Doris Fuchs

{{short description|American gymnast}}

{{For|the German political scientist|Doris Fuchs (scientist)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox sportsperson

|name=

|image = Doris Fuchs 1960.jpg

| image_size =

|caption=Fuchs at the 1960 Olympics

|birth_date={{birth date and age|1938|6|11}}

|birth_place= Villingen im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

|death_date=

|death_place=

| height = 152 cm

| weight = 54 kg

|sport=Artistic gymnastics

| club = Rochester Catholic Youth Organization

|show-medals=yes

| medaltemplates=

{{MedalCountry|{{USA}}}}

{{MedalCompetition|Pan American Games}}

{{MedalGold|1963 São Paulo |Team all-around}}

{{MedalGold|1963 São Paulo |Ind. all-around}}

{{MedalGold|1963 São Paulo |Balance beam}}

{{MedalGold|1963 São Paulo |Uneven bars}}

}}

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.

Biography

Doris Fuchs was born in Villingen im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg 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 and 1960 Summer Olympics 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 in 1960. Fuchs attended the 1963 Pan American Games 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.{{Cite web |url=https://usagym.org/pages/pressbox/history/panam_results_artistic.html |title=Men's and Women's Pan American Games Results |access-date=2021-11-18 |archive-date=2015-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402170930/https://usagym.org/pages/pressbox/history/panam_results_artistic.html |url-status=dead }} 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 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.[https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/2015/07/08/rocjocks-olympic-gymnast-doris-fuchs/29875029/ RocJocks: Olympian Doris Fuchs changed gymnastics][https://web.archive.org/web/20150414002753/https://www.insidegymnastics.com/content/show/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=1962&zoneid=1 10 ROUTINES THAT CHANGED GYMNASTICS FOREVER] In 1982 she was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Besides gymnastics, Fuchs trained in the javelin throw and triple jump. Her sister Inge was also an international gymnast. At the 1960 Olympics Fuchs became friends with the Soviet boxer Boris Nikonorov. 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. Soviet authorities threatened Nikonorov with repercussions if he did not stop communicating with Fuchs, and after a long struggle, he was forced to oblige.{{Cite web|url=https://weekend.rambler.ru/people/42670014-ih-svela-olimpiada-i-razluchil-kgb/|title = Их свела Олимпиада и разлучил КГБ}} Fuchs would eventually marry her coach instead, Eckhard Brause.

References

File:Doris Fuchs and Boris Nikonorov 1960.jpg at the 1960 Olympics]]

{{Commons category-inline|Doris Fuchs}}

{{Reflist|refs=

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200418043031/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fu/doris-fuchs-1.html Doris Fuchs]. sports-reference.com

[http://www.usghof.org/files/bio/d_fuchs/d_fuchs.html FUCHS-BRAUSE, Doris]. usghof.org

[http://bmsi.ru/doc/c75947cc-947c-4202-a99c-fe892b1863a5/html Борис Никоноров: Я и сейчас уверен, что на Олимпиаде в Риме и чемпионате Европы в Москве не проиграл]. bmsi.ru (interview in Russian)

}}

{{Footer USA Gymnastics 1956 Summer Olympics}}

{{Footer USA Gymnastics 1960 Summer Olympics}}

{{Gymnastics at the Pan American Games – Women's team competition|1963}}

{{Gymnastics at the Pan American Games – Women's individual all-around}}

{{Gymnastics at the Pan American Games – Women's uneven bars}}

{{Gymnastics at the Pan American Games – Women's balance beam}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Doris}}

Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Category:Gymnasts at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Category:Gymnasts at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Category:Olympic gymnasts for the United States

Category:American female artistic gymnasts

Category:Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics

Category:Gymnasts at the 1963 Pan American Games

Category:Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games

Category:20th-century American sportswomen