Her moves were innovative, so new and unexpected that no one really knew how to react.
Gymnasts remained relatively stationary when competing on the uneven bars, performing routines consisting of simple circles and balance holds. But at the 1966 World Championships, Doris Fuchs darted from bar to bar, spinning quickly and descending with grace and panache. It was unlike anything the world had ever seen.
The crowd erupted in applause. But the judges weren't quite sure what to make of what they had just witnessed. They gave her a low score and Fuchs left without a medal. In response, fans stamped on her feet, jeered at her and booed her for more than an hour, the Associated Press reported.
“I thought I deserved more than I got,” Fuchs told reporters, and at least one of the judges agreed. she was amazing ”
Although the magnitude of Fuchs' performance was not recognized at the time, her performance came to be seen as a turning point for the sport. Inside Gymnastics magazine ranked this gymnastics at the top of their list of her 10 routines that changed gymnastics forever.
Fuchs was only 18 years old when she competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was also a member of the 1960 Rome women's team. It was there that she was photographed for the cover of Life magazine, doing a handstand with her teammates inside her statue outside the Stadio dei Marmi.
She was an alternate on the 1964 Olympic team, a decision that was controversial and prompted a formal protest from her teammates. Although Fuchs' qualifying scores were high, the U.S. coach chose to drop her in favor of younger gymnasts with whom he had trained in the offseason. Her replacement gymnasts and the U.S. national team performed poorly at the Tokyo Games, and the coach later publicly apologized for her own decision.
A slipped disc kept her from joining the 1968 Mexico City Olympic team.
Although Fuchs never won an Olympic medal, he won gold medals in the individual all-around, uneven bars, beam, and team at the 1963 Pan American Games. She also won gold medals at her 1955, 1961, 1964 and 1965 National AAU Championships.
Ms. Fuchs immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1951 when she was just 12 years old. She grew up in a Greek town with her parents and her sister Inge, who was also an Olympic gymnast. Fuchs married coach Eckhardt Braus in the mid-1960s, and she moved with him to Connecticut, where she trained with other top female gymnasts.
She was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1982.
