CBS SportsLine wire reports
Oct. 16, 1998

Oksana Baiul is no longer the delicate, waifish swan who mesmerized the world at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. She's not the wild woman who traded practice for parties and careened off a road at 100 mph after a night out, either.

After some costly mistakes and a stint in alcohol rehabilitation, Baiul has finally

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found the inner peace she sought for years.

"We all have to be happy with what we have. I've learned that,'' she said Thursday. "I was putting too much on myself after the Olympic Games. I was really wanting a lot from myself. I was doing this, I was doing that.

"We're all human beings and we all need breaks, otherwise we just become machines. And even machines break down sometimes.''

HAVING RECLAIMED HER PERSONAL LIFE, Baiul now wants her career back. She's training with new coach Natalia Linichuk at the University of Delaware, and hopes to return to the eligible ranks in time to compete at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"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 to 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.''

Baiul lost her Olympic eligibility when she turned professional after Lillehammer and participated in events not sanctioned by the International Skating Union. But other professionals have regained their eligible status, and Baiul hopes she'll get similar consideration.

She hasn't approached the ISU yet about her eligibility.

"I didn't know if I was capable of being good again, you know what I'm saying?'' said Baiul, who already has commitments to skate professionally this season. "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.''

IT WASN'T TOO LONG AGO that Baiul didn't even know if she could get out of bed in the morning. She captivated millions in Lillehammer, a sweet teen-ager who overcame the sorrow of never knowing her father and being 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, Conn., 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, her Mercedes went off the road and into a cluster of trees. Amazingly, she suffered only a cut on her scalp. The 19-year-old's blood-alcohol level exceeded the legal limit in Connecticut, but she escaped prosecution for drunken driving because of a technicality.

She pleaded no contest to a charge of traveling unreasonably 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 winter, at a professional competition, that Baiul hit bottom. She lay in bed, crying, too scared and weak to skate.

Baiul has gotten serious about her on-ice and off-ice regimen. (AP)

"I think I had a nervous breakdown, because I was so out of control,'' she said. "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.''

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

She now trains at least six hours a day, often getting off the ice with legs so tired she can barely walk. She has all of her triple jumps back but the triple flip, and one of her programs for this season is based on her life story.

Most importantly, she's happy.