and training of someone like Nancy Kerrigan had for instance. Oksana really did have it all.

I find this an odd quote. Oksana had every chance to train with Viktor, his wife and Galina, her coach, but the money poured in as a pro (and nancy's suffering was the cause of many getting rich.) It seems more honest to say Oksana got a sympathy vote and one tenth point in a flawed LP to win gold. She was very lucky, luckier than most skaters and when you rewatch all the skating of Nancy and Oksana, Oksana had a certain innocence as a kid that Nancy had, too, but nancy was a woman, with a mature style by 1994. It is amazing how Nancy was skewered for a couple comments and no one says how brave she was. It is traumatizing to be assaulted in any setting.It would hve been totally understandable if she withdrew. She worked like crazy and we saw what a champion she was. Oksana would have benefitted from the money train as silver medalist and "the ballerina." And likely she would not have had the hangers on who blew a lot of smoke her way as Gold medalist. She had very little humility over many years.

Nancy was amazing to come back, compete as she did and many fan, judges, insiders felt Nancy deserved the gold. Her LP was flawless except for a doubled jump. Her quiet maturity and lack of any flamboyance in her skating often was depicted as cold. But if you really watch her, she was feeling her music, just not a showy skater-she was very reserved as a youngster. She has been an amazing giver in life and forgiven people. It must have been so hard to face Tonya Harding in that interview, and yes, she had more support than Oksana, but she was amazing and deserving. Nancy's family had its share of dysfunctionalism amd she has been through more than any champion skater. Her love is her kids, so I don't think the gold much matters, but she wasn't treated well for a couple goofy remarks.

She won two Olympic medals for us, and she is hardly ever mentioned as anyone's favorite skater due to a couple silly, lame remarks. Oksana is not the only skater who lost everyone and still skated. We have known Oksana a long time and she has mostly been a diva. I'm sure she does her share of skaters giving back, but she really lost a lot of support for the diva behavior. I know people will say that is how Russian gold medalists behave, but there are at least a few exceptions. Oksana was a poor example as far as female gold medal skaters go. Perhaps the silver would have let her maintain her much more attractive humble side. I'm sure ) I hope) she has matured a lot.
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
What a weird strange thread; it started out fine and then deteriorated into something else with mention of Nancy Kerrigan and whatever else; didn't even bother to read that part. Bizarre. :rolleye:

Anyhow, all that's in the past, over & done with, finito.

I just wanted to post that I found the youtube link I mentioned in my earlier post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7xJcPV1ys :) Lol I thought it was "The Swan" when it actually was "Swan Lake". :cool:

Also, I found these two wonderful links of her skating at the same Mohank Mountain House (that's the name of the resort I was talking about in my original post btw: http://www.mohonk.com/ ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugs3YSzuiXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH_dibr2gZw ***Note: her own vocals are used in this one, likewise she's wearing that beautiful gold dress I've long admired since I first saw her wearing it to "It's A Wonderful World".*** :)^)


She's obvioulsy in a state of grace, wonderful to see, very very blessed. :love:

Aww, what I wouldn't give to visit that fabulous Victorian resort, walk the luscious grounds, partake in the beauty & scenery, bikeride, skate, roam God's earth. And to think she actually is blessed to live & skate there, what a lucky woman she is! :love:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohonk_Mountain_House
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I always wonder how much better Oksana would have been if she had a stable home life and a lived in a country with much better training facilities. It's amazing she did as well as she did training in the Ukraine which had lost the support of the Soviet Union. Imagine if she had the support and training of someone like Nancy Kerrigan had for instance. Oksana really did have it all.

Peronally, Oksana didn't do much for me.... maybe too much drama for my taste.


We an't say that Oksana wouldn't have derailed with her parents around. Given the state of skating in the Ukraine, her parents might've taken the same path and sent her overseas to tour, etc, which is where she started to party.

However, if the USSR had not broken up, it's possible that she would've continued to skate IMHO since the opportunity and support would have existed. They would've likely enforced a skating regimen that would have better managed her weight, etc.
 
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