On February 6, the XXV Winter Olympic Games opened in Milan — Ukraine is participating in these competitions for the ninth time, and the first time was in 1994 in Lillehammer. They were one of the most successful for the country. Our athletes then brought home two medals — bronze in biathlon and gold in figure skating. The highest award, the first Olympic gold for independent Ukraine, was won by Oksana Baiul. We tell you how it was.
Oksana Baiul
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The Games in Lillehammer, Norway were the first for independent Ukraine. Our athletes came to the Olympic Games for the first time as a separate team. Among them was 16-year-old Oksana Bayul, who managed to make a real sensation – she brought the country the first Olympic gold. Later, in an interview, the young athlete admitted that she was not going to go to these Games, but planned to prepare for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, but after the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine urgently needed a candidate to participate in the Games. It was decided to send her to Lillehammer, because a year before that Bayul won silver at the European Championship and won at the World Championship.
Despite several high-profile victories before that, Baiul was not considered a favorite of the competition. They were two Americans – Tonya Harding, who was brightly played by actress Margot Robbie in the film “I – Tonya”, and Nancy Kerrigan. The fight between them at some point even went beyond the ice arena. A few weeks before the Olympics, a fan of Harding attacked her rival Kerrigan, hitting the skater in the knee with a telescopic baton. Holding her knee and shouting “Why, why, why”, Nancy got into the camera lens. This video remained the key news on all TV channels for several days after the attack. She managed to recover thanks to the coordinated work of doctors and perform in Norway, where she took second place. After performing the short program, Kerrigan was the leader, but Baiul's emotional performance in the free skate left no one indifferent. Five out of nine judges preferred Ukrainians.
Skaters perform two performances — a short and a free program — for a comprehensive assessment of skill. The short program (technical) tests the performance of mandatory elements (jumps, spins) in a short time, and the free (artistic) — endurance, creativity and complexity to music, which allows determining the best athlete by the sum of points. It was the artistic part that helped Baiul win a historic medal for her country. When Oksana went on the ice, she confidently performed all the planned elements and was about to finish the performance with a triple jump, but her coaches felt that this would not be enough to win. Through the noise of the audience, she heard shouts from the coaches: “You need a combination!”. 15 seconds before the end of the performance, she performed a cascade of double Axel – double sheepskin. After completing the program, the girl had a nervous breakdown.
There were organizational oddities: the organizers did not have a recording of the Ukrainian anthem. After some searching, it was found on a cassette with the delegation representatives – in 45 minutes, Verbytsky's music was heard for the first time at the Winter Games.
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