Figure Skaters on Thin Ice: Troubled Athletes

From Nancy Kerrigan's family tragedy to Oksana Baiul's rehab stint, see the skaters who've endured their share of personal spills (7 Photos)

Laura Motta on Jan 26, 2010 at 2:46PM

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Figure Skaters on Thin Ice: Troubled Athletes

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Oksana Baiul



Her story -- and her incredible win at the 2004 Olympic Games -- caught the world's imagination. A Ukrainian orphan raised mostly by her coaches, Oksana Baiul stole the thunder -- and the spotlight -- away from the other major story of those games, the rivalry between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Baiul took gold above Kerrigan, and later turned pro, moving to the United States to train. Her arrest for drunk driving after a car crash in Connecticut three years later came as a shock -- and sent her to rehab. ''Life for me is more important than alcohol,'' Baiul told The New York Times about her recovery in 1998. Skating, she said, ''keeps me alive.'' She currently skates professionally and works on her clothing and jewelry line.

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