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Armine Barutyan-Fong
Byan
Barutyan with her medals

Full name

Armine Barutyan-Fong

Country represented

800px-Flag of the Soviet Union USSR

Born

December 12 1969 (1969-12-12) (age 55)
Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR

Years on National Team

1981-1982, 1985-1986

Club

Spartak Yerevan

Coach

H. Meltonian

Current status

Retired

Armine Barutyan-Fong (born Armine Barutyan, in Armenian: Արմինե Բարության, born December 12 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR) is a retired former Soviet elite gymnast.

Early Life[]

Armine was a child of a Syrian father and an Israeli mother, with her parents moving to Yerevan after World War II. She showed much promise as a gymnast, but frequently struggled throughout her career due to problems regarding her Armenian nationality.

Junior and Senior Career[]

Her first big competition was the 1981 Children's Spartakiade. After this meet, she was named to the Junior soviet national team, where she competed alongside gymnasts like Oksana Omelianchik and Elena Shushunova. This led to her being sent to represent the Soviet Union in international meets. In 1982, she won the all-around in the Eastern Bloc Youth Tournament as well as the Druzhba (Friendship) Championship in Mongolia. In addition, Armine won the All-Around at the Moncada Cup in Spain. This was a very succesful year for her in terms of results. In 1983, at the USSR Championships, she competed one of the first double layouts off the bars. She competed a double layout off beam and a triple back off bars as well around this time, according to a piece written by the New York Times in 2007. Armine was not seen in the international scene from 1983-1984. In 1985, she re-emerged, and competed at the Medico Cup, alongside Natalia Andreeva, winning the all-around, at the Belgian Gym Masters, where she won the vault final, finished 3rd in the all-around and 5th on floor, and finished 2nd in the AA at the Druzhba tournament, behind Elena Gurova. These were the last international meets she competed at. In 1986, she was selected as the alternate for the Junior European championship soviet team, and eventually disappeared from the scene. Armine faced many political troubles throughout her time as a gymnast. After refusing to move closer to Moscow to train alongside the national team and change her surname to a more "Russian-sounding" one, Barutyan says she was taken off the soviet national team and believes she was purposely scored lower in several competitions as a consequence, as well as being left off teams for meets abroad despite her having great results at national meets. Armine retired in 1988, after not making the team for the Seoul Olympics and moved to the US.

Post-retirement[]

After her retirement, she left the USSR in 1989. In 1990, she began coaching at Verdugo Gymnastics in Los Angeles, eventually leaving to coach at the Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE) training centre, where she met her now husband Al Fong. Armine has been a coach at GAGE for more than 2 decades now.

Medal Count[]

Year Event TF AA VT UB BB FX
1980 Junior USSR Championships 3rd
1981 Riga International RES¹
1982 Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba) 1st 1st
1983 USSR Championships 13 8
1984 Moncada Cup 1st
1985 Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba) 1st 2nd 1st 1st
Junior GDR-USSR Dual Meet 3rd
Belgian Gym Masters 3rd 1st
Medico Cup 1st
USSR Championships 14
1986 USSR Spartakiade 13
USSR Cup 15

¹- Competed in the all-around but was not ranked[1]

References[]

https://web.archive.org/web/20110827062339/http://www.gymn.ca/gymnasticgreats/wag/barutyan.htm

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