Oksana Fabrishnova

                                "Fabulouos Fabby" 

 

 

                                

                                Fabby on the cover of international gymnast magazine.

 

 

Oksana Fabrishnova, one of my favorite all-time gymnasts to watch because of her grace, amplitude, difficulty and originality.  She first competed at the international level in 1991 at the Japan International Jr. competition.  Her level of difficulty was incredible for her 12 years but most impressive was her amplitude, technique and form.  She began making a name for herself at the 1992 Jr. European Team Competition where she and her teammate Alexandra Sorokina stole the show on uneven bars with dismounts that had never been seen before.  Sorokina did a triple back and Fabrishnova a double twisting double tuck.  In 1993 she made her world debut at the Birmingham World Championships.  She finished 5th in the All-Arround but displayed the talent and potential to do much better in the future.  At the 1993 European Cup she won the All-arround and balance beam title over great gymnasts like Olympic Champion Lavinia Milosovici, Lilia Podkopaeva and Elena Piskun.  Fabrishnova had arrived to the international gymnastics scene and was seen as Russia big hope for the future.  Unfortunatly, that was her only mayor All-arround title.  Slowed by injury, she slowly began to lose ground on the competition.  Her teammates were getting better and, because of her injuries, she was not progressing at a very fast pace.  At the 1994 World Championships, she was not completly healthy and therefore only competed in the balance beam.  She made the best of her chance to compete in the finals hitting a beautiful rutine to earn a bronze medal, her only individual world medal.  While she was having trouble with her injuries, her teammates Dina Kochetkova and Svetlana Khorkina were colecting individual medals.  Kochetkova won the bronze in the AA and the gold on the floor and Khokina began to make a name for herself on the uneven bars winning the silver medal.  This mean Fabrishnova was no longer the leader of the Russian Team as her teammates progressed rapidly while she had to deal with her injuries.  She participated at the 1994 Goodwill games where she earned a gold medal with her team and silver on the balance beam.  

 

 

    

                                        

                                        Fabby wins the 1993 European Cup.

 

She competed at the 1994 Team World Championships where she was plagued once again with injuries.  She competed in the finals on all apparatus but was clearly not in the best shape of her life.  She spent most of 1995 and 1996 out of competition hopeing to recover from her injuries in the hopes of competing at the 1996 Olympic Games.  She traveled with the Russian delegation to a training camp in Florida prior to the Olympics but was cut from the team at the last moment.  She has not retired from gymnastics and competed in a small meet in November but did not do very well.  In the January issue of International Gymnasts magazine, it was reported that Oksana wanted to continue training for two more years but according to Thomas Dohmeyer she has decided to retire and leave Russia for a job in another country not related to gymnastics.  Some of her more impressive skill are a double twisting yurchenko, a double twisting double tuck off bars, handspring punch front on beam, full-in dissmount on beam and cradle on beam.