Olympic figure skater Oksana Baiul posted a video to Facebook in September telling her followers that she was leaving Shreveport, Louisiana, her home for the last three years, to return to Las Vegas.
The post followed her decision to work with the Las Vegas NHL team the Golden Knights to help train young skaters after her plans to open a skating school in Louisiana failed to materialize, several media outlets have reported.
“I came for a reason, and it did not happen,” the gold medalist said in the post. “I came here to create some things, but they did not come to fruition. I have to go where the ice exists."
Beyond her dream of opening a skating school in the city, Baiul is leaving behind the 6,000-square-foot mansion that she put on the market on Sept. 20 for $1.2 million.
Andy Osborn and Emily Hays of Osborn Hays Real Estate in Shreveport are handling the listing.
The kitchen is big enough to dance in
Baiul made her name taking gold in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, the first gold medal for the fledgling nation of Ukraine, which had only achieved independence in 1991.
The skater and her ex-husband and former manager Carlo Farina bought the 1.3-acre Louisiana property in 2022. The sale price was not available through Caddo Parish records.
Farina filed for divorce from Baiul earlier this year. Real estate agent Osborn told Homes.com that Farina and their daughter, Sophia, are already living in Las Vegas.
Farina told Homes.com in an email exchange that the couple had been attracted to the house for “the architecture, the grand Gilded Age, Beaux Arts plaster moldings that artisans today are not able to duplicate in the same manner, and the location, which is a cluster of the most prominent Shreveport founding families’ estates.”
Built in 1925, the two-story brickwork Georgian home includes five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. The interior has a classic Victorian feel, with many rooms lit by chandelier. Some of the most detailed work in the house are the intricate inlays on several of the ceilings.
Though they have only had a few years in the home, the family developed plenty of routines, according to Farina. “My daughter and I love to cook simple and very complex meals,” he wrote, praising the spacious, country-style kitchen. One of his favorite memories he said was ballroom dancing in the kitchen.
Farina said the family often leaned into the grandiosity of the home by eating dinner in the formal dining room. "My daughter always felt like a princess," he said.
Situated in the Highland/Stoner Hill neighborhood, the house lends itself to leisure, according to Farina. “We loved the sunroom to relax, read, watch TV and sometimes just meditate [or] practice yoga. It is an energy of total peace in a chaotic world,” he said by email. “We loved sitting on the patio watching the hummingbirds play with the dragonflies near the fountain.”
Even parties took on a homey quality. “We have thrown intimate and grand dinner parties and social functions, and both felt very personal.”
Community makes the home
But while the property has been accommodating, it was the community that Farina said truly made it a home.
“Shreveport was a destination that was honestly business related that inevitably changed course to embracing so many wonderful family-oriented and community-organized activities,” Farina said. He noted walking along the Red River and watching the “mermaids” (aquatic actresses) swim with the sharks at the Shreveport Aquarium.
“Yet our favorite is the hidden gem, the R.W. Norton Gardens and Museum, where my daughter and I would power walk multiple times per week and always stopped to say hello to the koi fish and turtles.”
Farina’s description of the family’s robust life in the house drives home why leaving was such a hard choice. Baiul echoed that sentiment in an interview with Louisiana First News.
“My heart is broken,” Baiul told the outlet. “I have so many friends here. I have met a lot of wonderful and beautiful people here."
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the party that filed for divorce and where Farina and his daughter are living.