Doris Gudrun Fuchs (later ''Brause'', born June 11, 1938) is a retired American gymnast who won four gold medals at the

1963 Pan American Games The 1963 Pan American Games, officially known as the IV Pan American Games () and commonly known as São Paulo 1963, were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963, in São Paulo, Brazil. Host city selection For the first time, two cities submitted b ...

Biography

Doris Fuchs was born in Villingen im Schwarzwald,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

in 1938. She and her family came to the United States in 1951 when she was 12, living in

Greece, New York Greece is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States. A contiguous suburb of Rochester, it is the largest town by population in Monroe County and the second-largest municipality by population in the county, behind only the city of Roche ...

near Rochester. Fuchs competed in all

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), ...

events at the

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

and

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

and finished ninth with the American team three times: all-around in both games and in the team portable apparatus in 1956. Her best individual result was eighth place on

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

in 1960. Fuchs attended the

in São Paulo, and earned three individual gold medals there as well as a fourth gold medal from the USA winning the women's team competition. Fuchs attended the 1964 Olympics as a reserve. This attracted minor controversy, as the coach trusted one of his own gymnasts to be put on the main team over Fuchs despite Fuchs having higher scores in qualifying. At the

1966 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 16th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Dortmund, West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reun ...

in West Germany, Fuchs performed a well-regarded and innovative uneven bars event. While the crowd approved, she received low scores from the judges and did not medal.RocJocks: Olympian Doris Fuchs changed gymnastics
/ref> In 1982 she was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Besides gymnastics, Fuchs trained in the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

and

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

. Her sister Inge was also an international gymnast. At the 1960 Olympics Fuchs became friends with the Soviet boxer

Boris Nikonorov Boris Nikolayevich Nikonorov (, 25 January 1939 – 30 August 2015) was a Russian amateur boxer who won a silver medal in the featherweight division at the 1963 European Championships. He competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics, but lost in the th ...

. She visited Nikonorov's family in 1963, when the U.S. gymnastics team had a competition in Moscow and had a long correspondence by mail, exchanging gifts and love letters, which was intercepted and suppressed by the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

. Soviet authorities threatened Nikonorov with repercussions if he did not stop communicating with Fuchs, and after a long struggle, he was forced to oblige. Fuchs would eventually marry her coach instead, Eckhard Brause.

References

External links

Doris Fuchs-Brause
at the

USA Gymnastics United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots ...

Hall of Fame * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Doris 1938 births Living people Gymnasts at the 1956 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for the United States American female artistic gymnasts Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1963 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games 20th-century American sportswomen