Of course

Have you seen how she looks currently? She is 44 and could easily pass for 60.

Тренер Галина Змиевская

She really did have textbook jumps esp the lutz

Yes!

It's probably difficult to keep it Up if you become that succesful so young, you're often not mentally ready for it. That she had recently lost her mother must have affected her skating too, that makes it even more incredible how she manager to win those medals at 15 though.

In modern figure skating world all skaters only can keep there best skating level for no more than 4 to 5 years. Only Plushenko kept more than 10 years staying at the top level of skating world.

Her pink dress looks like an Easter bunny princess.

Wow I agree with this 100%. Scoring in figure skating is a travesty. There had to shady underhandedness going on here for OB to have won the 93 Worlds and the 94 OG. I'm not a big fan of either NK or SB but both were unfairly underscored compared to this messy, laughably junior-ish excuse for a program. OB has lovely musicality, I will give her that. But that's not enough to overcome the obvious weaknesses in her technique. Give her a few more years she might have been senior caliber. She wasn't there in 93-94 (nor was TL in 97-98, but that's another story).

She won deal

You are just toxic and jealousy. You say so bcs Oksana is from Ukraine, not from France or USA. I may disappoint you, but Ukraine can show the quality.

Surya was 100% robbed here

Не треба брехати ! Оксана Баюл була неперевершена !

Bingo. And no true footwork sequence, no true combination spin. Her team made a huge coaching and compositional error, and same for Olympics 94 as she used this program again. However, it was worse at the Olympics with three clear errors there: two-footed flip, popped triple toe loop, two-footed triple toe near the ending.

i agree if you don't think that judging in figure skating was not rigged, think again. clearly in this competition, bonaly deserves the gold, and she should win the free skate competition. and in 1994 olympics, kerrigan should win the gold. both bonaly in this competition and kerrigan at the olympic had a much more technically challenged free skate than baiul hands down.

If you can't see what Oksana brought to ice skating then you must be blind as a bat. The rest of the field looks like a bigfoot on ice show.

100%.

@garland English surya should have won define I felt bad for Nancy she was so nervous and was so scared she had so much pressure on her she saw sports psychologist for nerves I would even put Chen Lu ahead of Baiul and the only time I saw her do one was 1993 worlds short program a triple lutz triple toe it was actually better than her swan lake her spins and footwork very good nice flow but great jumps but still bronze for this championship

@garland English surya was better artistic here I didn’t like Chen Lu ‘s short program here very much though as usual weak spirals and spins the music was horrendous so loud noise the Claire de lune in 1994 suited her fluidity better. Oksana is very overrated it was bias and it was her story that drew in the judges. She didn’t deserve any of her titles 1994 skate America 2 falls wins same program since 1992! But surya did beat Oksana at 1993 & 1994 Europeans though

They were setting Oksana up as the "favorite" for gold in Lillehammer. Her performances there, especially her LP that she two-footed her way through with no combination until she tacked on a double toe in the final seconds of her program, was just as weak. Nancy Kerrigan, love her or hate her, was absolutely robbed, and she knew it. She was flawless in both her programs, just doubling her opening triple flip in the LP, which isn't even a mistake. She was the picture of sophistication with a style and type of dress that both Michelle Kwan and Kim Yuna would later come to emulate. Oksana in her LP looked like a contestant in one of those child beauty pageants in her pink feathery dress complete with ponytail scrunchie, hopping around to a Broadway medley in a routine that wouldn't have been out of place on the junior circuit. The minute the Olympic press started calling her the "Orphan from Odessa" over and over again, I knew the ladies' gold was predetermined. She was to be the feel-good story of the Olympics. Adding to the Hallmark moment would be that her dear friend, surrogate Godfather, and fellow Ukrainian, Victor Petrenko just so happened to have won gold (ripping off Paul Wylie) just two years earlier. Imagine that! The truth is the Ukrainian Skating Federation was corrupt to the core during the 90's, and their judges were implicated and sanctioned in the famous toe-tapping cheating scandal and the Olympic ice dance competition in 1998, among others, usually getting help from Russia, Czech Republic, and Italy or France. The fact that both Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan lost to Ukrainians who gave far lesser performances at the Olympics at the height of the Ukrainian eastern bloc judging schemes is no coincidence. Surya was a victim of that here because they were setting Oksana up for Lillehammer.

@@L1623VP I completely agree. I wasn't a fan of Nancy as all her Long Programs seemed similar year to year, but I can't deny she deserved to win at 94 Olympics. She was better than Oksana technically and I think her artistry was superb. (It has nothing to do with being a favorite because she attacked). Nancy was well trained and ready for that event and judges forsaked her for Oksana (which was a big mistake). I'll never understand the judges . . . these were people in the sport and they put Oksana first when in terms of merit she probably should have been out of the medals (when you consider the performances of Surya and Yuka).

@@auntiechercher4266 Definitely. Nancy could also be an inconsistent skater, but she had the skate of her life both nights at the Olympics and deserved that gold. She knew got screwed. That's why she was so honest on camera later, and then people made snide remarks about her after the Olympics. Imagine working your whole life and then getting ripped off by corrupt judging. I'd be pissed, too. Anyone who understood skating knew that gold was hers.

​@@L1623VPwhat a set of bullishit 😅😅 Ukraine never was that powerful to bribe judges. Oksana winning is justified

Это вы про свое отражение в зеркале?

Abdullah Ja ++++++++++++100% !!!

Charlotte Vale I thought Rory Flack Burhardt was a beautiful graceful skater too.

@@lallemandpascal8576 this was Suryas gold... they just gave it to Oksana.

@@lorebay2593 oh yes you are right absolutely

@@reneedaughter nope Surya was great but Oksana earned this win

@@MTknitter22 Hello ! We can agree to disagree :) Oksana had too many choreography breaks and didn't have the technical skill to stand on the podium - let alone win gold. Of the top 4 ladies- 3 were stronger than Oksana at the 1993 worlds. Take care.

@@lallemandpascal8576 Oksana did not have the technical skills to be in this group. A the skaters except josee Chouinard and Nancy Kerrigan skated so much better than Oksana.

Yes, she was. Just look her arms, nobody is so graceful and complete, it's not just foot and legs, her entire body is involved, she was poetry and she demonstrated it in some creation during her professional short career

and I love the moment where she brings one arm up and looks at it while she pauses....like she's watching a butterfly that just drifted across the ice, and she can't help herself becoming intrigued and excited. this program has everything...theatricality, lyricism, comic charm...

Margaret Tudor Оксана молодец! Она гордость Украины

You are so right! It is like WTF?

I give her credit for a well choreographed program. It was beautiful and the lutz was huge but Surya should have won this even if it was 5-4 judging. Surya should have won every technical mark by .2 or .3. It still frustrates me today. Put today’s system in and Surya surely wins even with inflated PCS scores that I’m sure Oksana would have received.

Biased judging. Oksana only landed 4 triples at the '94 Olympics. She didn't have triple combos in the LP. Nancy landed 5 triples with a triple-triple and a triple-double. Oksana didn't have any difficult combo spins as Nancy as well.

fusock If you don't understand the eligibility rules that were instituted which covered the time frame in which Oksana competed you should refrain from blabbing. If you don't understand the politics of the era learn them before blabbing. Everyone knows after the 1992 Olympics the rules were changed to include pro skaters competing in the Olympic games. It was to become a permanent rule. This rule change would also allow amateurs to compete in pro events to earn money to support their skating easing the funding burden on their federations. This rule, it was thought would also create a stronger pool of competitors which would be good for the sport. It would supposedly be a win-win for all. Yet when Oksana's team pushed her to go pro she did so for one season before changing her mind filing for reinstatement as an Olympic eligible amateur. Her federation accepted her decision and got behind her. Reinstatement is left up to the national federation. Yet, in Oksana's case a special exception was made by the ISU who took it upon itself to override the reinstatement decision made by the Ukrainian skating federation. Essentially the ISU council held a vote taking away Ukraine's reinstatement power, thus, preventing it from reinstating Oksana Baiul to Olympic & world competition. For its trouble the ISU voted to compensate the Ukranian Skating Federation with monetary funding. The ISU well understood that marquee skaters are the lifeblood of the skating federation. Yet, it chose to choke off Ukraine's skating future. It feared Oksana's popularity would attract sponsorship monies that could have helped build Ukraine into a skating power. This action by the ISU was really contrary to its stated mission of helping to promote skating throughout the world. Former ISU president, O. Cinquantta was being showered with expensive presents and was wined and dined by the wealthy federations. These federations voted him into power despite that he knew nothing about figure skating---it made him easily pliable to their schemes. Indeed, in the latter half of 1994 the ISU took a vote to oust its reigning president at the time, Olaf Paulsen a former figure skater turned sports scientist and skate maker in favor of O. Cinquantta, a former speed skater. Cinquantta had no interest in figure skating. His only concern was growing, funding & promoting speed skating. Therefore He was willing to do as he was told where figure skating was involved as long as his price was met. Keeping Oksana Baiul from returning to Olympic & world competition was high on the list of president Cinquantta's ordered priorities. Essentially, actions were taken to stop Oksana from reinstating under the stated rules of the time. So Oksana was basically, banned from reinstating while other pro skaters were allowed to reinstate. To top off that insult, amateurs like Michelle Kwan, were regularly allowed to compete in pro competitions and do pro shows w/o being banned. Meanwhile another rule was enacted banning all pro skaters from competing in world & Olympic events. As I stated, if you don't know the politics of the era, refrain from blabbing erroneous info or implying that others are liars. You are free to do your own research and it will help to read or translate Ukrainian and Russian. Clearly you only follow the American side of an international sport.

You are not understanding the eligibility rules. ISU allowed eligible skaters to collect prize money only in ISU sanctioned competitions, namely the The Grand Prix Series. I've heard Baiul say in interviews that she had already achieved all of her goals, such as being World and Olympic champion, and she decided to retire from ISU eligible skating to cash in on her post-1994 fame. But then she started partying too much with her new wealth and the freedom it gave her and got in trouble for drinking on the Champions on Ice tours (they fired her eventually because of it), driving drunk and crashing her Mercedes, and eventually alienated even Galina Zmievskaya and the Petrenkos, and was not even on speaking terms with them by the time the next Olympic season came around. Michelle Kwan by the way may have competed in non ISU pro events, but she wasn't allowed to accept the prize money from the one or two events she took part in, and thus didn't lose her egibility. Pro ice show tour participation was not banned by the ISU, and every top ten ranked eligible skater in the world skated in these tours during the spring and summer. There was no conspiracy to deny Baiul's re-entry to eligible skating. She was just a drunk and her career, eligible or otherwise, was already washed up before Nagano.

misina211 you should check your facts. Today Oksana Baiul has sued Galina Zmievskaya, her former agency and others who she claims mishandled her career. She was awarded a multi-million dollar judgment. She says today she barely spoke English and was coached to say such things. Her legal briefs claim she was exploited by others. Reading all the events she skated I agree with her. She was forced by her team to skate pro events on an injured knee to make them money. Oh, and btw the 0.168 level of alcohol found in her blood doesn't make her a drunk. Tara Lipinski is a heavy drinker why not talk about that? She gets smashed a lot. The 0.168 found in Oksana's blood in her mercedes accident. Well it was about a teaspoon. Try again. Oksana could have made even more money as an Olympian what with the international endorsements she lost going pro. She had 3 million w/o going pro. You know nothing about sports marketing You should shut up and learn. Why create a system where a board of snobs handpicks who can be eligible to compete at the Olympics and who cannot? Why not let everyone be eligible to go to the Olympics as long as your country sends you? This is the way it is i tennis, basketball, skiing, and all other Olympic sports. Skating should have been that way too. I agree with JJ Truth. Oksana Baiul was robbed. Tonya Harding should have also been allowed to skate professionally or at the Olympics. We saw her banned from reinstating to the Olympics. Plus Harding was banned from skating as a pro. So please shut up and refrain from posting stupidity. You are a stupid hater. Enough said. The chick was robbed. Oksana suffered from depression yet the media promoted her as a drunk another lie. Fake news.

+C no evil You don't have any idea what you're talking about. 0.168 is over twice the legal limit for blood alcohol, which is .008.

The legal limit is 0.08 idiot. 0.168 is less than a teaspoon not twice the legal limit. Read the decimal point. You don't understand the metric system nor its conversion. Or could be you're just an ass.

…maybe Isabeau Levito 💕

@@harveygirl95 just watched her bronze medal winning free skate thanks to your comment - I love her posture and she skated to Russian Dance music Oksana once used:)

I have seen all of them live and your post is rubbish. Michelle Kwan looked better on TV especially Tara whom audiences complained about not being able to see her movements. Kerrigan skated like molasses in real time. Chen Lu was fast with beautiful flow but her jumps were microscopic. I have seen them all over several years. Save the drivel for someone who doesn't know any better its wasted on me.

JJ truth

Oh hell now. Surya didn't know how to skate or use edges. She was lucky she ever placed on a podium.

Scottytoohotty52 I find Surya unwatchable while I like Baiul. I was born 1993 so I followed figure skating after Oksana retired from competitions.

I,too, find Surya Bonaly unwatchable. Later in her career, she wasn't so choppy, but at this time she was very choppy. She'd have these long interruptions going into jumps, little footwork, little edgework. One can be a power jumper and still have some artistry.

intldawn Bonaly would have won if it weren't for her mistakes in the short program

@@beckyy584 What mistakes in the SP? Surya went clean and was in 3rd place after the Short (behind a clean Kerrigan and Baiul, and ahead of a clean Chouinard).

I sure as hell don’t see weak spins. Europeans always do better than Americans on spins.

@@e2theeyepie right . I loved Surya and Oksana. But Surya was better this time. Lot of people in those years sayed that for many judges the body of a colored girl was not good for to be world/Olimpyc champion. I think that was the problem. Like for ballerinas, at last in those years: colored girls don't have the appropriate body shape. Can you believe it? Surya Bonaly was just AMAZING, one of the best skaters ever

They were setting Oksana up as the "favorite" for gold in Lillehammer. Her performances there, especially her LP that she two-footed her way through with no combination until she tacked on a double toe in the final seconds of her program, was just as weak. Nancy Kerrigan, love her or hate her, was absolutely robbed, and she knew it. She was flawless in both her programs, just doubling her opening triple flip in the LP, which isn't even a mistake. She was the picture of sophistication with a style and type of dress that both Michelle Kwan and Kim Yuna would later come to emulate. Oksana in her LP looked like a contestant in one of those child beauty pageants in her pink feathery dress complete with ponytail scrunchie, hopping around to a Broadway medley in a routine that wouldn't have been out of place on the junior circuit. The minute the Olympic press started calling her the "Orphan from Odessa" over and over again, I knew the ladies' gold was predetermined. She was to be the feel-good story of the Olympics. Adding to the Hallmark moment would be that her dear friend, surrogate Godfather, and fellow Ukrainian, Victor Petrenko just so happened to have won gold (ripping off Paul Wylie) just two years earlier. Imagine that! The truth is the Ukrainian Skating Federation was corrupt to the core during the 90's, and their judges were implicated and sanctioned in the famous toe-tapping cheating scandal and the Olympic ice dance competition in 1998, among others, usually getting help from Russia, Czech Republic, and Italy or France. The fact that both Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan lost to Ukrainians who gave far lesser performances at the Olympics at the height of the Ukrainian eastern bloc judging schemes is no coincidence. Surya was a victim of that here because they were setting Oksana up for Lillehammer.

Because she couldn't do them

Sorry good case can be made for Bonaly in 93 but she kicked Kerrigan’s butt at the 94 Olympics

Her Toe-Wally lol

Combinations weren't given as much weight back then. You can't judge by today's standards.

+Jose Hill Please remember Oksana was ahead of Bonaly and Chen Lu after the short program. So, they had ground to make up. Oksana danced more in the first 30 seconds of her program than Surya did in her entire program. Jump combinations are not required. Artistic impression is. Lu did have the complete package... but she did not do well in the short.

Bonaly's jumps were choppy and not as powerful as Oksana's. Her flow , positions and edges inferior to Oksana. Chen had neither the power, elegance or artistic quality of Oksana. Enough said. She was better than both those two.

Because she's the abandoned, orphaned skating waif....?? JK. I love OB.

@@cnoevil.5146 Chen certainly did have power, elegance, and artistic quality -- what on earth are you looking at? This LP from Baiul was not as finished off as it was at the Olympics, it felt more juniorish. Chen had a whole extra Triple Lutz over Baiul and I would mark her higher on artistic as well. Her interpretation of Nausicaa was quite mesmerizing and more nuanced than Baiul's program; she was the real winner here. I would also mark Bonaly over Baiul in this instance, she did the jumps cleanly here, it was her best technical skate ever. Lu Chen - 5.7/5.8, Bonaly - 5.9/5.6, Kielmann - 5.6/5.7, Baiul - 5.5/5.7