Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Tatiana Gutsu
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
=== 1992 Olympics === In the preliminary round of competition at the Olympics, Gutsu, then 15, fell from the balance beam and was ranked 9th in the all-around. She had been on course to win the optional portion of the team competition and was one of the favourites for the beam gold medal, but the fall meant she did not qualify for the beam final. Although 36 gymnasts qualified for the all-around, only three competitors from each country were allowed in the final, and because of Gutsu's fall, three other competitors from the [[Unified Team at the Olympics|Unified Team]] placed higher in the preliminaries. However, the team coaches felt that Gutsu had a better chance of bringing home all-around gold than her teammates Boginskaya and [[Rozalia Galiyeva]]. They considered scratching Boginskaya, but felt that she was too famous and there would be a scandal. As a result, they forced Gutsu's younger teammate Galiyeva to forfeit her place in the final so that Gutsu could compete.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/31/sports/barcelona-gymnastics-gutsu-beats-miller-and-stashes-gold-in-the-vault.html|title=Gutsu Beats Miller and Stashes Gold in the Vault|last=Janofsky|first=Michael|date=1992-07-31|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2017-02-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Galiyeva was forced to claim a severe knee injury, which was "verified" by the team physician.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976198,00.html|title=Gymnastics Ode to Joylessness|last=Smolowe|first=Jill|date=1992-08-10|newspaper=Time|access-date=2017-02-19|issn=0040-781X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/25/sports/atlanta-day-6-notebook-some-gymnastics-trickery.html|title=Some Gymnastics Trickery?|last=Clarey|first=Christopher|date=1996-07-25|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2017-02-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In one of the deepest fields ever for the all-around, Gutsu was in a close race for the gold medal. She had a few balance checks in her difficult beam routine and made an error on her double layout on floor, allowing her rivals to stay in contention with her. With one apparatus to go, Gutsu was tied for first place with [[Shannon Miller]] of the United States. Her final performance on vault (a full-twisting layout Yurchenko) was just enough to hold off Miller's challenge.<ref name=":1" /> Gutsu won the title by .012,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/07/31/zmeskal-steps-out-then-down-world-champion-is-tearful-10th-as-gutsu-miller-reign-barcelona-92/|title=Zmeskal steps out, then down: World champion is tearful 10th as Gutsu, Miller reign|last=Glauber|first=Bill|date=1992-07-31|newspaper=Baltimore Sun|access-date=2017-02-19|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215181510/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-07-31/sports/1992213141_1_gutsu-zmeskal-unified-team|archive-date=2017-02-15|url-status=live}}</ref> which remains the closest margin of victory ever in an Olympic all-around. She also took home medals in the team competition (gold), uneven bars (silver) and floor exercise (bronze).<ref name=":0" /> What set Gutsu apart from Miller was her difficulty.<ref name=":0" /> She was competing during the height of the "pixie" era, when the favoured type of gymnast was a small athlete capable of extreme difficulty, and Gutsu exemplified this. She performed the same vault as most other leading gymnasts (except [[Tatiana Lysenko]]), but her difficulty on the other three events was high. Her beam routine was especially notable: she competed probably the most difficult dismount sequence of all time, three [[back handspring]]s into a tucked full-in, and also performed a standing back somersault with a full twist. On floor, Gutsu opened with a split-leg double layout and closed with a piked full-in. On bars, she dismounted with a double layout. Miller showed less difficulty, particularly on the floor exercise (where she performed a whip to tucked full-in for her mount, a whip to double pike for her middle pass, and a tucked full-in for her dismount), but was impressive on beam with her back handspring to three layouts sequence, her superior form, and a stuck full-in dismount. Galiyeva was always angry and bitter about having given up her place in the all-around to Gutsu, feeling that she had had no option but to agree. The two split the prize money between them, but they stopped speaking after the Olympics. The substitution was against the rules (as Galiyeva's injury was not genuine), but such switches were and are common in gymnastics, usually when a gymnast considered to be the best on the team makes a mistake in qualifications and thus finishes behind a teammate who is considered weaker. Other notable examples include the replacement of [[Alexandra Marinescu]] with [[Simona Amânar]] in the [[1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Olympics]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/26/sports/atlanta-day-7-gymnastics-us-gymnasts-take-back-seat-in-all-around.html|title=U.S. Gymnasts Take Back Seat in All-Around|last=Clarey|first=Christopher|date=1996-07-26|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2017-02-19|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and the Soviet coaches' removal of [[Olga Mostepanova]] and [[Irina Baraksanova]] for [[Elena Shushunova]] and [[Oksana Omelianchik]] in the [[1985 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|1985 World Championships]]. On both occasions, the gymnasts substituted in took a medal. Coaches now have the right to make such substitutions without having to falsify injuries. After retiring from competitive gymnastics, Gutsu moved to the [[United States]], where she is a gymnastics coach in [[Michigan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/1393/controversial_soviet_gold_medalist_tatiana_gutsu_reflects_from_west_bloomfield#.WKkTJGQrIy4|title=Controversial Soviet Gold Medalist Tatiana Gutsu Reflects from West Bloomfield|date=2012-07-31|website=www.deadlinedetroit.com|access-date=2017-02-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219171936/http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/1393/controversial_soviet_gold_medalist_tatiana_gutsu_reflects_from_west_bloomfield#.WKkTJGQrIy4|archive-date=2017-02-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> She tried for a comeback to compete at the [[2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]] as a three-event specialist (vault, beam, and floor), but was unsuccessful.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Tatiana Gutsu
(section)
Add topic