Tatiana Goutsou is a gymnast who has competed for the Unified Team. She competed at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.
Goutsou was heavily favored to win several medals in women's artistic gymnastics at the Games. In the qualifying stage of the competition, she fell off the balance beam that dropped her tremendously to the ninth spot. Thirty-six gymnasts qualified for the final but only three of them from each country were eligible to enter. Because of Goutsou's hapless fall, three of her teammates were placed higher than hers from the prelims. The team coaches felt that Goutsou had a greater chance to capture the all-around title than either Svetlana Boguinskaia or Rozalia Galiyeva. They decided to keep Boguinskaia as she was vastly popular and a scandal would transpire if she forfeited her spot. Instead, they insisted her younger teammate Galiyeva to relinquish her place in the final at the expense of Goutsou's gold-medal odds. Galiyeva was forced to claim a severe knee injury to be soon "verified" by the team's physician.
In one of the deepest fields ever for the all-around, Goutsou fought off a close challenge against the American favorite Shannon Miller for the gold medal. She performed balance checks in her difficult beam routine and incurred a single flaw on her double layout during the floor exercise, allowing her rivals to stay in contention with her. At the final rotation, Goutsou tied for the top spot with Miller and a full-twisting layout Yurchenko on the vault routine subdued Miller's challenge to capture the all-around title by 0.012 of a point margin, the closest ever in the event's history. She also helped the Soviet women dominate the team all-around event and added two more medals in the apparatus finals, a silver on the uneven bars and a bronze on the floor exercise, bringing home an Olympic medal haul to four.
Shortly after the Olympics, Goutsou retired from competitive gymnastics, citing serious injuries. She moved to the United States in 1993 to work full-time as a gymnastics coach in Michigan.
Olympic Results[]
| Year | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Women's individual all-around | 
|
| Women's team |
| |
| Women's floor | 
| |
| Women's vault | 9th | |
| Women's uneven bars | 
| |
| Women's balance beam | 37th |
1992[]
| Discipline | Stage | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Individual all-around | Qualification | 78.848 |
| Final | 39.737 | |
| Team | Final | 395.666 (78.848) |
| Floor | Qualification | 19.850 |
| Final | 9.912 | |
| Vault | Qualification | 19.787 |
| Final | Did not advance | |
| Uneven bars | Qualification | 19.899 |
| Final | 9.975 | |
| Balance beam | Qualification | 19.312 |
| Final | Did not advance |