Word: baiul
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Champion skater Oksana Baiul is a role model to many children around the world who aspire to reach the Olympics [SOCIETY, Jan. 27]. However, Baiul is only 19 years old, and she illegally drove her car while under the influence of alcohol. It is unfortunate that you decided to focus on the tale of an athlete turned sour rather than on the scary truth that many of our nation's youngsters are dying from driving while intoxicated. AREL SOLIE Portland, Oregon...
...Baiul's technique on the ice is pure poetry, but I think her Americanization may have led her to skate on thin ice. Maybe a trip back to her native Ukraine would help her over the perilous hurdles of the skating world. PATRICIA PURDIE Houston...
...Baiul was swept away not only by abundance but also by the dual pressures of being a kid and not being a kid. Carlisle explains that the lapse occurred "because she collapsed so many years of her childhood into a very short period of time." She knew she had a shot at winning another Olympic gold medal in 1998 (Katarina Witt and Sonja Henie are the only women singles skaters to win more than one), but amateur skating's regimen and multiplicity of rules left her chagrined. So did the grueling professional schedule. And her body was changing, no longer...
...best-selling book on skating. "But what Oksana did is equivalent to Tiger Woods' winning the Masters this year and saying, 'That's it, I'm leaving the P.G.A. Tour, and I'm going to play in pro-ams and exhibitions for the rest of my career.'" Brennan believes Baiul should have kept on a hard training routine for 1998 instead of settling for the softer world of the pro-ice tours. Professional competition, she says, is an oxymoron. "It isn't the real thing." At the moment, she says, it's "Broadway...
Friends and associates believe Baiul will bounce back from this lapse. Says Bob Young, director of the skating center in Simsbury, where Baiul trains: "She realizes that maybe it's best to turn back to the people who have been there, who have gotten her where she is and know what's best for her." At the hospital, Young says, Baiul asked him, "What do I do to correct this mistake?" He adds, "There was no attempt on her part to say, 'Make it go away, can you make it better?' It was, 'Yes, I was driving. Yes, it happened...