Oksana Baiul

Baiul was raised as a Russian Orthodox Christian.[7] As a child, she heard rumors that her grandmother was Jewish.[8][16] In 2003, she phoned her old rink in Dnipropetrovsk to ask for assistance in locating her father—assuming it was a joke, they hung up twice. Eventually Baiul convinced them of her identity. The rink manager helped her reunite with her father Sergey Baiul in September 2003, when she was 25 years old.[5] He confirmed that her Romanian maternal grandmother was Jewish. According to Orthodox Judaism, her mother and Baiul would also be classified as Jewish by blood.[5][7][8][16] Baiul decided to identify as Jewish because of the custom of matrilineality in Judaism.[5] In 2005, she said, "Being Jewish, that feels good. It feels natural, like a second skin".[7]

As a child, Baiul was interested in ballet, but was not considered thin enough. Her grandmother took her to skating lessons, saying it was ballet on skates.[16] Her grandfather was also supportive of her skating, which she began at age three in Dnipropetrovsk.[6] He believed that she could be a future prima ballerina and that skating was a fine training ground for dance. Baiul pursued ballet, but ultimately chose ice skating. As she trained, her mother paid for her training expenses, including lessons, costumes, and equipment. By the age of five, she was studying with Stanislav Koritek, a prominent Ukrainian coach.[4]

She was coached by Koritek until he was offered a coaching job in Toronto, Ontario, in March 1992. He accepted due to lack of support for the sport in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[1] In August 1992, his father, Alfred, the vice-president of the Ukrainian skating federation, called coach Galina Zmievskaya on Baiul's behalf. She took her on as a student, arranging for the girl to move to her home in Odessa.[1] Zmievskaya welcomed her into her circle of elite skaters, and provided her shelter in her family's cramped three-room apartment in the city. Under Zmievskaya's training, Baiul made rapid progress.[4] Her other coach in Odessa was Valentyn Nikolayev.[8] She represented FSC "Ukraine" (Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk).

Baiul took the silver medal at the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki, finishing second to Surya Bonaly of France. Prior to the 1993 World Championships in Prague, she crashed into the boards and displaced disks in her back and neck.[6] At the event, she stopped practising and consulted a Czech doctor.[6] She competed in skates with crooked blades because it was too late to try a new pair.[6] Ranked second in the short program and first in the free skate, she finished ahead of Bonaly and became world champion at age 15.

In 1994, Baiul won the silver medal at the European Championships in Copenhagen, again finishing second to Bonaly.[17] At the 1994 Winter Olympics, she was second to Nancy Kerrigan after the short program of Ladies' singles. During a practice session before the long program, she collided with Germany's Tanja Szewczenko, sustaining a wrenched lower back and a small cut on her right shin, which required three stitches.[18] She received two Olympic-approved pain-killing injections of anaesthetics in her lower back and shoulder, which enabled her to compete in the free skate. She won the free skate over Kerrigan by the slimmest of margins, and so won the gold medal. It was a controversial win that was nevertheless defended as deserved by the referee saying Baiul skated in an artistic and engaging style while Kerrigan skated cautiously.[19] She won the Olympic gold medal at age of 16 years and 101 days, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions. Kerrigan placed second and Chen Lu placed third.[3] Baiul was announced as the winner after Surya Bonaly and Katarina Witt completed their respective programs out of medal competition. In addition to her Olympic title, she was also named Merited Master of Sports by Ukraine in 1994.

Despite their status as Olympic champions, Baiul and Viktor Petrenko faced the same difficulties in Odessa as did their fellow Ukrainians. They lived in a financially strapped country where meat was a luxury and utility outages were common. Conditions at their rink in Odessa had deteriorated severely, due to the lack of financial support from the government for figure skating following the breakup of the Soviet Union. They didn't have a working ice resurfacer, so coaches and skaters often had to resurface the ice by hand. Such conditions influenced Baiul's decision to turn professional after the 1994 Winter Olympics, although she was only 16 years old at the time. Zmievskaya negotiated a very profitable contract for her to tour the United States following the Olympics, an opportunity available only to professionals. In May 1994, at age 16, Baiul signed an agreement with the American talent agency William Morris Endeavor.[20]

Baiul said later that her drinking problems began during this tour. She said: "Except myself, nearly all the figure skaters on the bus were grown-ups, and it was full of alcohol. Most of the skaters were Russians and Americans, and they all drank. That's when I tried it. I was very young, with no one to teach me the right. I thought it was the norm, cause as a teenager you don't want to break away from the majority".[9]

Following the Olympics, Baiul was plagued by physical ailments that affected her skating ability. She 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. Due to the million-dollar touring contract, Baiul ignored the doctor's recommendations. She resumed skating in two weeks and returned to performing in six. This decision, along with changes in her body, drastically hindered her jumping ability.

On 27 March 2010, Baiul skated at a figure skating exhibition for One Step Closer HIV AIDS. Directed and produced by Tim David, the benefit was for the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children. Baiul performed her signature Swan Lake program and was part of the meet-and-greet after the show.[29]

Baiul supports the Tikva Children's Home Charity, which works to aid the Jewish children of Odessa.[15] In addition, she supports and is a member of the International Museum of Women. This celebrates the lives of women around the world. Oksana also created a program to donate sled dogs to underprivileged Inuit children.'