Oxana Skaldina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Country represented | Soviet Union Unified Team (EUN) Ukraine |
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Born | May 24, 1972 Zaporizhia |
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Discipline | Rhythmic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Oxana Skaldina (Ukrainian: Оксана Скалдіна) (born 24 May 1972 in Zaporizhia, Ukraine) is a former Individual Rhythmic Gymnast. She started training in gymnastics at the age of 5 with Liudmilla Koval. When she moved to the Kiev she began training at the rhythmics school of Albina and Irina Deriugina.
With the break-up of the USSR, Oksana and her teammate Alexandra Timoshenko, both coached by the coaching Albina and Irina Deriugina, competed at the 1992 European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany for Ukraine. Oxana placed 5th in the All-Around, but still managed to win 3 apparatus golds.
There was a controversy about the team members chosen for the Barcelona Olympics some weeks after the European Championships. The ex-USSR countries went to the competition as a Unified Team. Oxana Kostina was the favorite to go and had a better competitive season, but Skaldina was named to the team instead. She finished 3rd in the All-Around in Barcelona. She is remembered to have been in tears minutes after her last routine and famously refused to congratulate or acknowledge Carolina Pascual on her silver-medal victory, an event that would become legendary. She is currently a coach in Moscow, Russia. Her daughter, Daria Svatkovskaya, is also a rhythmic gymnast.