Tatiana Lysenko

This article is about the gymnast. For the hammer thrower of the same name, see Tatyana Lysenko.

Tatiana Lysenko
Full name	Tatiana Felixivna Lysenko
Country represented	Ukraine
Former country(ies) represented	Soviet Union
Born	June 23, 1975 (1975-06-23)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 1992 Barcelona Team competition Gold 1992 Barcelona Balance beam Bronze 1992 Barcelona Vault World Championships Gold 1991 Indianapolis Team Bronze 1992 Paris Floor exercise Bronze 1993 Birmingham All-around European Championships Silver 1992 Nantes Uneven bars

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.

Lysenko is Jewish. She was known for the difficulty level of her routines and demeanor 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 its pool of talent was deep (the USSR never lost the women's team competition in the Olympic Games).

Career

Lysenko 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.

Lysenko'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. They won the team title by a comfortable margin. Lysenko finished 7th in the all-around but she won the bronze medal in the vault after performing the most difficult vault in the entire competition, a double-twisting Yurchenko (9.912). Lysenko then won the gold in the beam event (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.

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

After her competitive career was over, Lysenko 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 Lysenko was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame.

See also

• List of select Jewish gymnasts

External links

• Tatiana Lysenko at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• List of competitive results at Gymn Forum