Tatiana Lysenko
Encyclopedia
Tatiana Felixivna Lysenko ' onMouseout='HidePop("22363")' href="/topics/Kherson">Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...

, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

) is a Soviet and Ukrainian gymnast
Gymnast
Gymnasts are people who participate in the sports of either artistic gymnastics, trampolining, or rhythmic gymnastics.See gymnasium for the origin of the word gymnast from gymnastikos.-Female artistic:Australia...

, who had her senior competitive career from 1990 to 1994.

She is Jewish. 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
1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 26th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Indianapolis, USA, in the Hoosier Dome, September 6 to 15, 1991.-Medals:-All-round:-Apparatus:-All-round:-Apparatus:-References:**...

 and 1993 world titles, but mistakes prevented this.

Lysenko was a member of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 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
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

).

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
World Gymnastics Championships
The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique organises World Gymnastics Championships for each of the gymnastic disciplines:...

 in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, where they won the team competition. She qualified to the all-around competition, ahead of her talented teammates Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast who has competed for Germany since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan ....

, Rozalia Galiyeva
Rozalia Galiyeva
Rozaliya Ilfovna Galiyeva or Roza Galieva is a gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics....

 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
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...

 in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

. She represented the Unified Team
Unified Team
The Unified Team was the name used for the sports team of the former Soviet Union at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The IOC country code was EUN, after the French name, Équipe Unifiée...

 (ex-Soviets) along with Svetlana Boguinskaya, Tatiana Gutsu
Tatiana Gutsu
Tatiana Konstantinivna Gutsu is a Ukrainian gymnast, winner of the 1992 Olympic all-around title. Renowned as a trickster, the routines she competed were some of the most difficult ever in the sport...

, Elena Grudneva, Rozalia Galiyeva
Rozalia Galiyeva
Rozaliya Ilfovna Galiyeva or Roza Galieva is a gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics....

 and Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Chusovitina
Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast who has competed for Germany since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan ....

. 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
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 at the 1993 World Championships
1993 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Birmingham, England in 1993. There was no team competition at this meet; gymnasts competed in the all-around and event finals only....

 in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

. 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and now lives in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. 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

  • List of select Jewish gymnasts

External links

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