Athlete of the Week on RRI: Gymnast Catalina Ponor

Catalina Ponor put up a stellar performance at the World Championships in Baku

Florin Orban, 21.03.2017, 13:08

Only one month remains before the kick-off of the European Gymnastics Championships, to be hosted by Cluj in central Romania. It is however not the first time our country hosts the European Championships. The first edition of this competition, known at the time as the European Cup, was hosted by Bucharest in 1957.

Ahead of the European Championships this year, seven athletes from Romania, two in the women’s competition and five in the men’s competition, took part in the World Gymnastics Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Six of them failed to qualify to individual event finals. Catalina Ponor however grabbed two gold medals, in the women’s beam and floor finals, which is why we have designated her Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Catalina Ponor was born on August 20, 1987 in Constanta. She took up gymnastics at the age of four with the local sports club Farul. In 2002 she was drafted into Romania’s extended team, and the next year she was included in Romania’s official women’s team. That very same year she produced a big surprise at the World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, California, winning three silver medals, in the team, beam and floor events. Previous results offered no clues about Catalina’s true potential. At the 2003 national championships she won bronze in the beam final, and at the International championships held in Romania that same year she won the beam bronze.

The first glorious moment in Catalina Ponor’s career was the European Championship in 2004, hosted by Amsterdam. She won three gold medals, in the team, beam and floor events. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she repeated the same extraordinary feat in the same events. With three Olympic gold medals, Catalina was then designated the best Romanian athlete and Best Gymnast in 2004.

She continued her good performances in the following years, grabbing gold medals at the European Championships of 2005 and 2006, and bronze with Romania’s team at the World Championships of 2007 in Stuttgart.

After a four-year break, Catalina resumed training and took part in the 2012 European Champion ships in Brussels, winning the team event. In individual competitions, Catalina Ponor grabbed gold in the beam event and silver in the floor finals. At the London Olympics that same year, Catalina won silver in the floor finals and bronze with Romania’s team.

Her next professional tournament was the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, when she won bronze in the beam and floor finals. (Translated by V. Palcu)