Oxana Skaldina
| Oxana Skaldina | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| — Gymnast — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |
 Soviet Union  Unified Team (EUN)  Ukraine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
May 24, 1972 Zaporizhia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Rhythmic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Oxana Skaldina (Ukrainian: Оксана Скалдіна, born 24 May 1972) is a former individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist and 1991 All-around World Champion.
Personal life
Skaldina was born to an engineer and a kindergarten inspector. She married Dmitry Svatkovsky, one of the athletes on the CIS silver medal-winning 1992 pentathlon team and the 2000 individual Olympic gold medalist in modern pentathlon. Their daughter, Daria Svatkovskaya, is also a competitive rhythmic gymnast.
Career
Skladina started training in gymnastics at the age of five with Liudmilla Koval. When she moved to Kiev she began training at the rhythmics school of Albina and Irina Deriugina.
Skaldina's breakthrough came at the 1988 European Cup, where she placed fifth in the all-around and won the ball title. She would share in the Soviet silver-medal finish at the 1989 World Championships, and also claim the all-around bronze and three golds (rope, hoop, ribbon). In 1990, she placed first at the Intervision Cup, Goodwill Games, USSR National Championships and World Cup, third at the European Championships, and became the 1991 World All-around champion.
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Skaldina and her teammate Alexandra Timoshenko, both coached by Albina and Irina Deriugina, competed for Ukraine at the 1992 European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. Skaldina placed fifth in the All-Around and won three apparatus gold medals. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the ex-USSR countries were to compete as the Unified Team. Although Oxana Kostina had a better competitive season, Skaldina was named to the Olympic team and took the bronze in the All-Around. In tears minutes after her last routine, she refused to acknowledge and shake the hands of silver medalist Carolina Pascual. In a recent interview, Skaldina said: "Winning the bronze medal instead of the gold seemed like a catastrophe to me, a collapse of all my hopes and plans."[citation needed]
After retiring from competition, she began coaching in Moscow, Russia.
Notable trainees
External links
- Oxana Skaldina at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique