What a sweet and gorgeous angel Oksana is. I will never forget the nasty comment Nancy Kerrigan made about the dress Oksana was wearing. And Oksana was barely a tiny 16 year old little girl from Ukraine, while Kerrigan was already 24 years old !!! Oksana: you stole the hearts of millions of people here in the USA and all over the world. Not only Oksana is gorgeous, but extremely feminine, discrete and s delicate as the sweetest flower in the prairie.
I dont think it would be fair to say Baiul couldnt jump to save her life. She had some of the biggest and greatest solo triples when she landed them cleanly, especialy the triple lutz and triple loop. Unfortunately she never mastered hard jump combinations, or enough triples in one program which would have been her downfall even had she continued. I agree with you on her artistry, but some of her amateur long programs werent great and did not showcase it as well as could.
Let's face it , Kerrigan could not stand a chance. Twenty years later Oksana performance can still move to tears. Grace , beauty, balance, confidence, not one move was out of place. It was just perfect.
This performance to "The Swan" STILL moved me to tears 25 years later. Extraordinary. To me Oksana would have been an equally extraordinary ballerina. Kerrigan was very, VERY good, but she was not Oksana.
I like how the broadcasters didn't narrate through the 1st performance. The silence and see awe of her performance speaks volumes for itself. Thanks Scott Hamilton and Dick Button
Oksana's performance of "The Swan" was breathtakingly beautiful, stunning and the number that she did with Viktor was great. She looked like she was having so much fun.
Every move, every gesture pure...skated with ease like a dancer...nothing is for the sake of just a move as you see in skater today. Skating on one's toes in skates as if they were ballet shoes is soo difficult and hard on the toes. Oskana's most amazing performance. She skates as an Olympic Champion. So worthy.
Yes. IT was swan on the ice. She used hands. Because hands are flowers dance. What now? 25 square jumps, 13 combinations and 12 pirouettes from Swiss legend Denise Bielmann 🤷🤷 1 seasons a 15-year-old girl "flies out" And when IT start to look like LEGEND (POGORYLA), It JUST Falla on her mounth. Literally! There Is nothing left to look at. All girls Are just acrobats only 🤷
Oksana was SO incredibly musical. She just fell into place with the music without even trying. You can see this in the second piece with Viktor. She was truly incredible.
I remember back then, when the media flood the competition with the harding x kerrigan incident tryin' to create some sort of commotion around nancy but oksana was way ahead both of them. she was perfect on that final...
Interesting that another great skater in Men's category, the wonderful Yuzuru Hanyu, also skated to this theme at the Pyeong Chang 2018 Olympics' exhibiton performance after winning his 2nd Olympic Gold medal and writing history. Baiul and Hanyu will be remembered by showing the world what great ice skating actually is: not just jumps and points, but grace and poetry on ice
Extraordinary, all that more amazing considering how her early years were easily tragic enough to beat down even a tough individual. There will never be another one like her.
Oksana feels the music, skates beautifully, is as graceful as a dancer, and we are not just sitting there watching (like unnamed skaters) her “set up” her jumps for ten seconds. I truly miss her!
"In all my years of skating, I have never seen ANYONE like Oksana." -- Scott Hamilton. I couldn't agree more. Even the great Kim Yuna, who I love and consider the greatest skater ever, because of her total package (jumps, artistry, speed, and sensuality), is no match for Oksana when it comes to artistry. For her balletic grace and fluidity, Oksana Baiul, for all that she couldn't jump to save her life, is still my favorite skater of all time, with Kim Yuna a very close second.
Baiul was actually quite a strong jumper in some ways. She had a huge triple lutz, and very big and well done solo triples when she did them. Her problems were she was prone to two footing sometimes, and of course lack of combination jumps, and never attempting more than 5 triples in a program.
i think yuna was so much more graceful than oksana but oksana could do these dance beats really well, as in oksana had a nice dance rhythm in her that iv never seen in anyone
I'm speechless........ I can watch this a hundred times!!!!!!! & still never tire of watching it...... Exquisite Oksana!!! Simply takes our breath away!!!!!!!!! Thank you Oksana for sharing your extraordinary talent to the whole world!!!!!!!! You're a legend!!!!!!!!!💎💎💎
Oksana is absolutely adorable! A very gifted skater and full of class and discipline and vulnerability at the same time. She went through so much and still is able to handle herself with grace and poise. I'm no expert. But I can tell when someone's skating is more fluid than others. She definitely is it.
Who can’t forget this performance? Breath taking so artistic .. she knew how to execute each musical note so precisely gracefully at the same time make look so effortless and divine !!! Aww they don’t come like her anymore!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I was happy in 1994 when she won the gold medal at the Olympics, and I am still happy about it today. However, after watching this, I think I prefer her exhibition skating over her competition skating.
As a ballerina herself the absolute awe I was in when she started to dance on her toes almost like pointe shoes is... that was incredible and I can only imagine how hard it was in blades instead of proper shoes. The talent in this girl is amazing.
I met both Victor and Oksana in Orlando, Florida in 1992 when they attended the US Nationals as honored guests. They were both very personable. What I love most about this performance in seeing how much relaxed FUN they are having. After all the joy they have brought to so many of us, it's great to see those SMILES. Best Wishes, All.
The nastier the comments, the more immature a poster shows him/herself to be. One can disagree politely, but that seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Oksana has an artistry more commonly seen in ballet. To do this on ice is something a balletomane would applaud, but someone without that knowledge would not.
mcbrion1951 I mean, I have no idea how good this is on a technical and real knowledgeable scale, but it was beautiful and wowowowow. Dang ninjas are cutting onions
the way she perform with Camille saint saens Music is just Heavenly beautiful, as the commenter said is breathtaking, she managed to transform an sport exhibition into an Art performance.
Oksana truly truly deserved the Gold Metal....And if you don't believe it just watch this video she truly was perfection in artistic impression...! unbeatable
Oksana Baiul is the greatest ever. She made the sport relevant around the world unlike the others. Her career was deliberately sabotaged. This girl was badly injured, lacking a coach & all the other things skaters took for granted. Yet she out skated the field repeatedly. Oksana is undoubtedly the most robbed skater in history if you know the political backdrop. Oksana was Robbed of her glory. She was robbed from returning to her sport to triumph. She was Robbed of the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. She was robbed of her chance of competing at her best. She was robbed of her advantage. In short, Oksana Baiul was robbed of her reign. She was robbed of her right to put together the 1st of many great competitive teams after having earned the cash to do so. She was robbed of having great teams to guide her to more victories. All of her skills would've only grown greater. She earned that right but it was stolen from her. The Americans & Brits lead the way in forcing out ISU president Olaf Poulsen the president, who worked hard making sure judging skills on the ice was the focus rather than reputation. Poulsen fought for & drove this change. He fought for the sport promoting high quality competition. In 1992 the IOC lifted the ban against all professionals competing at the Olympics. But how to handle pros playing at the Olympics was left up to each sport & its governing officials. The ISU is the governing body of figure skating. Yet in figure skating many resisted pros competing at the Olympics as a way to limit competition. Poulsen spearheaded the return of the professional figure skaters removing all barriers & wanted pros competing to be a permanent feature of figure skating like basketball & tennis w/o all the sanctioning fuss & red tape. USA, Germany, Russia & Britain, the most powerful ISU member nations supported the measure fully only because they had vested interests in seeing their champions return from the pro ranks to win medals for them. The others felt it was a huge disadvantage to the amateurs because it made more competition for them. Most amateurs also lacked the reputations & the deep pockets of the pros despite the exceptions like Kerrigan, Browning & Bonaly. Reputation in figure skating goes a long way in drawing respect & securing financial & technical support. The pros unquestionably made the competition stronger. After some of the pros failed to win gold medals in 1994 the powerful ISU member nations cried foul banning all pros from world & Olympic competition. A corrupt move. They forced ISU president Olaf Poulsen from power, a man whose life was dedicated to figure skating replacing him with Ottavio Cinquanta, a former speed skater, who cared nothing about figure skating as a sport. A man who often took money & gifts from the American skating federation (Claire Ferguson) as a way of doing business(there were no laws against this in Switzerland). In exchange for cash & gifts Cinquantta took away the sanctioning power of Ukraine's skating federation. The ISU under Cinquanta stripped Ukraine's federation of its power to sanction Oksana to return to world & Olympic competition. This was huge. Federation president Ludmilla Mykhailovskaya was livid at what she termed dirty dealing and she went public. The role of the ISU is to promote skating building up skating federations rather than crushing them. Ukraine was an emerging skating nation in 1994 having the world's marquee skater Oksana Baiul who was bringing world wide recognition to skating and Ukraine. Oksana Baiul would've helped Ukraine attract corporate funding & support building it into a skating power. Even as world champion she'd secured a grant from Reebok for all of Ukraine's skaters. "The individual skater is the lifeblood of the federation" stated ISU member Claire Ferguson. The federation is nothing w/o its elite skaters who attract new members & financial support. Oksana was ROBBED! She was FORCED to skate the PROS the source of all her troubles! Had she not been banned from the sport she would've surpassed Witt maybe even Henie. Oksana was very feared, despised & hated in her sport as is often the case with GREATNESS.
Robbed?! She chose to remain professional even though she could have returned in 1995 as Josee Chouinard did, she ditched Galina and Victor, moved from coach to coach, and never consistently worked hard enough to keep her technical skating up as evident from the falls she often took. Beautiful programs but her jumps were always a problem and she almost always finished last, also evident from her only winning 1 competition after the Olympics, 1994 Rock & Roll Championships, lol. She was more interested in her new found money, fame, and alcohol to be honest which is understandable. She skated well for 2 months at a time every now and then up until 2004 but then completely gave up on skating. She didn't care enough about her career and didn't manage it properly. She only has herself to blame. A true waste of talent. She could have easily remained professional for 15+ years and given us beautiful programs year after year by only maintaining 2 triples, a triple toe & triple salchow, but she couldn't even do that. After a pro career, she could have become a coach, a commentator, lifestyle brand, etc. but she squandered it all. Now, she doesn't skate professionally, can barely do doubles, supports Trump, has no job or career that to speak of, and is just trying to sue and blame people for all the competitions she skated in the mid 90's with an injury. The saddest thing is that she completely turned her back on Galina and Victor even though they were all she had and like family to her. Without them, she would not have won Worlds or the Olympics.
xue 717 Galina and Victor guided her. What are you talking about? I’m not bitter, I’m sad that she wasn’t able to share her talent with us for a longer amount of time. Everything I said is true. It’s not like I’m lying.
No one has her range, going from executing the most balletic and artistic programme to jiving with such joy and making the audience have genuine fun. Oksana Baiul is truly THE skater
Nothing less than perfect. The Swan is amazing And with Petrenko is nice!!!! I remember I loved her since the first time I saw her on ice. Great artist even so young
She's exquisite and magical....she captures the imagery in the music and the original ballet so well. The delicacy of the port de bras at the end work so well with the delicacy of the music.
And the open donut spin is such an interesting and original spin position, and has an angular quality that works so well with the deep emotion and vulnerability of the music.
Oksana really could have been so much better then she was during her eligible career. I always wondered how much better she would have been skating in a country with top notch facilities like the US. The Ukraine had just become independent and they didn't really have the facilities that someone like Nancy Kerrigan had. That was a big advantage.
This was the performance that stuck in my mind from back then. I was mesmerized by this performance because for once I COULD NOT DISTINGUISH WHETHER SHE WAS SKATING OR DOING BALLET because her interpretation of the Swan was PERFECTLY DONE AND WELL DELIVERED. It's like watching a ballerina dance on ice WITHOUT SKATES. THAT'S HOW GOOD IT WAS! And the world fell in love with Oksana that night!
1994....the drama, the emotions, the tears, the beauty, the sublime..... an E P I C year in the women's ice figure skating Olympics..... a year for those who watched it all, will be just.... unforgettable.....
LOL, Viktor is so hilarious-as great as he was at the 92 olympics, I always loved his pieces as a pro, because I think his main concern was always putting on a really good show & entertaining the audience. Definitely a showman. I forget why she didn't go to the 98 olympics-maybe she turned pro, but I don't remember,& either way I think by then you could still turn pro & be in the olympics. That would have sure been interesting, her, Tara Lipinski, & Michelle Kwan.
She's dancing as if she doesn't even have any skates on !!!!!!!!!! Amaaaaazingggggg Oksana !!!!!!!!!!!! So,perfect & vivacious!!!!' GOD BLESS U now & always
What a magnificent display of artistry and athleticism! Figure skating has always been my favorite Olympic sport, even though I can hardly crawl/walk on ice myself---it is a wondrous thing thing to see, as so many other wonderful accomplishments like it. I hadn't watched this performance since the original broadcast long ago---MANY THANKS FOR PROVIDING THE PUBLIC WITH THESE WONDERFUL MOMENTS OF OLYMPIC(and other events) EXCELLENCE!
Yes it is a privilege to have this "treasure" to watch this anytime I feel down.... & suddenly I feel happy & inspired again..... Thank you again Oksana for sharing your gift to the whole world!!!!!!!!💖💖💖
![[HD] Oksana Baiul - 1994 Lillehammer Olympic - Technical Program - The Swan Lake](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lS3kBxPAjv8/mqdefault.jpg)
somewhere in the middle of this performance i realized i had forgotten to blink.
wow.
I remember really being in love with figure skating. Somehow it seemed more beautiful before it shifted to the whose is bigger (jumps) emphasis.
Бомбезно!!!!!!
What a sweet and gorgeous angel Oksana is. I will never forget the nasty comment Nancy Kerrigan made about the dress Oksana was wearing. And Oksana was barely a tiny 16 year old little girl from Ukraine, while Kerrigan was already 24 years old !!! Oksana: you stole the hearts of millions of people here in the USA and all over the world. Not only Oksana is gorgeous, but extremely feminine, discrete and s delicate as the sweetest flower in the prairie.
Phenomenal
I dont think it would be fair to say Baiul couldnt jump to save her life. She had some of the biggest and greatest solo triples when she landed them cleanly, especialy the triple lutz and triple loop. Unfortunately she never mastered hard jump combinations, or enough triples in one program which would have been her downfall even had she continued. I agree with you on her artistry, but some of her amateur long programs werent great and did not showcase it as well as could.
For me this short piece with almost no jumps i was the most beautiful performance I've ever seen in skating.
Let's face it , Kerrigan could not stand a chance. Twenty years later Oksana performance can still move to tears. Grace , beauty, balance, confidence, not one move was out of place. It was just perfect.
Edi Gabrieli Kerrigan and other skaters are like cheerleaders on ice, grinning, jumping, and twirling without artistry and expression.
ITA.
well true although not because Kerrigan did a poor job. but what a gift. she oozes musicality.
Kerrigan did a lot more jumps which gave her a higher difficulty level so more points.
Edi Gabrieli ● SOOOOOOOOO TRUE !!!!!
One of the most beautiful, elegant figure skating performances I've ever seen.
DEFINITELY!!!
Love it!!!
This performance to "The Swan" STILL moved me to tears 25 years later. Extraordinary. To me Oksana would have been an equally extraordinary ballerina. Kerrigan was very, VERY good, but she was not Oksana.
26 years ago I remember Oksana Bayul and Tonja Hurding, not Nansy...
I like how the broadcasters didn't narrate through the 1st performance. The silence and see awe of her performance speaks volumes for itself. Thanks Scott Hamilton and Dick Button
Dick Button wasn't commentating on this. lol
Not Dick Button it's Verne Lundquist.
I know, the commenting is distracting and annoying.
Its Vern Lundquist. Not Dick.
Oksana's performance of "The Swan" was breathtakingly beautiful, stunning and the number that she did with Viktor was great. She looked like she was having so much fun.
Every move, every gesture pure...skated with ease like a dancer...nothing is for the sake of just a move as you see in skater today. Skating on one's toes in skates as if they were ballet shoes is soo difficult and hard on the toes. Oskana's most amazing performance. She skates as an Olympic Champion. So worthy.
She's a gift from the heavens........
Her mother, her personal angel......👼🏽
This is what figure skating should be not only jumps like today
Yes. IT was swan on the ice. She used hands. Because hands are flowers dance.
What now?
25 square jumps, 13 combinations and 12 pirouettes from Swiss legend Denise Bielmann 🤷🤷
1 seasons a 15-year-old girl "flies out" And when IT start to look like LEGEND (POGORYLA), It JUST Falla on her mounth. Literally!
There Is nothing left to look at. All girls Are just acrobats only 🤷
It just falls on the mouth..
No Falla 😃😃
Smartphone 🙏🙏😃
@@pavlakellerova9751 I literally have no clue what you just said
@@rc4083 It's no beautiful skating. It's again just Sjoukje Dijkstra (1962)🤷
I get chills watching her
Oksana was SO incredibly musical. She just fell into place with the music without even trying. You can see this in the second piece with Viktor. She was truly incredible.
Это правда Оксана тогда вообще никому шансов не оставила
Это правда Оксана тогда вообще никому шансов не оставила
I remember back then, when the media flood the competition with the harding x kerrigan incident tryin' to create some sort of commotion around nancy but oksana was way ahead both of them. she was perfect on that final...
Like an Angel, absolutely breathtaking. makes me cry happy tears ....so beautiful!!!! What an artist!!!!
Какая красотка ! Ловкая, лёгкая, нежная, пластичная .
Interesting that another great skater in Men's category, the wonderful Yuzuru Hanyu, also skated to this theme at the Pyeong Chang 2018 Olympics' exhibiton performance after winning his 2nd Olympic Gold medal and writing history. Baiul and Hanyu will be remembered by showing the world what great ice skating actually is: not just jumps and points, but grace and poetry on ice
Yuzu has also perfect jumps.)
I'm still glad she's the one who got that gold medal. It was so well deserved.
Extraordinary, all that more amazing considering how her early years were easily tragic enough to beat down even a tough individual. There will never be another one like her.
She is the most beautiful skater I’ve ever seen and this the most gorgeous of all her performances. Such grace and beauty. ❤️
Oksana feels the music, skates beautifully, is as graceful as a dancer, and we are not just sitting there watching (like unnamed skaters) her “set up” her jumps for ten seconds. I truly miss her!
The unnamed skater who always took forever to set up her jumps wouldn't happen to rhyme with Dancy Ferrigan, would she? 😂
@@chooseyourpoison5105 LOL
I watched this live in 94. She still exist in my mind in that cherished memory. She was the most beautiful creation on skates I've ever seen.
Back when skating was fun to watch and these skaters were the best! Miss those names and performances!
"In all my years of skating, I have never seen ANYONE like Oksana." -- Scott Hamilton. I couldn't agree more. Even the great Kim Yuna, who I love and consider the greatest skater ever, because of her total package (jumps, artistry, speed, and sensuality), is no match for Oksana when it comes to artistry. For her balletic grace and fluidity, Oksana Baiul, for all that she couldn't jump to save her life, is still my favorite skater of all time, with Kim Yuna a very close second.
Baiul was actually quite a strong jumper in some ways. She had a huge triple lutz, and very big and well done solo triples when she did them. Her problems were she was prone to two footing sometimes, and of course lack of combination jumps, and never attempting more than 5 triples in a program.
i think yuna was so much more graceful than oksana but oksana could do these dance beats really well, as in oksana had a nice dance rhythm in her that iv never seen in anyone
I'm speechless........
I can watch this a hundred times!!!!!!!
& still never tire of watching it......
Exquisite Oksana!!!
Simply takes our breath away!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Oksana for sharing your extraordinary talent to the whole world!!!!!!!!
You're a legend!!!!!!!!!💎💎💎
This program is her trademark she is a beautiful swan
Just gorgeous and breath-taking. Don't care for jumps, just her artistry. Oksana, you were a legend at 16 years-old!
Oksana was truly a gift, her skating is simply unrivaled, even twenty years and five Olympics later
Lol
Gold!!!!!!!!!!!Totally gold!!!!!!!!
@@mattg.812 Moron.
СУ%КАТЗОГШ
Yup even twenty eight years and seven Olympics later
Exquisite ! nobody could move quite like Oksana , completely memorable , unlike many other Olympic champions.
Ожидала пируэта Бильман от Оксаны! Но нет, близко, рядом, около...так и не сделала...
She just has this calm, confident beauty at the beginning that radiates emotion, command, charisma and poise.
Isn't it one of the most beautiful exhibitions ever? yet today? Oh Oksana, if you kjnew how much inspiring you were to me in my skating years.
24 years later and this still gives me chills.
Me too😇🤗💞
Regardless of her jumps Oksana had a quality that very few skaters have ever had and she had it at 15.
Вот он, балет на льду! Уже тогда!
I have never seen another skater like a swan.... she is really a swan!....I think she could be a great ballerina too...:)
Oksana is absolutely adorable! A very gifted skater and full of class and discipline and vulnerability at the same time. She went through so much and still is able to handle herself with grace and poise. I'm no expert. But I can tell when someone's skating is more fluid than others. She definitely is it.
I've seen her skate, she skates at my rink. She is incredible
Lol, of course. She's a gold medalist. The best in the world.
OMG, it was gorgeous 😍😍 Nancy skated like a North Korean soldier 😆
Whatever her technical flaws, her skating was mesmerizing.
Oksana and Victor. My favorite skaters ever! Seeing them perform this fun number together…it doesn’t get any better!
Anna pavlova on ice. Enchanting and breathtakingly beautiful.she Sasha Cohen and Peggy Fleming will always be my favorites
Never seen such impeccable artistry. So fluid like water.
Nancy who?
Nasty Nancy. 😂
Who can’t forget this performance? Breath taking so artistic .. she knew how to execute each musical note so precisely gracefully at the same time make look so effortless and divine !!! Aww they don’t come like her anymore!!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Tears, goosebumps ! Ah ! There was no line between artist and performance. She became that role. Completely merged with it. 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Oh - Scott said it well. In all his years, he had never seen anyone like her - Oksana was perfection..
I was happy in 1994 when she won the gold medal at the Olympics, and I am still happy about it today. However, after watching this, I think I prefer her exhibition skating over her competition skating.
The best skater (female) EVER. Amazing.
До мурашок по коже...
The QUEEN of Swan Lake on ice
The Anna Pavlova of figure skating,"The Dying Swan",by C.Saint-Saens..Exquisite.
No, that would be Contanz Gensel.
@@mattg.812 Shove off.
I don’t think this was Swan Lake, though. Just The Swan, which is something totally different. Swan Lake was her short program.
As a ballerina herself the absolute awe I was in when she started to dance on her toes almost like pointe shoes is... that was incredible and I can only imagine how hard it was in blades instead of proper shoes. The talent in this girl is amazing.
Oksana and Viktor were so cute together!
She looks so delicate that I feared every time she landed from a jump that she'd break!
I met both Victor and Oksana in Orlando, Florida in 1992 when they attended the US Nationals as honored guests. They were both very personable. What I love most about this performance in seeing how much relaxed FUN they are having. After all the joy they have brought to so many of us, it's great to see those SMILES. Best Wishes, All.
What a lovely performance. Simply amazing artistic and technical perfection.
Wonderful! Bravo Oxana!
Равных Оксаны фигуристок ещё нет …
Есть и их очень много
The nastier the comments, the more immature a poster shows him/herself to be. One can disagree politely, but that seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. Oksana has an artistry more commonly seen in ballet. To do this on ice is something a balletomane would applaud, but someone without that knowledge would not.
mcbrion1951 I mean, I have no idea how good this is on a technical and real knowledgeable scale, but it was beautiful and wowowowow.
Dang ninjas are cutting onions
That was beautiful every fluid motion done effortlessly her toes everything natural
Praying and standing with her beautiful Ukraine 🇺🇦 against Pootie the war criminal
She is a movement genius.
the way she perform with Camille saint saens Music is just Heavenly beautiful, as the commenter said is breathtaking, she managed to transform an sport exhibition into an Art performance.
Oksana truly truly deserved the Gold Metal....And if you don't believe it just watch this video she truly was perfection in artistic impression...! unbeatable
By this exhibition Oxana sealed the reassurance that there was no other gold medalist. Bravo!
Oksana Baiul is the greatest ever. She made the sport relevant around the world unlike the others. Her career was deliberately sabotaged. This girl was badly injured, lacking a coach & all the other things skaters took for granted. Yet she out skated the field repeatedly. Oksana is undoubtedly the most robbed skater in history if you know the political backdrop. Oksana was Robbed of her glory. She was robbed from returning to her sport to triumph. She was Robbed of the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. She was robbed of her chance of competing at her best. She was robbed of her advantage. In short, Oksana Baiul was robbed of her reign. She was robbed of her right to put together the 1st of many great competitive teams after having earned the cash to do so. She was robbed of having great teams to guide her to more victories. All of her skills would've only grown greater. She earned that right but it was stolen from her.
The Americans & Brits lead the way in forcing out ISU president Olaf Poulsen the president, who worked hard making sure judging skills on the ice was the focus rather than reputation. Poulsen fought for & drove this change. He fought for the sport promoting high quality competition. In 1992 the IOC lifted the ban against all professionals competing at the Olympics. But how to handle pros playing at the Olympics was left up to each sport & its governing officials. The ISU is the governing body of figure skating. Yet in figure skating many resisted pros competing at the Olympics as a way to limit competition. Poulsen spearheaded the return of the professional figure skaters removing all barriers & wanted pros competing to be a permanent feature of figure skating like basketball & tennis w/o all the sanctioning fuss & red tape. USA, Germany, Russia & Britain, the most powerful ISU member nations supported the measure fully only because they had vested interests in seeing their champions return from the pro ranks to win medals for them. The others felt it was a huge disadvantage to the amateurs because it made more competition for them. Most amateurs also lacked the reputations & the deep pockets of the pros despite the exceptions like Kerrigan, Browning & Bonaly. Reputation in figure skating goes a long way in drawing respect & securing financial & technical support. The pros unquestionably made the competition stronger. After some of the pros failed to win gold medals in 1994 the powerful ISU member nations cried foul banning all pros from world & Olympic competition. A corrupt move.
They forced ISU president Olaf Poulsen from power, a man whose life was dedicated to figure skating replacing him with Ottavio Cinquanta, a former speed skater, who cared nothing about figure skating as a sport. A man who often took money & gifts from the American skating federation (Claire Ferguson) as a way of doing business(there were no laws against this in Switzerland). In exchange for cash & gifts Cinquantta took away the sanctioning power of Ukraine's skating federation. The ISU under Cinquanta stripped Ukraine's federation of its power to sanction Oksana to return to world & Olympic competition.
This was huge. Federation president Ludmilla Mykhailovskaya was livid at what she termed dirty dealing and she went public. The role of the ISU is to promote skating building up skating federations rather than crushing them. Ukraine was an emerging skating nation in 1994 having the world's marquee skater Oksana Baiul who was bringing world wide recognition to skating and Ukraine. Oksana Baiul would've helped Ukraine attract corporate funding & support building it into a skating power. Even as world champion she'd secured a grant from Reebok for all of Ukraine's skaters. "The individual skater is the lifeblood of the federation" stated ISU member Claire Ferguson. The federation is nothing w/o its elite skaters who attract new members & financial support. Oksana was ROBBED! She was FORCED to skate the PROS the source of all her troubles! Had she not been banned from the sport she would've surpassed Witt maybe even Henie. Oksana was very feared, despised & hated in her sport as is often the case with GREATNESS.
God bless you. God bless the truth.
OKSANA IS THE GREATEST EVER.
SHE'S PURE LOVE AND LIGHT
JJ truth So true!!!! Thank you for speaking ou the truth!!!
Never. She had a huge supply of those.
Robbed?! She chose to remain professional even though she could have returned in 1995 as Josee Chouinard did, she ditched Galina and Victor, moved from coach to coach, and never consistently worked hard enough to keep her technical skating up as evident from the falls she often took. Beautiful programs but her jumps were always a problem and she almost always finished last, also evident from her only winning 1 competition after the Olympics, 1994 Rock & Roll Championships, lol. She was more interested in her new found money, fame, and alcohol to be honest which is understandable. She skated well for 2 months at a time every now and then up until 2004 but then completely gave up on skating. She didn't care enough about her career and didn't manage it properly. She only has herself to blame. A true waste of talent. She could have easily remained professional for 15+ years and given us beautiful programs year after year by only maintaining 2 triples, a triple toe & triple salchow, but she couldn't even do that. After a pro career, she could have become a coach, a commentator, lifestyle brand, etc. but she squandered it all. Now, she doesn't skate professionally, can barely do doubles, supports Trump, has no job or career that to speak of, and is just trying to sue and blame people for all the competitions she skated in the mid 90's with an injury. The saddest thing is that she completely turned her back on Galina and Victor even though they were all she had and like family to her. Without them, she would not have won Worlds or the Olympics.
xue 717 Galina and Victor guided her. What are you talking about? I’m not bitter, I’m sad that she wasn’t able to share her talent with us for a longer amount of time. Everything I said is true. It’s not like I’m lying.
This wss my favorite from Oksana. Nobody was as god. And I always watched how she moved her arms. Just watch them. The graceful way she moves.
No American was as good as Oksana. Sorry😊
Her edge came from the ballet classes her coach encouraged. It is so obvious. Grace & beauty unlike the others.
No one has her range, going from executing the most balletic and artistic programme to jiving with such joy and making the audience have genuine fun. Oksana Baiul is truly THE skater
Old figure skating was closer to art. Every movement was thought, with feeling, with aesthetics. A great loss
@Tatiana Rakowski, agree, sadly agree There are millions of dollars at stake now, the artistry has really lost something.
Nothing less than perfect. The Swan is amazing
And with Petrenko is nice!!!!
I remember I loved her since the first time I saw her on ice. Great artist even so young
Beautiful skating. Oksana is a beautiful person
the way she holds those balances!
She's exquisite and magical....she captures the imagery in the music and the original ballet so well. The delicacy of the port de bras at the end work so well with the delicacy of the music.
And the open donut spin is such an interesting and original spin position, and has an angular quality that works so well with the deep emotion and vulnerability of the music.
Ой молодцы оба бравр ребята
28 years later and this is still a skate I have never forgotten.
I actually enjoyed her performance. Truly.. she is not doing boring arm routine as Nancy.
Kerrigan, by comparison, looks like a stiff store mannequin on the ice.
Изумительно красивые выступления, мини спектакли на льду. Оксаночка лучшая фигуристка одиночница. Браво
Ну это тебе она лучшая, а мне Елена Соколова.
Волшебство какое то
Оксанапревзошла соколову
Чьто творила жта девочька
Oksana really could have been so much better then she was during her eligible career. I always wondered how much better she would have been skating in a country with top notch facilities like the US. The Ukraine had just become independent and they didn't really have the facilities that someone like Nancy Kerrigan had. That was a big advantage.
🙏💪💖Браво,обожнюю Оксану як людину і як спортцменку.Ти наша гордість Україна пишається тобою🥰
Ваш язык нужен, чтобы поржать.
Once in a lifetime angel on ice
So beautiful! The last part was so much fun, to watch and they had tons of fun skating together! 😃😁
She's adorable oh my goodness
Красота ! Слава Оксане Баюл! Слава Украіне !
This was the performance that stuck in my mind from back then. I was mesmerized by this performance because for once I COULD NOT DISTINGUISH WHETHER SHE WAS SKATING OR DOING BALLET because her interpretation of the Swan was PERFECTLY DONE AND WELL DELIVERED. It's like watching a ballerina dance on ice WITHOUT SKATES. THAT'S HOW GOOD IT WAS! And the world fell in love with Oksana that night!
Советская Одесская школа фигурного катания.
1994....the drama, the emotions, the tears, the beauty, the sublime..... an E P I C year in the women's ice figure skating Olympics..... a year for those who watched it all, will be just.... unforgettable.....
wow that's amazing. I love ice skating!
LOL, Viktor is so hilarious-as great as he was at the 92 olympics, I always loved his pieces as a pro, because I think his main concern was always putting on a really good show & entertaining the audience. Definitely a showman. I forget why she didn't go to the 98 olympics-maybe she turned pro, but I don't remember,& either way I think by then you could still turn pro & be in the olympics. That would have sure been interesting, her, Tara Lipinski, & Michelle Kwan.
I remember really being in love with figure skating. Somehow it seemed more beautiful before it shifted to the whose is bigger (jumps) emphasis.
Such a beautiful artistic fusion of figure skate and classical dance elements.
thank you...she is exquisite
A truly beautiful performance - perfect interpretation ❤️
На уровне Каролины Костнер . Такая лёгкость и мягкость.
Классно 👍👏
Когда уже эту бабушку фигурного катания перестанут вовсю пиарить.....
Pure gold.
She's dancing as if she doesn't even have any skates on !!!!!!!!!!
Amaaaaazingggggg Oksana !!!!!!!!!!!!
So,perfect & vivacious!!!!'
GOD BLESS U now & always
Just beautiful
What a magnificent display of artistry and athleticism! Figure skating has always been my favorite Olympic sport, even though I can hardly crawl/walk on ice myself---it is a wondrous thing thing to see, as so many other wonderful accomplishments like it. I hadn't watched this performance since the original broadcast long ago---MANY THANKS FOR PROVIDING THE PUBLIC WITH THESE WONDERFUL MOMENTS OF OLYMPIC(and other events) EXCELLENCE!
Силы и терпения тебе девочка
Beautiful!
Magical
Yes it is a privilege to have this "treasure" to watch this anytime I feel down....
& suddenly I feel happy & inspired again.....
Thank you again Oksana for sharing your gift to the whole world!!!!!!!!💖💖💖
Yes she has the "you can't look away for even a moment because you'll miss beauty" kind of charisma.
The best performance I've ever seen! She's so graceful and just stunning to watch. The ballet was wonderful