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Written By Luan Peszek Photography By Dave Black
Closest Finish In History
he 1991 Olympic Garnes women's gymnastics team competition proved to be the most highly competitive in the history of the Garnes. The fonner Soviet Union, now called the Unified Team, once again brought a strong team to the 1992 Olympic Garnes in Barcelona, Spain, winning its 10th team gold medal with a score of 395.666.
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The Unified Team may have won but they certainly didn't win big. Romania and the U.s. finished close behind. The difference between the the first and third place teams was .962, the closest margin of victory in the history of the Games. This shows tha t the U.s. is rising and now a powerful force in the world of gymnastics. The Unified Team has won the Olympic Team gold medal in every Games in which it competed. This Olympic Games is historic, however, because it will be the last Games that the Unified Team will compete together. At the 1996 Olympic Games, each of the athletes on the Unified Team will compete for her own republic, which means the Unified Team's series of wins has come to an end . The Unified Team was led by the "Queen of Gymnastics," 19-year-old Svetlana Boguin-
skaia, who was one of only a handful of gymnasts competing in her second Olympic Games. Boguinskaia dedicated this competition to her former coach who committed suicide after the 1988 Olympics in SeouL The Unified Team also included a pairofTatiana's, Lysenko and Gutsu. Lysenko, 17, is the 1990 World Cup champion from the Ukraine. Fifteen-year-old Gutsu, also from the Ukraine, is the 1992 European Championships gold medalist. Oksana Tchusovitina, 17, is the 1991 World Champion on floor. Roza Galieva, the youngest member of the Unified Team at age 14, wasa member of the gold medal team from the 1991 World Championships, and Elena Groudneva, 18, won the Grand Prix of Rome in 1991. Ludmila Stovbtchataia, 18, was the team alternate. Lysenko said, "For me what
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The Gold Medal Unified Team from left to right: Roza Galieva, Tatiana Gutsu, Tatiana Lysenko,Oksana Tchusovitina, Elena Groudneva and Svetlana Boguinskaia. matters most is the sport, not the country I represent. I'm going to keep on working hard, in order to be the best. Of course, we are very sad that the Soviet system has disappeared. Our team has trained together but we've seen the separa tion of our republics. We've worked together and won the medal as a team." Although the future is unclear for the Unified Team, the future looks bright for the teams from Romania and the U.s. Romania, led by 18-yearold Cristina Bontasand 15-yearold Lavinia Milosovici, won the
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silver medal with a score of 395.079. Other team members include: up-and-coming star Gi na Gogea n, 14; Yanda Hadarean, 16; Maria Neculita, 18; Mirela Pasca, 17; and alternate Eugenia Popa. Romanian coach Octavian Belu said, "Our performance in the compulsori es made me think it was just as possible to reach first position as it was to remain in third . I trusted that my gymnasts would do better in the optional exercises. Today our gymnasts have shown their true potentiaL" The U.s. won the bronze