Short Biography

Oksana Baiul (Ukrainian: Îêñàíà Áàþë) (born 16 November 1977) is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion. Baiul was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR. She was raised solely by her mother, Marina, after her parents divorced when Oksana was two years old. Marina died of ovarian cancer when Oksana was thirteen; Oksana had already lost her maternal grandparents and she had no other relatives to care for her. For a while, Baiul was looked after by her coach, but when he emigrated to Canada, she was left on her own and was soon sleeping on a cot at her hometown ice rink. She was eventually taken in by the top-ranked figure-skating coach in Odessa, Galina Zmievskaya, sharing a small bedroom in Zmievskaya`s crowded three-room apartment with one of Zmievskaya`s own daughters. Zmievskaya`s pupil and son-in-law, Olympic figure-skating champion Viktor Petrenko, helped cover Baiul`s expenses.

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