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Another chance

Oksana Baiul has life back together, wants more gold

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Posted: Thursday October 15, 1998 11:18 PM

Oksana Baiul: "I'm only 20 years old and it's very important for me to compete again." AP

CHICAGO (AP) -- Oksana Baiul lay in bed last November, tossing and turning, crying as if she would never stop. She had a gold medal, adoring fans all over the world and a second chance after what could have been a deadly car crash.

And yet she was dreadfully unhappy.

"I think I had a nervous breakdown, because I was so out of control," she said Thursday. "I was so unhappy for the last couple of years, yes. Because of my skating, my situation, I felt like I was so alone in this world. It was so hard for me to take help from other people.

"I decided, if I won't go to rehab, if I won't try to change my life, then I'll die soon," she said. "And I didn't want that. So that's why I changed my life. I just wanted to be a happy person, like everyone wants."

After four years of partying and living life on a very dangerous edge, Baiul is in control again. She's been through alcohol rehabilitation, and put her wild days behind her.

Now she's ready to reclaim her career. Training with new coach Natalia Linichuk at the University of Delaware, Baiul hopes to return to the eligible ranks and compete at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"She was born for figure skating," said Linichuk, the 1980 gold medalist in ice dancing with husband Gennadiy Karponosov. "She was born for ice and she must do this."

A tiny, waifish teenager, Baiul captivated millions when she won gold at the Lillehammer Games. She'd overcome so much in her young life, never knowing her father, orphaned when her mother died of cancer in 1991.

But with her gold medal came money -- lots of it -- and temptations she didn't know how to handle. She bought a $500,000 house in Simsbury, Connecticut, and a fast Mercedes-Benz. She began partying, ignoring the advice of the Ukrainian figure skaters who had been her surrogate family.

In January 1997, she was driving 100 mph (160 kmph) when her Mercedes went off the road and into a cluster of trees. Amazingly, she suffered only a cut on her scalp that required 12 stitches to close.

Then 19, her blood-alcohol level exceeded the legal limit in Connecticut. She escaped prosecution for drunken driving because of a technicality, and pleaded no contest to a charge of traveling ureasonably fast. The charge was dismissed in September after she completed her probation and an alcohol education program.

Though she swore she learned a lesson, it wasn't until last November, at a professional competition, that Baiul hit bottom.

"I was flipping in my bed, crying," she said. "I was supposed to skate another number the next day and I couldn't go. I was too scared too weak even to go."

She entered alcohol rehabilitation in May and decided to return to serious skating. Though she'd been touring and competing professionally, Baiul had gained weight and was woefully out of shape.

Convinced she couldn't work on her own any longer, she sought out Linichuk, who coaches ice dancers Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov, the world champions and Olympic silver medalists. Baiul moved to the University of Delaware in late July.

"I'm only 20 years old and it's very important for me to compete again," she said. "I did learn a lot those last few years, I did learn a lot about professional skating. It feels good o me, to put both of them together. Pros are not jumping, amateurs are not skating. So what I wanted to do was put skating and jumping together."

Because she turned professional after Lillehammer and participated in events not sanctioned by the International Skating Union, Baiul lost her Olympic eligibility. But the ISU has let professionals regain their eligible status in the past, and she hopes it will give her similar consideration.

She hasn't talked to the ISU about her plans. She will skate professionally this year -- her first competition will be "Ice Wars" on November 18 -- but hopes to regain amateur status in time for next season.

"I didn't know if I was capable of being good again, you know what I'm saying?" she said. "I was feeling like maybe I'm getting too old and maybe I cannot do that, the girls are jumping so high and so much right now. I was just really kind of feeling weird and strange.

"But I realized that I know I can do it."

Even if she doesn't make it back to the Olympics, Baiul has finally found happiness. She's made some costly mistakes, but she's learned from them and is ready to move forward.

"Sometimes I do act like such an older person. And sometimes when I do something crazy, I feel like a little kid. I like that. I don't want to forget about that," she said. "I'm still a kid. But a kid who's been through a lot."  

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