Doris Fuchs


Doris Gudrun Fuchs is a retired American gymnast who won four gold medals at the 1963 Pan American Games. She 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 1964 Olympics as a reserve. In 1982 she was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Fuchs was born in a wealthy family, and besides gymnastics 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 didn't stop communicating with Fuchs, and after a long struggle, he was forced to oblige.