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Baiul was swept away not only by abundance but also by the dual pressures of being a kid and not being a kid. Carlisle explains that the lapse occurred "because she collapsed so many years of her childhood into a very short period of time." She knew she had a shot at winning another Olympic gold medal in 1998 (Katarina Witt and Sonja Henie are the only women singles skaters to win more than one), but amateur skating's regimen and multiplicity of rules left her chagrined. So did the grueling professional schedule. And her body was changing, no longer the poised pubescence perfect for jumps and axels. Relearning her balance led to accidents and injuries and occasional withdrawals from performances. She told Esquire last April that she had grown three inches in a year. "I'm not anymore little girl, you know."
Discipline, however, is hardly the first requirement in the showy professional world. "It makes sense for an orphan to go for the bucks and kick back a bit," says Christine Brennan, author of Inside Edge, a best-selling book on skating. "But what Oksana did is equivalent to Tiger Woods' winning the Masters this year and saying, 'That's it, I'm leaving the P.G.A. Tour, and I'm going to play in pro-ams and exhibitions for the rest of my career.'" Brennan believes Baiul should have kept on a hard training routine for 1998 instead of settling for the softer world of the pro-ice tours. Professional competition, she says, is an oxymoron. "It isn't the real thing." At the moment, she says, it's "Broadway."
Friends and associates believe Baiul will bounce back from this lapse. Says Bob Young, director of the skating center in Simsbury, where Baiul trains: "She realizes that maybe it's best to turn back to the people who have been there, who have gotten her where she is and know what's best for her." At the hospital, Young says, Baiul asked him, "What do I do to correct this mistake?" He adds, "There was no attempt on her part to say, 'Make it go away, can you make it better?' It was, 'Yes, I was driving. Yes, it happened.'" Baiul faces possible jail time, temporary license suspension and up to a $1,300 fine. Says Petrenko: "If she wants it, she will get good advice and support. If she doesn't want it, nobody can help her. That's up to her."
--Reported by Charlotte Faltermayer/New York