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| Oksana Skaldina, born on May 24th 1972, from the city of Zaporozhye in Ukrainia was one of the most
famous rhythmic gymnast who competed between 88 and 92. She competed for the Soviet team and was coached by Albina and Irina Deryugina. Her club was the 'Trade Union Sports Society', Oksana started gym at the age of 5. Her first coach was Liudmillla Koval, she moved for the Kiev rhythmics school. Her quick improvements, her specific character with a mix of sensitive soul and hot tempered attitude contributed to create a very interesting gymnast , always innovative, with high risk content in her exercises. Oksana was a very modern gymnast, including in her style a good mix between the choreography work and the 'acrobatic' stuff. Her gymnastics was dynamic, consistent and always very clear in the execution. The choices of musical themes and her precise feeling of the expressive postures allowed Oksana to do very fast changes in her composition. She enjoyed playing with the contrasts, espressing passion, grace, or energy. At the '90 Goodwill Games, she won the overall event with the perfect senses of quickness and precision. She charmed the crowd. This event is one of the great rhythmic competition of her career, she rivaled with Mila Marinova of Bulgaria, and her Soviet teammates Oksana Kostina, Alexandra Timoshenko. Her rope exercise from the '90 World Cup was a wonderful time.
With the breaking of the Ussr, Oksana and her friend Alexandra, both coached by the Deryuginas did a gorgeous whole result at the '92 Europeans in Stuttgart for their native country, Ukrainia, Oksana won 3 golds on finals after an overall competition where she did small mistakes , 5th only. Kostina competed there for Russia (She was born in Siberia), with Rosliakova and Zaripova. In fact the three girls remained friends. Some weeks after was the controversy about the members of the team for the Olympics. The ex-Ussr countries went to the competition with an unified team, Kostina won the National title but was not qualified for the Games. She went to Barcelona with a little hope, but finally came back home. Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina competed in Barcelona. Her last competition was a little disappointment, influenced by the Barcelona's ambiance, the judges preferred the home girl for the second place and Oksana only finished 3rd. And a very intense time was to watch her in tears some minutes after her last exercise. Oksana Skaldina...a so expressive girl, with a childhood blonde face even during the Olympics, she often looked younger than her rivals, and her personality was adding a bit more of fascination. Oksana...with this incredible smile, fine attitudes, I enjoyed her a lot, and I think she can be considered as a very modern rhythmic girl with high risk move takings and expression too. With her friend Alexandra Timoshenko, her Soviet teammate Oksana Kostina (Hi pretty light of Siberia! A Star for eternity...) and Mila Marinova, they have been the Stars of the 88-92 years. |
