Oksana Baiul (UKR) - 1993 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies' Free Skate

Prague, CZECHOSLOVAKIA - 1993 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies' Free Skate - First, a profile on Oksana Baiul, followed by her Gold Medal winning Free Skate.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Oksana
• Baiul
• 1993
• figure
• skating

[jillinois100]

When the world got to see her - I remember this :) She was special !

[TheBob1901]

Very juvenile program. No jump combinations, very simple spins, mediocre spirals, and almost no footwork. Technically mediocre indeed. No way should this freeskate have beaten either Surya Bonaly or Lu Chen.

[lutz84]

Well she came out hit five straight clean triples ... I'd say it was much better than her olys ... I think everyone was really excited how a new star just appeared out of nowhere and everyone felt for her ;) she was just so lovely but yeah her jumps, while solid here, were very telegraphed, lots of simple crossovers

[gk891]

But the thing is that Bolero was also the gold standard in terms of technical skating in addition to artistic skating. Oksana skated with a ton of personality and charisma as well as ease and grace but technically some of her programs left a little to be desired. That's not the case with Torvill & Dean. It's virtually impossible to really fault Bolero either technically or artistically.

[MultiRazorb]

@gk891: My point is that people can always go back to older programs and complain about how "easy" they were. But there are some programs (Baiul, Boitano, Torvill/Dean) that represent the gold standard of artistic skating to this day. Say what you like about OB's two-footed landing or her "juvenile" program—she literally skated circles around Kerrigan and the rest of the competitors who at best looked ungainly.

[gk891]

@MultiRazorb Bolero was an extremely difficult FD. Like 3Axel1996 says, it was full of complex handholds, very deep edging with almost no cross overs (so they were completely dependent on the strength of their running edges), and moves that were done with no set-up time. They were amazing at making the difficult look easy.

[3Axel1996]

@MultiRazorb Well, for 1984, it was. You also had to look at the complexity of the hand-holds, the changes in direction and the positions between the two, the deep edging. Also, they flow and ease as to how one move transitioned to the next. It was a lot different from what judges have seen in the years prior. They were the first to use a single theme for the entire dance (beginning with Mack & Mabel in 1982).

[MultiRazorb]

@TheBob1901: You might say the same thing about Torvill & Dean's classic 1984 routine, which wasn't difficult at all. And yet it managed to score its place right into figure skating history. That wacky artistic merit... go figure.

[EEDiazL]

@TheBob1901 God, someone I agree with. In competition she would only do single triples, never a triple with combo. Spins, horrible. She would always double foot her jumps, no exceptions. I consider her skating very mediocre, but, an olympic gold medal can make others see you as the best in the world. I don't think is just what you do to get the gold medal, but what it you do after....

[rickram1961]

Oksana showed wonderful maturity for her young age!

[faeryquene]

I fell in love with her the first time I saw her at Europeans and I was rooting for her to win the Olympics. I was overjoyed when she did!