In the early 90s of the last century, Ukrainian gymnast Tatyana Lysenko was considered the “undisputed queen of the balance beam,” on which she became the 1992 Olympic champion in Barcelona. Also in Spain, she won gold as part of the joint SND team and bronze in the vault. The athlete from Kherson had everything to fight with Tatiana Gutsu for victory in the all-around, but mistakes prevented her. Lysenko built a successful career in the USA.
Lysenko was born in Kherson. And as Tatyana later recalled, she was about four or five years old, the girl was very small and very active, when a woman who trained young gymnasts in Kherson saw her and said to her mother: Your daughter is ideal for gymnastics. Why don't you bring her to my class?
“I trained at the Dynamo club, where gymnasts started at the age of four and underwent training and selection as they grew up. We met twice a week for one to two hours. At about six years old, I joined the group of gymnasts with potential - as far as it is possible to determine potential at that age. The number of workouts has increased to about three times a week – still not intense, but a little more focused,” Lysenko told Flogymnastics.
But the key in Tatyana’s career was the transition to Oleg Ostapenko, who became her coach for many years and helped her turn into one of the stars of her generation, and some still call the Ukrainian craftswoman “the undisputed queen of the log.”.
" I was incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Oleg coached Dynamo Kherson in another part of the USSR. When I asked him years later what it was like to start coaching me and four other girls, he said, “I looked at you all and thought, 'God, this is not going to work out here.'. He had already coached national level athletes and had to start all over again with us.. I’m very lucky,” says Tatyana.
One day, when the girls were already learning more complex skills on the uneven bars, the coach came in and asked to stop: “He saw that we were learning techniques designed to gain a certain skill, and not to build correct progress in the future. We've all stopped and redone, going through all the basics. It was nice to know I wasn't being rushed. And looking back I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I built a strong foundation"
Ostapenko was a demanding coach and had very high standards, there was a lot of criticism, but always constructive. Tatyana recalled that, despite all this, he was very positive and treated the young girl as a mature person, so he never controlled what the gymnast ate for dinner or when she went to bed. And for Lysenko it was very important.
After some time, Tatyana and her teammates began attending a training meeting at the Moscow Dynamo center, and also took part in national competitions of the society. And based on the results of these starts, the girl and her friends were invited to attend the Junior National Assembly of the USSR in a training center located about an hour’s drive from Moscow.
The girls traveled 22 hours from Kherson to the capital of the USSR by train: “When we sat down in the afternoon, my teammates and I talked, joked, solved words. It was an opportunity to relax and be children. I remember those times very fondly"
Sometimes Lysenko had to stay at the base in Russia for three months at a time, but she never officially moved there: “My small gym in Kherson remained my home gym, and I returned home every time there was a break in the training schedule.”.
What Tatyana most remembers from the training at the base near Moscow was the grueling winter training camp, when it was incredibly cold outside, there was a thick layer of snow on the ground, but the girls got up at 7 am for morning exercises and had to jog around the perimeter of the training center and get to the gym.
" The cold air made it almost impossible to breathe, and the snow made movement difficult. We came to the gym, quickly changed clothes, started an hour-long workout, and then had breakfast,” the gymnast recalled, but such difficulties could not break her or make her doubt her own abilities.
And here we must pay tribute to Tatyana’s parents, who adored their daughter and supported her in any situation.. At home, they created a comfortable and caring environment for her, which allowed the girl to recover both mentally and physically after grueling training away from home..
“They gave me a sense of self-worth that was independent of my success as a gymnast, which had a huge impact on how I was able to cope with all the ups and downs of being an athlete,” Lysenko admitted..
Tatyana made her debut in senior competitions in 1990, her first major tournament was the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle. The Ukrainian won the overall competition as part of the team, but was not entered in the individual competitions. But in the World Cup finals of the same year, Lysenko took gold in the all-around, ahead of the more experienced three-time Olympic champion Svetlana Boginskaya, thereby confirming her right to remain on the team.
Although in the late 80s and early 90s the competition in the USSR national team was simply insane and, according to Tatyana, you had to constantly prove your advantage: “Between 1990 and 1992, every step you took was critical, and you could never rest on your laurels. And not only your performance in competitions mattered, but also every trial competition, every training session was critical."
“For example, one day during training, when I was preparing to do exercises on the deck, the head coach of the national team, Alexandrov, came up and said: “Okay, if you put this in, you pass.”. It was a joke, but the pressure began immediately. Nobody told me that the head coach would evaluate me that day..
The 1991 World Championships became a traumatic experience for the Ukrainian, although everything started out promising - she performed well in team competitions and qualified for the all-around finals. But at the second stage on the balance beam, Tatyana made a completely unexpected mistake, missing his foot during the dismount. For her it was a shock from which she could not fully recover, she lost a little confidence and no longer had enough energy for a full vault.
But the worst, according to Lysenko, was still to come: “I qualified for the finals on the uneven bars. And looking back, I wish it hadn't happened." While performing the exercise, the gymnast severely injured her arm and was unable to complete it..
“I showed Oleg my hand, which had deflated like a pillow. I was taken to the local emergency room and x-rays showed spiral fractures in four of my metacarpals. The doctor put a cast on my arm and said it would need to be replaced in a few days.. when the swelling goes down. I was in terrible pain, and the team doctor gave me novocaine injections, but I was not given any further help in Indianapolis,” admitted the future champion.
Tatyana could not immediately return home, because the Union team was invited to other competitions, and all tickets and hotels were paid for. And when I returned home, it turned out that the bones had begun to fuse, but a little incorrectly - “some parts were slightly twisted”. According to the doctor, according to the original x-rays, the girl's bones had to be re-aligned in order for them to heal and fuse properly, because she was 16.
" He explained that at that time it was too late, because the bones had already begun to fuse, and I had to hope that in the future there would be no problems with work." hands,” explained Lysenko.
Ironically, if everything had been done correctly, the Ukrainian woman would not have had time to recover in time and begin preparations for the 1992 Olympic Games. And so Tatyana wore a cast for only a month and a half, after which she returned to training. And fortunately, she did not have problems with her hand in the future.
It’s interesting that some in the USSR national team thought that it was all over for Lysenko; at least for a ticket to Barcelona 1992, she was unlikely to be able to fight. Behind Tatiana stood her family and coach, who believed in his pupil. He was going to use the recovery time to get back to basics and polish what he could do.
After removing the cast, I was immediately able to do a huge amount of work without even using one hand. I also focused on ballet, learned new floor choreography, and polished my balance beam moves.. It gave me a break from all the pressure and a chance to start over.. I never lost my level of fitness, and I came out of it invigorated, eager to prove that I was back,” recalled Tatiana.
The Ukrainian had a new routine on the beam, which included a one-arm stand, because she could start the “routine” with something beautiful. And thanks to her high level and perseverance, Lysenko proved her right to compete at the 1992 Olympics, which became her high point..
In Barcelona, \u200b\u200bthe Ukrainian became an Olympic champion with the team, fought for awards in the overall competition, but again made a very unfortunate mistake and finished the competition seventh. But she made up for everything on individual apparatus - Tatyana became third in the vault and won gold on her crown beam, where the execution of a very difficult program was almost flawless, and the judges set a mark of 9.975.
“There were no disappointments, because I won a gold medal with the team at the Olympics. How can anything be disappointing after this During the all-around finals, I completed my routines except for going out of bounds for free.. But, of course, I knew that during any event something could go wrong. crossbar in the final of the competition – it was amazing,” says Tatyana.
Unlike many other Soviet gymnasts, Lysenko did not emigrate immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but continued to compete for Ukraine. the medal could have been gold if it. again did not go beyond the mat in free exercises. It’s interesting that at those competitions Tatyana was the only gymnast from the former USSR on the podium.
According to Lysenko, the period between 1992 and 1993 was a time of change. For some time she continued to travel to the base in Russia.
“As a veteran, I was welcomed with open arms as part of the Ukrainian national team. There was no selection - I just had to show the team with dignity and represent it with dignity. And I was lucky enough to do it at the 1993 World Championships. It was a great experience. After enormous pressure. The 1992 Olympics preparation for the world was a lot of fun. in shape and not lose your skills,” said Tatyana.
But, despite her medal performances, the champion gradually came to the understanding that, apparently, she would not make it to the 1996 Olympics. After all, the team paid great attention to the development of youth, and Lysenko and her generations had to pass on experience, plan for the future and enjoy everything that life had to offer.
Tatyana's last start was the World Championships in Brisbane in 1994. The music was written by French composer Jean Michel Jarre.
" In terms of the grade I got or how well I did the acrobatics, it didn't matter - I had the opportunity to express myself and do something different. After Brisbane, I decided that there was no need to continue the movement of the 1996 Olympics, and I should focus on the next chapter of my life,” Lysenko said about her decision to leave the sport.
And a few years later, taking advantage of her popularity in the USA, she decided to seek happiness overseas. First in the States, she performed on professional tours, worked as a motivational speaker, summer camp coach and acrobatics and ballet instructor.. But this was not enough for Tatyana.
In 2002, Lysenko entered the University of San Francisco School of Law, graduating in 2005..
After working as a lawyer for 10 years, Tatyana chose a different path and founded a recruiting firm that helps companies find the best specialists in their industries.
The former gymnast is also the public relations and investor relations representative for Silicon Valley Open Doors "
Lysenko currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, who works in the technology industry, and their daughter Sofia. In her free time, she enjoys horse riding and yoga..