Tatiana Lysenko

Tatiana Lysenko
Full name Tatiana Felixivna Lysenko
Country represented  Ukraine
Former country(ies) represented  Soviet Union
Born June 23, 1975 (1975-06-23) (age 36)
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics

Tatiana Felixivna Lysenko (Ukrainian: Тетяна Фелiксiвна Лисенко; born on June 23, 1975, in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR) is a Soviet and Ukrainian gymnast, who had her senior competitive career from 1990 to 1994.

She is Jewish.[1] Tatiana was known for her exceptional difficulty level and haughty style on the floor. She won many major medals but her inconsistency prevented her from even greater achievements - she was a serious contender for the 1992 Olympic title and 1991 and 1993 world titles, but mistakes prevented this.

Lysenko was a member of the Soviet Union team during the early 1990s, a period when their pool of talent was exceptionally deep. Merely to make a major team represented a huge achievement, since competition was so fierce (the USSR never lost the women's team competition in the Olympic Games).

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Career

She made her senior debut in 1990, winning the all-around competition in the World Cup. The next year she was selected for the Soviet team to the world championships in Indianapolis, where they won the team competition. She qualified to the all-around competition, ahead of her talented teammates Oksana Chusovitina, Rozalia Galiyeva and Natalia Kalinina, all accomplished gymnasts. However, she fell from beam and did not win any individual medals.

Tatiana's most notable achievements came at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She represented the Unified Team (ex-Soviets) along with Svetlana Boguinskaya, Tatiana Gutsu, Elena Grudneva, Rozalia Galiyeva and Oksana Chusovitina. As expected, they took the team title by a comfortable margin. Another mistake in the all-around took Lysenko out of the running once again (she finished 7th), but she later redeemed herself. Performing the most difficult vault in the entire competition, a double-twisting Yurchenko, she won a bronze in that event (9.912). Then to the beam, where Lysenko performed a difficult routine immaculately and was rewarded with gold (9.975). By the end of the competition, she was twice an Olympic champion.

Unlike many of her Soviet teammates, Lysenko opted to continue after the breakup of the USSR, and represented her native Ukraine at the 1993 World Championships in Birmingham. She won bronze in the all around, which would have been gold had she not stepped out of the floor. Lysenko was the only ex-Soviet on the podium, a reflection of how the political upheaval affected sports.

Tatiana continued to compete internationally in 1994. She attended the World Championships in Brisbane and placed 18th in the all-round (due to a mistake on her beam dismount). In the event finals, she placed 4th in vault.

After her competitive career was over, Tatiana moved to the United States and now lives in California. She graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law and was admitted the California State Bar in 2005. In 2002 Tatiana was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame.

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]

External links