‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Baiul’s Coach Wants to Bring Her to U.S.

When the women’s figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics was over Friday night, and her precocious pupil had won the gold medal, Galina Zmievskaya sighed with relief and spoke of the difficulty in molding an ice princess in a rink not even fit for commoners.

“You have no idea how the Olympic champion prepared for this,” she said of 16-year-old Oksana Baiul’s training in Odessa, Ukraine.

“I had to hose down the ice. We had no Zamboni. Never before has the Olympic champion had such bad conditions to prepare in.”

With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, federations in the newly independent republics had to find their own financing. Among the destitute was the Ukraine skating federation.

The upkeep of the rink in Odessa was primarily provided by 1988 Olympic men’s gold medalist Viktor Petrenko, who also is coached by Zmievskaya and trains with Baiul.

But with Petrenko probably returning to Las Vegas and resuming his touring, Zmievskaya is seeking independent financing. Fortunately for her, she was sought after as a coach, even before Baiul won the gold medal.

Zmievskaya is scheduled to leave today for Moscow, where she will meet with U.S. embassy officials early next week to conclude arrangements for acquiring a green card that will allow her to work in the United States.

According to Michael Rosenberg of Palm Desert, the agent for Petrenko and Baiul, Zmievskaya has offers from Lake Arrowhead’s Ice Castle International Training Center and a rink in Newark, Del.

“They’ve both made her generous offers that were on the table even before tonight,” Rosenberg said Friday night.

Wherever she goes, Rosenberg said, she will take Baiul. Zmievskaya might be training her for a professional career, including ice shows, instead of for serious competition.

“It’s not obvious that she’s going to compete after this,” he said. “There’s a question about whether she should turn professional for three years and then try to reinstate before the next Olympics. She could set herself up for life, as well as her children and grandchildren.

“But part of her wants to keep going with this. That’s the bigger part of her inclination.”