Romania at the Olympic Games

Gymnast Sandra Izbasa

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Florin Orban, 11.02.2022, 13:45

For decades,
Romania was at the top of world gymnastics. Athletes such as the Olympic
champions Nadia Comăneci, Ecaterina Szabo, Daniela Silivaș, Simona Amânar or
Cătălina Ponor made for years the headlines in sports news from all over the
world. In recent years, however, Romanian gymnastics hasn’t got any good
results. The Romanian teams’ failing to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo
is the full expression of the catastrophic decline of Romanian gymnastics.

The last edition of the
Olympic Games where Romania got some notable results in gymnastics was the one
in London, in 2012. The women’s team ranked 3rd in the rankings by country, and
Catalina Ponor won the silver medal in the floor exercise. The best result was
the first place won by Sandra Izbaşa in the vault event, a result that brought
the last Olympic gold medal in the Romanian gymnastics’ record.

Sandra Izbaşa was born on
June 18th, 1990, in Bucharest. She started practicing gymnastics at the age of
4. At 12 she was already part of the national junior team. Her first big
performance as a senior was in 2006, at Romania’s International Gymnastics Competition
where she won the all-around individual, floor and vault events. Also in 2006,
at the European Championships in Volos, she won a gold medal on floor, a silver
one with the team, and a bronze medal in the beam event.

There followed many other
medals won at European and world competitions. It all culminated in the Olympic
Games in Beijing, in 2008, where Sandra won gold on floor. There followed two
years poor in notable results. In 2011, however, at the European Championships
in Berlin, Sandra Izbaşa ranked first in both floor and vault. Also, she
returned with two gold medals from the European Championships in Brussels, in
2012: one in the vault event and another one with the team. The success scored
the same year, at the Olympic Games in London, was the last major result of
Sandra Izbaşa’s sporting career.

(M.Ignatescu)