Oksana Baiul, a '94 Olympics star, lives in Louisiana and loves crawfish
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Figure skating champion Oksana Baiul, seen here in 2017, lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, with her family. Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage
Oksana Baiul, the Ukrainian figure skating champion, has popped up in Louisiana, of all places.
Driving the news: Baiul has been prolific on social media this past week about her love for Louisiana after a video of her ice skating in Shreveport went viral.
The latest: On Tuesday, she professed her love for crawfish, posting a video of herself sucking a crawfish head in a restaurant.
- She watched "Steel Magnolias" over the weekend and loved that too. The Southern classic was filmed in Natchitoches.
- In another video sprinkled with "y'alls," she talked about how she's been "overwhelmed" at the response. And, "I keep that g--d--- knife now in my king cake," she said laughing and showing a half eaten king cake in a box with the knife.
- She cooked black-eye pea soup another day, showing off a Shreveport-branded hand towel and saying she loves to cook. "I like it spicy."
- She also praised the Shreveport firefighter who helped after a bat got in her house.
The intrigue: She says she's lived in Shreveport for almost two years with her husband, Carlo J. Farina, and her daughter, Sophia. She didn't respond to Axios New Orleans about how she wound up in the Pelican State.
- Baiul has lived in the U.S. since 1994, according to The Shreveport Times.
- Her husband is involved in oil and gas and entertainment, according to his website and Instagram profile.
Background: Baiul is known for her 1994 Olympic women's figure skating singles routine in which she won gold ahead of Nancy Kerrigan and Lu Chen of China.
- She then toured with Champions on Ice, skating with Kerrigan, Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan, Brian Boitano, Viktor Petrenko and other '90s stars.
What's next: Farina is working on a movie about Jayne Mansfield, according to his website.
- Mansfield was killed a car wreck near Slidell in 1967. Semi trucks now have "Mansfield bars" or "underride guards" on the back to prevent similar wrecks, according to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.
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