[5] Her first major international competition was the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Indianapolis, where she won the team title with the Soviet Union[6] and finished fifth in the individual all-around,[7] while winning silver medals in two individual apparatus finals: the uneven bars and balance beam.

Her silver on beam was highly controversial because the winner, Soviet teammate Svetlana Boginskaya, performed a simpler routine.

However, at the European Gymnastics Championships that year, she won the all-around, vault, and uneven bars titles, as well as a silver on the balance beam.

However, the team coaches felt that Gutsu had a better chance of bringing home all-around gold than her teammates Boginskaya and Rozalia Galiyeva.

She had a few balance checks in her difficult beam routine and made an error on her double layout on floor, allowing her rivals to stay in contention with her.

She also took home medals in the team competition (gold), uneven bars (silver) and floor exercise (bronze).

[3] She was competing during the height of the "pixie" era, when the favoured type of gymnast was a small athlete capable of extreme difficulty, and Gutsu exemplified this.

Other notable examples include the replacement of Alexandra Marinescu with Simona Amânar in the 1996 Olympics,[12] and the Soviet coaches' removal of Olga Mostepanova and Irina Baraksanova for Elena Shushunova and Oksana Omelianchik in the 1985 World Championships.

[13] She tried for a comeback to compete at the 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships as a three-event specialist (vault, beam, and floor), but was unsuccessful.