Annia Hatch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
— Gymnast — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Full name | Annia Portuondo Hatch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country represented | United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former countries represented | Cuba | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Guantánamo, Cuba |
June 14, 1978 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Residence | Ashburn, Virginia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level | Senior International Elite | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years on national team | 2002–2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Stars Elite | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head coach(es) | Alan Hatch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Annia Portuondo Hatch (born June 14, 1978, in Guantánamo, Cuba) is a Cuban-American artistic gymnast who competed for the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Hatch began gymnastics in her native Cuba at the age of four. She won her first Cuban National Championships when she was ten; over the course of her career, she would win the title seven times.
Competing for Cuba, Hatch made her debut at the World Gymnastics Championships in 1993 and placed tenth in the all-around. In 1995, she won three medals at the Pan American Games, placing second on the balance beam and third on the vault and uneven bars, as well as fourth in the all-around. The following year, she became the first Cuban gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships, with a bronze on the vault.
Hatch qualified to the 1996 Olympics as an individual competitor, but a lack of funding prevented the Cuban Olympic Committee from sending her. She retired in 1997; married an American, Alan Hatch; and moved to the United States. With her husband, she became a part-owner and coach of the Stars Academy gym in West Haven, Connecticut. In 2001, she became an American citizen.
Hatch resumed training at the elite level in 2001, with her husband as her coach. In mid-2002, she won the U.S. Classic, a qualifier to the National Championships, defeating reigning national champion Tasha Schwikert. 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 World Championships: Muriel Grossfeld, a former national champion who worked with Hatch, called her "probably the best vaulter in the world".