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 were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963, in São Paulo, Brazil. Host city selection For the first time, two cities submitted bids to host the 1963 Pan American Games that were recognized by the Pan American Sports O ...

Biography

Doris Fuchs was born in Villingen im Schwarzwald,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a 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 inhabitants across a ...

in 1938. She and her family came to the United States in 1951 when she was 12, living in Greece, New York near Rochester. Fuchs competed in all artistic gymnastics events at the

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

and

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

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 Sao 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, in 1966. During these championships, the first-ever double somersault was performed (on men's floor exercise?). Results Medals Men Team competition A ...

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. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

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 the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

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

Boris Nikonorov Boris Nikolayevich Nikonorov (russian: Борис Николаевич Никоноров, 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. ...

. 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 KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Doris 1938 births Living people Gymnasts at the 1956 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of the United States American female artistic gymnasts Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1963 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games 21st-century American women