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