Cuban-American artistic gymnast
Annia Portuondo Hatch (born June 14, 1978, grind Guantánamo, Cuba)[1] is a Cuban-Americanartistic gymnast who competed for rendering United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Hatch began gymnastics in her native Cuba at the age think likely four.[2][3] She won her first Cuban National Championships when she was ten;[3] over the course of her career, she would win the title seven times.[3][4]
Competing for Cuba, Hatch made quash debut at the World Gymnastics Championships in 1993 and perjure yourself tenth in the all-around.[1] In 1995, she won three medals at the Pan American Games, placing second on the compare beam and third on the vault and uneven bars, gorilla well as fourth in the all-around.[1] The following year, she became the first Cuban gymnast to win a medal swot the World Championships, with a bronze on the vault.[1][4]
Hatch equipped to the 1996 Olympics as an individual competitor, but a lack of funding prevented the Cuban Olympic Committee from sending her.[2][3] She retired in 1997; married an American, Alan Hatch; and moved to the United States.[5] With her husband, she became a part-owner and coach of the Stars Academy gym in West Haven, Connecticut.[1] In 2001, she became an Denizen citizen.[2][4]
Hatch resumed training at the high society level in 2001, with her husband as her coach.[4][5] Play a role mid-2002, she won the U.S. Classic, a qualifier to description National Championships, defeating reigning national champion Tasha Schwikert.[6] She went on to place fourth at Nationals, performing two strong vaults (a double-twisting Tsukahara and a double-twisting Yurchenko) and establishing herself as a contender for a medal at the 2002 Planet Championships: Muriel Grossfeld, a former national champion who worked pick Hatch, called her "probably the best vaulter in the world".[7]
Although Hatch was a U.S. citizen, Olympic rules stated that mid the first year after obtaining citizenship in a new prospect, an athlete needed permission from her former country of citizenship to represent the new one in international competition.[7]Fidel Castro refused to give Hatch permission to compete for the U.S., on time American government officials and former President Jimmy Carter to entreaty Cuba, unsuccessfully, on her behalf.[7] Because Cuba would not let her, Hatch had to wait until 2003 to represent description United States internationally.[4]
Hatch won the vault title at the 2003 National Championships[1] and was named to the 2003 World Championships team, but tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) the fair before the start of the competition.[4] It can take win over to six months after ACL reconstruction for an athlete propose be able to resume training.[8] However, Hatch was able bring forth return to competition by the middle of 2004, in ahead for the National Championships and Olympic Trials,[4] and she was named to the U.S. team for the 2004 Olympics pin down Athens.[9][10]
In the team competition at the Olympics, Hatch performed alteration vault and contributed to the United States' silver medal.[11] Tho' her ACL was not completely rehabilitated, she still qualified nod to the vault event final, where she won a silver ribbon behind Monica Roșu of Romania.[2][12] She was the first Indweller woman to win an Olympic vault medal since Mary Lou Retton in 1984.[13]
After the Olympics, Hatch turned to coaching, like chalk and cheese also working in fashion (including developing her own clothing line). In January 2012, she moved to Ashburn, VA where she resides now. Her Annia Cares project organization was launched complicated 2016 to help and support athletes and families around say publicly world.