Oksana Baiul Net Worth

What is Oksana Baiul's Net Worth?

Oksana Baiul is a retired Ukrainian figure skater who has a net worth of $2 million. Oksana Baiul emerged as one of the most artistically celebrated figure skaters of her era, combining lyrical expression with decisive competitive success. In 1993, at age 15, she captured the World Championship title, asserting herself as a major contender on the world stage. The following year, at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, she delivered a memorable performance in the ladies' singles event—despite a back injury and a last-minute program change—and edged out Nancy Kerrigan to win the Olympic gold medal. In doing so, she became the first athlete to win Olympic gold representing independent Ukraine and remains one of Ukraine's most iconic sporting figures.

After her Olympic triumph, Baiul left amateur competition to pursue a professional skating career. She relocated to the United States and performed in numerous ice shows, gala exhibitions, television specials, and benefit events. Though injuries and physical wear challenged her jumping ability, she retained a strong presence on stage thanks to her expressive, balletic style. Over the years, she also ventured into ancillary projects: she authored two books (her memoir "Oksana: My Own Story" and "Secrets of Skating") and explored appearances in televised skating musicals and performance-based shows.

Her post-competitive life, however, was marked by personal and financial struggles. She confronted alcohol-related challenges, including a 1997 DUI incident, and entered rehabilitation. She engaged in legal disputes over management and image rights, suing former agents and media outlets over compensation and unauthorized use of her likeness. Despite these obstacles, Baiul continued periodic skating performances, maintained influence in the skating community, and pursued business and philanthropic efforts connected to performance arts and youth causes.

Royalties & Rights Lawsuits

Throughout her post-Olympic life, Oksana Baiul became entangled in a series of high-profile legal disputes against former managers, agents, and media companies. In 2012, she sued the William Morris Agency (later WME) for allegedly mismanaging her earnings and withholding millions in royalties and performance fees from her teenage professional contracts. She later expanded her claims to seek more than $170 million in damages, accusing a wide network of agents, accountants, and coaches of fraud and financial theft. However, most of these suits were dismissed by U.S. courts as either time-barred or lacking merit, with one federal judge describing them as "frivolous and, frankly, bizarre."

Baiul also filed multiple copyright and royalty cases against NBC Sports and others, arguing that her televised performances—such as "The Nutcracker on Ice" and "A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story"—had been rebroadcast without proper compensation. These, too, were ultimately rejected under doctrines like res judicata and preclusion. Despite the lack of legal success, her repeated filings reflect a longstanding belief that she was denied control and payment over the commercial use of her name and image dating back to the 1990s.

Financial Problems

Baiul's financial struggles trace back to her early fame, when she turned professional as a teenager with limited English and little business experience. Although she earned millions from tours, endorsements, and TV appearances following her 1994 Olympic victory, she later said she lost much of it to poor management, legal fees, and personal difficulties. In the late 1990s, she underwent rehabilitation following a DUI arrest, and her career momentum waned amid injuries and disputes with former coaches. Court orders requiring her to pay tens of thousands in attorneys' fees added to her financial strain. In recent years, Baiul has publicly acknowledged her losses, telling one reporter she had "made all of the money in the world, lost all of the money in the world." In 2025, she put her $1.2 million Shreveport, Louisiana home up for sale, citing a lack of skating opportunities and financial pressure—an emblematic turn for an athlete once hailed as one of figure skating's brightest stars.

Early Life

Oksana Baiul was born on November 16, 1977, in Dnipro, in what was then the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. Her parents, Sergey and Marina, divorced when she was two; her father disappeared shortly after that, and she was subsequently raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. Baiul got into skating early on in life after initially training in ballet. By the time she was five, she was already skating under prominent Ukrainian coach Stanislav Koritek. In the late 80s, Baiul's grandparents passed away, and her mother later died in 1991. She went on to live with the wife of her skating coach and moved to Odesa in 1992.

Championships and Winter Olympics Success

Baiul began her competitive skating career at the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki, Finland, where she claimed the silver behind champion Surya Bonaly. After that, Baiul suffered a setback when she crashed into the boards and displaced some back and neck disks during practice. Despite this, she turned in a winning performance at the 1993 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, coming in second in the short program and first in the free skate to claim the gold medal.

Baiul continued her success in 1994, first by taking another silver at the European Championships, again behind Surya Bonaly. She went on to make her Winter Olympics debut in Lillehammer, where she finished second in the short program. During a subsequent practice, Baiul suffered a wrenched lower back and a cut shin after colliding with skater Tanja Szewczenko. Given some Olympic-approved anesthetics, she bounced back to win the free skate and ultimately the gold medal. The US's Nancy Kerrigan claimed silver while China's Chen Lu took bronze. With her win, Baiul became the first and only skater representing Ukraine to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, and the first Olympic champion in any sport representing the independent country.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images

Career in the US

Due to the poor conditions of ice skating infrastructure in Ukraine, Baiul decided to move to the United States following the 1994 Winter Olympics. There, her coach, Galina Zmievskaya, got her a lucrative contract with the talent agency William Morris Endeavor to tour the country and earn money. Baiul went on to participate in the US Outdoor Skating Challenge, broadcast on CBS television, and to star in productions of "The Nutcracker on Ice" and "The Wizard of Oz on Ice" for the same network. She also participated in the Tom Collins World Champions Tour and led the coaching staff at the newly constructed International Skating Center in Simsbury, Connecticut.

Baiul continued to skate non-competitively into the 21st century. She had a role in the skating stage musical "Cold as Ice" in 2007 at the Gateway Playhouse, and in the years after that, skated in the annual show at the Kate Wollman Skating Rink in New York City. Baiul also made appearances on some television game shows unrelated to skating, including Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" and ABC's "Master of Champions."

Drinking Problems

In early 1997, Baiul was arrested for driving under the influence after she crashed her car into a tree in Connecticut. Upon completing an alcohol education program and meeting the terms of probation, she had her charges dropped. However, her drinking problem only got worse, prompting her to enter a rehabilitation program for a few months. In an interview conducted in 2004, Baiul said she had been sober for six years.

Personal Life and Charity

Baiul married her manager, Carlo Farina, in early 2015. The couple has a daughter named Sophia. She filed for divorce in late 2025.

Involved in some charitable endeavors, Baiul supports the Tikva Children's Home Charity, which helps Jewish children in Odesa. She's also a member of the International Museum of Women, an online museum focused on global women's issues.

Real Estate

In May 2016, Oksana and Carlo paid $340,000 for a home in Las Vegas, Nevada. They sold this home in May 2022 for $900,000. In March of 2022, the couple bought an ornate 6,000-square-foot home in Shreveport, Louisiana. They apparently made the move to launch a skating school in the area. In October 2025, Oksana announced via Facebook that she was listing the home (amid her divorce) and would be returning to Las Vegas to seek better working opportunities.

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