ERIN KAUFMAN

Special to the Jewish News

T

he 1992 Barcelona
Olympics were the show-
case of her efforts. The
years of sacrifice boiled
down to less then a tenth of a point.
In the narrowest margin in
Olympic gymnastics history, Tatiana j
Gutsu clinched the gold. "It was
nothing big," her coaches said. It was
simply expected.
The quiet, shy, 15-year-old was
thrust into the world spotlight. Her 1
routines in the finals were solid. Not
only did she capture gold in the all-
around, but also silver on bars and
bronze on floor exercise.
The Russian team grabbed gold
and Gutsu was swept away by the
media.
Before the Olympics she had no
friends. After she medaled, there were
lots of friends. Her teammates were
jealous, especially after the parade
back home in the Ukraine in her
honor.
Her parents had watched the
Olympics from their home in Russia
because the government was afraid
they would not return if they went to
the Olympics. Life also changed- at
the gym. Gutsu was treated different-
ly by her teammates and everyone
around her — especially the media.
Articles were publiihed that the fami-
ly was receiving lar tuns of o - ne "
when, in fact, they'
The whole exper
"excited and confus

Erin Kaufman is

Farmington High
gymnast who practi
Club.

changed in the span of two weeks.
During this time the government
was disintegrating and life was hard for
most Russians. Religion was kept secret
and everything associated with it was
withheld from Gutsu. Her family feared
government officials or her classmates
would discover her Jewish background.

Tatiana Gutsu is
learning about
her roots. •

The few times that she had been
taken to the synagogue as a child
were not to pray, but to experience.
She was not told why she was there or
what was happening. Her mother,
who came from an Orthodox Jewish
family, understood the value of secre-
cy in the Soviet Union. Tatiana was

not to know she was Jewish.
After the Olympics, Gutsu trained
two more years before coming to the
United States. At several meets in
Russia after the Olympics, she placed
in individual events, but no all-
around medals were awarded.
When she graduated high school,
she had a choice to study at a Russian
university or come to the U.S. If she
went to college in Russia, there would
be no more opportunities to come to
America.
She chose America to honor the
promise she made to herself at the
Seattle Goodwill Games in 1990. She
was so taken by this country that she
swore that she would return. She can
still recall the yellow school bus dri-
ving back to the hotel and her vision
of her life in America.
That dream led her, at the age of
17, to leave her family and move to
the Midwest. She spoke no English.
After coaching jobs in several states,
she settled in Detroit and took a
coaching job at the Sports Club in
West Bloomfield. She wants to help
young girls reach their potential and
she enjoys giving one-on-one atten-
tion in private lessons.
This past summer, she returned to
Odessa, Ukraine to visit her family
for the first time in five years. She was
shocked by how much they had
changed. While in Russia, her god-
aine,ugroduced her to
to** Ohe during gymnastics
.
talking about Chanuka
fly mentioned that
d celebrate. My
ed her to a tradi-
nner. My parents,
fman, as well as my
d my grandparents
Fortgang, would be

An Olympic champion, teaching in West Bloomfield, is rediscovering her Judaism.

IN

2/11
2000

104