Olympic Profiles – Gymnast Monica Rosu

Two-time Olympic medalist Monica Rosu turned 33 on Monday

Florin Orban, 12.05.2020, 13:45

One of the
Romanian athletes who celebrated their birthdays this week was the former
gymnast Monica Rosu.

Monica Rosu was
born in Bacau. At the age of 4 she took up gymnastics. Over the years her
talent didn’t go unnoticed, which earned her a selection into Romania’s youth
team, at the time training in Onesti. At 13 years of age she took part in her
first major competition, in Charleroi, Belgium. She competed despite having
sustained an ankle injury, and ranked only 12th in the all-around
event. Her results were somewhat subpar until 2002, when she came in fourth at
the Romanian International Championships. In 2003 she ranked 4th at
the World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim in the vault event, but she won
silver in the team event for Romania.

In 2004, at the
European Championships in Amsterdam, she won gold in the vault event. Also that
summer, at the Athens Olympics, Monica Rosu won the Olympic gold with Romania’s
team, alongside Cătălina Ponor, Silvia Stroescu, Oana Ban, Daniela Sofronie and
Alexandra Eremia. Monica had a solid performance in the vault and parallel bars
events. She then won gold in the vault final, with an average score of 9.656.
The runner-up that year was the American Annia Hatch, with an average score of
9.481.

An injury
sustained in 2005 kept Monica Rosu away from professional competitions, and the
athlete was forced to retire at only 19 years of age. She enjoyed a short spell
in television, but eventually chose to specialize in sports management.

(Translated by
V. Palcu)