20:51, 14.04.2023 UNIAN

The first Ukrainian Olympic champion Oksana Baiul: No one behind the scenes of the Olympic Games should rejoice in our absence. Fuck them!

The first Ukrainian Olympic champion Oksana Baiul: No one behind the scenes of the Olympic Games should rejoice in our absence. Fuck them!

20:51, 14.04.2023

INTERVIEW

The first Olympic champion of independent Ukraine, figure skater Oksana Baiul, told UNIAN about the consequences that a ban on Ukrainian athletes from participating in the 2024 Olympics could lead to, why she never had relations with colleagues from a terrorist country, and also shared the story of her Olympic success.

The first Olympic champion of independent Ukraine, Oksana Baiul, avoids talking to the press and rarely gives interviews. However, she agreed to speak to UNIAN due to the government’s controversial decision to ban Ukrainian athletes from competing if Belarusian and Russian athletes were present. As you know, in a complex world there are no simple solutions, and jingoistic populism is likely to cost Ukrainian sport very dearly.

Since the International Olympic Committee allowed Belarusians and Russians to compete under neutral flags without the anthem and symbols of their states, they will be able to get the necessary points, win championships and, ultimately, receive Olympic licenses. Our athletes, in case of refusal to participate in a huge pool of competitions, will not be able to score the necessary points in order to qualify for the upcoming Olympics. In fact, in fact, the implementation of this decision will leave world sport without the Ukrainian flag and anthem, and us without Olympic hopes.

In addition, the pinnacle of a possible career for an Olympian is the World Championship in his sport and the Olympics. If you refuse to participate in competitions of this level, all the hard work to which athletes devote their whole lives from an early age goes to dust.

We talked about this, as well as many other things, with the first ever Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist. She often broke down in tears as she shared her personal stories, the emotions she experienced, and the changes the devastating war brought to our lives.

What do you think about the initiative of the Minister of Sports at the government level to ban Ukrainian athletes from participating in competitions where Russian and Belarusian athletes are present?

Now is not the time to sit back in a corner and miss the opportunity to wave the Ukrainian flag! Especially when it comes to events of such magnitude as the Olympic Games.

You know, this jacket that I’m wearing right now [Oksana is sitting in front of the screen in a bright yellow sweatshirt, which flaunts the state emblem and Olympic symbols – UNIAN], issued to people who devote their entire lives to sports. I worked every single day from 06:00 to 20:00, and my whole life was devoted to one cause – the national team. It is given to those who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes. It was the equipment of the Ukrainian national team in 1994. When we were just given this uniform, I was 16 years old, and now 45. Then independent Ukraine for the first time went with its team to the Olympic Games. The living and training conditions at that time were terrible: it was the hungry 90s. There was no money, as always, in sports. Even until now, I hear from athletes: “No money, no money, no money for sports.” But still, we won our first gold, and when the Ukrainian anthem finally sounded over the ice arena in Lillehammer, Norway, it was a fantastic moment when a sense of pride swept over the entire nation!

Despite the fact that I now live in the state of Louisiana, in the USA, I will always root for Ukrainian sports, athletes, for the state of Ukraine, because this is my homeland. Therefore, now, looking at what is happening, I cannot be silent.

I am categorically against the boycott: if our athletes do not go to the Olympic Games, we ourselves are depriving ourselves of the opportunity to once again experience this pride – when the national flag flutters and the national anthem sounds on a world-class venue.

When the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would probably be able to compete under a neutral flag, we were all disappointed. But, the way our government reacted to this, it seems to me, is too much.

After all, you can arrange a political boycott, as the United States did in 2022, when the athletes went to the Olympics in China, and all the bosses stayed at home. The presidents of China and Russia were sitting together, and there was no one else there [laughs] . But when our team came out with the Ukrainian flag at the opening of the Olympic Games, it was nice to watch.

The fact is that, as a rule, in the life of an athlete, participation in the Olympic Games happens only once. I talked on this topic with a lot of athletes who are now backstage, and they all say as one: “No, no, no, you have to go in any case, the presence of Ukrainian athletes (and we have always been trained like soldiers) is necessary! we must defend our honor and our country.”

I am already silent about the fact that if Ukrainian athletes are banned from participating in international competitions, how will they even earn their living then?

In this case, why do you think our sports minister Vadim Gutsait could come up with such a proposal? After all, he himself, as a former Olympian, must understand that for athletes to miss international competitions for several years when they are at the peak of their form, it means to miss their chance, all life is for nothing …

You know, I think he didn’t think of all the consequences.

Aside from the issue of athletes’ physical fitness, the decision to boycott the Olympics could have legal implications. If we don’t go now, then our participation in the 2026 Olympics in Italy may also be on the verge of collapse. How will we return to Olympic sports later? And aren’t we playing into the hands of Russia with this decision? After all, be that as it may, their athletes will participate in the competition, and despite the neutral flag – although it in itself is a humiliation for them – they will still try to use this platform to promote their imaginary greatness. And we will not even have the opportunity to raise our flag – against their “neutral”, once again reminding the world that we are, we are strong, and we do not give up.

When the rumors first started that we might boycott the Olympics, I looked through the press. All the major international media, in particular CNN, Al Jazeera, did not bypass this topic, because, of course, everyone is now following Ukraine. And they wrote that if now, for example, Ukrainian athletes refuse to participate, then this means that all qualifying competitions will be boycotted. And if you don’t qualify for the Olympic Games, don’t go through some championships, then you automatically don’t score enough points, and you don’t get to the Olympics. And when I read the comments under these stories, I realized that there was no one else to rely on but myself. Most write: “Guys, you represent your country, it is, in principle, your decision, do what you want.” I mean, they don’t care. And I sounded the alarm.

From the outside, it looks like there was a political task to prevent Russians and Belarusians from competing, but the implementation of this task by our Ministries of Sports and Foreign Affairs was failed. And now Gutzeit is making athletes hostage to his fiasco. In principle, do you think Ukraine could achieve such a decision?

I don’t know, by and large, what they did, how they did it, where they called, what letters they wrote, with whom they talked.

If you read the press – not only Ukrainian, but also international – it has never been a secret for the International Athletes Association that a lot of countries vote to allow Russians and Belarusians under a neutral flag. That is, this is not some new information, and 9 or 10 months ago Gutzeit perfectly understood where everything was going.

Recently, Elina Svitolina performed here in America at a tournament, and she said: “I will play, raise the Ukrainian flag, and I will glorify Ukraine,” and I absolutely agree with her. When the decision appeared that Ukraine would boycott the sport, the Tennis Association allowed neutral athletes to participate in Wimbledon on the same day.

Svitolina came out, represented Ukraine, and the Tennis Association helped her raise $100,000 for her Ukrainian foundation. And Svitolina did not miss the tournament, but earned points that would help her go to the Olympic Games.

Why, in your opinion, are there no harsh statements or specific actions by Ukrainian sports clubs against the initiative to ban Ukrainian athletes from participating in the Games?

Everyone with whom I have spoken at the moment explained to me that they are waiting for the final decision of Thomas Bach [on whether, and if so, in what format, athletes from a terrorist country will be admitted to the 2024 Olympic Games – UNIAN] .

When the information first appeared that we would probably boycott the Olympics, many federations, athletes opposed this.

In principle, the papers have already been signed, but I still hope that they can still win, and the athletes who want this will be able to compete at the Olympics, and if someone refuses, then this is the business of every athlete and every federation.

What do you think about our athletes in general: both about the level of training (in the context of the current Olympic cycle), and about their motivation? Certainly, some of them were evacuated with the beginning of the war. Do you feel that the majority will return or have already returned to their homeland, or will they still look for themselves in other teams?

As soon as a full-scale war began, in America they began to call me from clubs and ask: “Bring your athletes to us.” I call my people and say: “Guys, here’s a place in Oberstdorf. Do you want to go?” They answered: “No, we have a family here, parents, this and that.” I call other people, I say: “Here, there is a free place in Virginia, let’s go there” … They called me from Salt Lake City, they called from everywhere, but no one wanted to leave Ukraine [laughs] .

Some athletes, coaches have really left and are training in international clubs. But, in principle, they still represent Ukraine.

I can talk about myself and about those athletes with whom I communicate. Someone went to the front to fight, someone uses his status as an athlete to establish funds to help Ukraine. Everyone helps our country in one way or another.

And to your question about the level of preparation, I will tell you the following story.

Shortly after the start of a large-scale war, our skaters decided to go to the World Championships. In April-May, they left Ukraine, who, as best they could, got to Poland, where they were accepted with their families, and after that they went to the Championship. And, of course, what kind of preparation can there be when there is a war going on… But when they entered the arena, they only talked about Ukrainian athletes. And there were so many flags! And they themselves felt that they had fulfilled their duty to the Motherland.

After performing at the competitions, they returned back to Poland. I offered them to come to America to train, but no one wanted to. They called from the Dnieper, and they say:

– Here, we open the skating rink, if you want – come back, but only you will have half the ice free.

Why only half?

– But because the other half is now receiving humanitarian aid [smiles] .

But then, of course, all the boxes were removed, and now the skating rink is fully accessible.

Could it be that the decision to boycott the Olympics preemptively wants to cover up the failures in the training of Ukrainian Olympians in recent years? That is, Gutzeit, who is both the President of the National Olympic Committee and the Minister of Sports – and therefore is solely responsible for the level of training of our athletes – was it just convenient to cover up his shortcomings like that?

I’m not sitting in the minister’s chair, I don’t know what they are doing, and this is not my task. But watching this, as a person who understands sports, and who is not an enemy to his homeland … Everything is possible. But anyway, I think it’s wrong. Must go! No one behind the scenes should rejoice in our absence. Fuck them!

The litter of Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the notorious Tatyana Navka, by the way, our compatriot in the past, said that if Ukrainians refuse to participate in the competition, their absence will simply not be noticed. How would you comment on this?

Tatyana Navka and I started our journey in the Dnieper at the age of three and a half. Believe it or not, our moms were best friends. Therefore, I, in principle, know Navka well. I know who she is and what she is.

In the 90s, a lot of Russian athletes trained in the States, prepared for the Olympic Games, performed in shows that were held here. And, behold, she also lived at that time in America, not far from me. But we could never get along with her.

And now she comes out and says in an interview: “Sport is out of politics, I have nothing to do with it.” But she is not that stupid… She is 47 years old, and she understands perfectly well that any of her statements is already an element of propaganda.

And her last words about our athletes are precisely propaganda, for which Putin pays her bloody money, finances her ice show.

You say that you have known Navka from a very young age. What was she then? Have you hated your homeland since childhood?

Tanya is a businessman, she goes where they pay. I can characterize it very simply in this. She trained in America, then represented Belarus, as far as I remember, then she jumped to play for Russia. She worked and trained in the States, and America provided her with excellent conditions in which she could prepare to perform at the 2006 Olympics.

Then, when Moscow offered her to do various ice shows, they turned around with her husband and left for Russia. She is the kind of person who loves money more than morality.

Now she considers herself, by and large, Russian. I consider myself Ukrainian. And with Russian athletes, I didn’t really develop.

In the 90s, in the American show of the great producer Tom Collins “Champions on Ice”, which the Russians later “torn” from him, a very large number of Russian athletes performed. And, even speaking in this show, they always kept one company. And I was younger than all of them, and I have always been for them a person whom they, by and large, did not accept. I felt that they treated me like a second class person.

And why do you think?

At that time I won the Olympic Games for Ukraine. They are for the USSR or Russia, and I received the first Olympic gold for Ukraine. And it was always in the air. I feel that I have always been and will remain – how should I put it – a lump in my throat.

My special “love” for Russia began in 2006.

Then the Russian figure skater Ilya Averbukh invited me to perform in the annual figure skating show, which they put on on Red Square. I’ve arrived. And it’s unbelievably cold there! And I had to perform outdoors in winter in tights and a sleeveless dress. My whole body is just numb from the cold. I complain to Ilya, and he says: “You have already become an American, you forgot how everything works here.” And I told him: “What the hell am I, an American, just why mock people like that?”

But I still performed. And then, on the podium next to the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Tyagachev, was the Soviet figure skating coach Tatyana Tarasova. And, I remember, I went up to her. And, it is clear that it was cold, it is clear that no one did any serious elements: they just went out and performed (God forbid, in general, that the temperature of +40 did not rise after such a performance). And instead of thanking me for coming and performing at this show, she says with displeasure, they say, “I could have skated better.”

And after that they gave me an envelope in my hands – my fee. I open it, and there are dollars. I say: “But I won’t be able to smuggle this amount through customs! Why did you give it to me?”.

I already knew from 2006 that I would not work with Russia. We’ve always had a grudge.

Tell me why you were not at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. After all, you are a symbol of one of the greatest achievements of independence…

I wasn’t invited. I think that there are no pitfalls, it’s just that people didn’t think … Or they thought that this event was not interesting to me. Although, to be honest, I was waiting for an invitation.

In 2021, news appeared that you had renounced Ukrainian citizenship. Is it related somehow?

Yes, that was when I was not invited to my thirtieth birthday. To be honest, I was offended by this, because, damn it, well, how is it?

But, at the expense of my Ukrainian citizenship… Since 2021, I have not yet decided what citizenship I have. That is, yes, then I emotionally declared that I was refusing, but in fact I did not do it.

That is, you still have a Ukrainian passport?

Yes, but it is currently expired.

Since we remembered your first Olympic medal for Ukraine, could you share your memories of how you went to it?

The ice rink has always been my second home. We all have.

In 2021, my coach Stanislav Korotek contacted me – God rest him – and we had not communicated with him since the 90s. And we talked, reminisced about childhood, reminisced about the annual summer camps that took place in Yalta.

We then got up at 6 in the morning, we had a run to the Black Sea. Then we walked on the stones, that is, as if massaging the feet. After that, the first training was, then the second. It was summer preparation before the season.

Remembering my childhood, I understand that I have always been doing my favorite thing. My mother always pushed me to go to school, and I always loved my sport, my Meteor, figure skating. For me it has always been a joy. That is, I remember all these moments in my life as happy. Compared to the same America, my childhood, of course, was difficult, but at that time we did not know that it could be otherwise.

When I brought the coupons that we, the athletes, were given out, we could either have lunch in a cafe or exchange them for food … So, when I brought food home in early childhood, I understood that I was helping my family.

How did you come to the idea that you want to do figure skating?

I was assigned to figure skating because I was not accepted into ballet. I was too plump for ballet.

My grandmother brought me by the hand to Antonina Vasilievna Tolstik, my first coach, at Morozko. But “Morozko” was a very small skating rink, a non-standard size for that time. And then they built a standard “Meteor”, and the whole Dnieper took their children there for sports.

There was an excellent base in the Dnieper. When we were growing up, coaches from the former Soviet Union came to us, chose athletes from the younger generation, and took them to Russia.

Coach Stanislav Zhuk also wanted to pick me up, but my mother did not let me go.

How did you prepare for the Olympics? By that time, you were an orphan, the Soviet Union collapsed, the country had rolling blackouts (which we again remembered literally in the last year), poverty …

I’ll tell you a story. If you remember, in 2022 there was a scandal with Valieva [Russian figure skater Kamilla Valieva – UNIAN] , who was caught doping at the Olympic Games. Plushenko himself [famous Russian figure skater – UNIAN]always said: “Yes, this is not doping, this is ascorbic acid.” All Russian sports have always sat on this, and now they are looking for legal alternative drugs. So, as an athlete who has never taken any such drugs, I called my friend from Ukraine and asked: “Listen, why didn’t they feed us this shit?” And he told me: “So we didn’t have money, it’s very expensive. With us, when the Soviet Union collapsed – don’t you remember – how you yourself came to training in Odessa and cleared the ice yourself with scrapers, then you hoses were watered, climbed up, warmed up, then descended, and the training was supposed to be insanely short?” …

The fact is that there was a thick fog on the rink, so thick that, driving into some corner, the athletes simply got lost [laughs] . And every athlete before his Olympic Games goes to the peak of his form, that is, his body weakens. We were kept on the ice for no more than 10-15 minutes so that we would not get sick, because when you start breathing in this cold fog, the likelihood that you will fall off is much higher than when you train under normal conditions.

The training conditions were hellish.

What projects are you currently working on? Are you thinking about coaching?

I don’t work as a coach because coaching is hard work. I believe that a coach and an athlete are like a single entity. Either we lose these competitions together, or we will win them together. And when there is a choice between work and family, I choose family.

Now my whole life is in the family. I’ve been on this for so long. I gave birth to my daughter at an age when a person has, in principle, achieved everything. And I clearly understood that if the Lord God so disposed that I would have a child, and I always wanted children, then for me this, in principle, would be the most important thing in life.

https://sport.unian.net/player/ltJ3WDbaDaughter of Oksana Baiul

I took my daughter by the hand to the skating rink. She is a very sociable and creative child: she sings, draws, and does some figure skating. I am raising her the way I have grown up. I don’t force her to bring fives from school, but I want to give her the opportunity to decide for herself what she wants to do in life.

Does she know Ukrainian or Russian?

My husband and I communicate in English, because this is the first language she learned. I never spoke Russian with her.

And when was the last time you were in Ukraine? In particular, in your native Dnipro, or Odessa, where did you train?

For a long time. I can’t even say for sure.

Would you like to come?

If I am invited, I will gladly come.

At the moment, I called the Ukrainian embassy to give me new documents instead of expired ones, and they said that it would take 3-4 months to wait for a new passport.

That is, I understand you correctly that you are waiting for an invitation?

No. But at the age of 45, I am well aware that you won’t be forced to be nice …

The Ukrainian press has always sneered at me. They said that Viktor Petrenko was the first Ukrainian Olympic champion, and this always offended me, because he played for the CIS team, and I was really the first, after whose victory the Ukrainian anthem began to play. I’ve always resented this. But, I think, now the war has put everything in its place, and people have understood who is who. And now I don’t care how the press will perceive me after this interview with you.

I agreed to give it, because I cannot remain silent, seeing what paragraph will be with Ukrainian sports after the decision to boycott the Olympic Games. I am very worried, and I want the world to see Ukrainian athletes.

At the end of our conversation, what would you say, addressing the Ukrainian people on Easter week?

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes! Victory will be ours!

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