Tatiana Gutsu

Tatiana Gutsu, rarely Tetiana Hutsu, (, ; born 5 September 1976, in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian former artistic gymnast from the Soviet Union and the winner of the all-around title in the 1992 Summer Olympics. She was renowned for performing some of the most difficult routines in the sport. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2022.

Career Born into a Ukrainian family with Moldovan roots, Gutsu started in gymnastics at age 6. She became a member of the national team of the Soviet Union in 1988. Her first major international competition was the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Indianapolis, where she won the team title with the Soviet Union and finished fifth in the individual all-around, while winning silver medals in two individual apparatus finals: the uneven bars and balance beam. Her silver on beam was highly controversial because the winner, Soviet teammate Svetlana Boginskaya, performed a simpler routine.

Gutsu was quickly noticed for the difficulty of her routines. She was one of the few gymnasts during the late 80s/early 90s to perform a double-twisting Yurchenko vault. She also debuted a double layout somersault on floor with split legs in the first salto, a skill that few others have been able to perform. Perhaps most impressively, she ended her floor routine in the team competition with a double layout somersault.

The following year, she had a disastrous showing at the 1992 World Championships. She had been expected to contend for gold on three events—uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise—but failed to reach the finals on any of them, suffering falls on both the bars and floor. However, at the European Gymnastics Championships that year, she won the all-around, vault, and uneven bars titles, as well as a silver on the balance beam. She was the most successful gymnast of the championship and established herself as one of the favorites for the Olympic all-around title.

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 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. Galiyeva was forced to claim a severe knee injury, which was "verified" by the team physician.

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. 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). and the Soviet coaches' removal of Olga Mostepanova and Irina Baraksanova for Elena Shushunova and Oksana Omelianchik in the 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. 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.

Alleged rape In October 2017, she accused former Soviet (Belarusian) gymnast Vitaly Scherbo of raping her when she was 15.

Competitive history Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX Junior 1986 CA-VMD Junior Championship 1987 Sdushor Championships 1988 SKA Championships Ukrainian Championships URS-GDR Dual Meet 1989 Druzhba 4 URS National Championships 1990 Blume Memorial USSR vs The World 8 Moscow News/World Stars 9 USSR Cup World Sports Fair 4 URS-USA Dual Meet 4 USSR Championships 4 Junior USSR Championships Junior European Championships Senior 1991 Moscow News/World Stars Hungarian International USSR Cup 4 DTB Cup Coca-Cola International Rome Grand Prix Grand Prix Finals (Torino) URS-ITA Dual Meet URS-ESP Dual Meet USSR Championships 4 4 World Championships 5 1992 CIS Cup Moscow News/World Stars CIS Championships 6 European Championships Imperial Casino DTB Cup 5 Gander Memorial 5 Olympic Games

International scores CIS Year Competition Description Location Apparatus Rank-Final Score-Final Rank-Qualifying Score-Qualifying 1992 Olympic Games Barcelona Team 1 395.666 All-Around 1 39.737 9 78.848 Vault 9 19.787 Uneven Bars 2 9.975 1 19.899 Balance Beam 37 19.312 Floor Exercise 3 9.912 5 19.850 World Championships Paris Balance Beam WD Balance Beam (Semi−Final) 3 9.875 Balance Beam (Qualification) 1 9.937 European Championships Nantes All-Around 1 39.725 Vault 1 9.950 4 9.900 Uneven Bars 1 9.937 1 9.950 Balance Beam 2 9.900 2 9.925 Floor Exercise 3 9.887 1 9.950

Soviet Union Year Competition Description Location Apparatus Rank-Final Score-Final Rank-Qualifying Score-Qualifying 1991 World Championships Indianapolis Team 1 396.055 All-Around 5 39.636 3 79.298 Vault 7 19.750 Uneven Bars 2 9.950 3 19.875 Balance Beam 2 9.950 5 19.849 Floor Exercise 6 19.824