Skaldina Oksana Valentinovna

Oksana Valentinovna Skaldina  (May 24, 1972, Zaporozhye, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) – Soviet gymnast, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR in rhythmic gymnastics (1989). Bronze medalist of the Olympic Games in the individual championship (1992). Honored coach of Russia.

Biography

From the age of five, Oksana Skaldina began to practice gymnastics in Zaporozhye under the guidance of Lyudmila Kovalik, but soon she got to Albina and Irina Deryugin in their famous school of rhythmic gymnastics.

Already in 1989, as part of the USSR national team, a little-known gymnast really revealed herself during the World Championships in Yugoslavia (Sarajevo), which brought her 3 gold medals in the finals in certain types of all-around. On the first exercise with a rope, the judges gave Oksana a score of 9.8. And then, after a short discussion of the exercise by the technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation, the judges, assessing Skaldina’s excellent performance in the final, changed the score to 10.0.This was the first and so far the only case of an increase in the judge’s score at such important competitions as the World Championship.

With their work, Oksana Skaldina and her teammate Alexandra Timoshenko showed completely new gymnastics. They were the first to combine several elements into a combination, Skaldina was the first to perform tricks that no one can repeat even now.

Often Oksana was tired of her exercises, she wanted something new. And Irina Deryugina had to change something every 5-6 months, make adjustments.

The peak of his sports career came in 1992 – the Olympics in Barcelona (Spain).

Oksana finished sports performances in 1992.

Olympiad 1992

In 1991 Skaldina brilliantly won the World Championship, in 1992 – the CIS Championship. The Olympic Games were approaching. At this Olympics, Soviet athletes last played as a single team. 3 gymnasts applied for 2 tickets – Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina from Ukraine and Oksana Kostina from Russia. According to the results of previous competitions and the level of preparation, Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Kostina were supposed to compete. Two votes of the heads of the CIS delegations took place, which determined the composition for participation in the Olympic Games. And still, three gymnasts went to Barcelona. The third vote took place. Under pressure from the Ukrainian delegation and Albina Deryugina herself, two Ukrainian gymnasts, Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina, were included in the CIS team.

In the individual all-around Oksana Skaldina takes third place, which she herself regarded as a loss (she hoped to get at least silver).

Sports results
1989 European Cup Final 1st place – hoop; 2nd place – ball and ribbon; 5th place – all-around
1989 World Championship 3rd place – all-around; 1st place – team, rope, hoop, ribbon; 2nd place – ball
1990 Goodwill Games 1st place – all-around, rope, hoop, ball; 2nd place – ribbon
1990 Gymnastic Games 1st place – all-around, rope, hoop, ball, ribbon
1990 European Championship 1st place – team, rope, hoop, ball, ribbon; 2nd place – all-around
1991 European Cup Final 6th place rope, hoop; 3rd place – ball; 1st place – clubs; 2nd place – all-around
1991 Gymnastic Games 2nd place – rope, hoop, clubs, all-around; 1st place – ball
1991 World Championship 1st place – all-around, team; 4th place – clubs; 2nd place – ball; 3rd place – hoop, rope
1992 European Championship 1st place – rope, hoop, clubs; 5th place – all-around, team
1992 Olympic Games 3rd place – all-around.

Family

Married to the Olympic champion in modern pentathlon Dmitry Svatkovsky. Daughter Daria is a member of the Russian national rhythmic gymnastics team.