Simona Amânar

Simona Amânar, who started gymnastics at the age of six, first competed at the senior level in 1994, when she was on gold medal winning teams at both the European and World Championships respectively. At the 1995 World Championships she was again on the gold medal winning team, but she also won her favorite apparatus for the first time, the vault. After winning three golds at the 1996 European Championships (vault, uneven bars, and team), she also won the vault at the 1996 Olympics and additionally won silver in floor, and bronze in all-around and with the team. The following years saw her winning gold medals in vault and with the team at the 1997 Worlds, with the team at the 1998 European Championships and at the 1999 Worlds.

The Olympic year 2000 started well again, when Amanar won gold in vault at the 2000 European Championships in Paris, which brought her medal collection at the European Championships up to six gold, three silver, and three bronze, in addition to her World Championships medals of 6-4-0. In Sydney she won gold with the team and, after the disqualification of Andreea Răducan, also won gold in all-around. Amânar added a bronze on the floor, earning her seven Olympic medals in total, but only finished sixth in vault, where she did not perform well her signature jump, a two-and-a-half twisting laid-out Yurchenko, which is now termed the “Amanar”.

Amânar retired in 2000 after the World Cup final in Glasgow. In 2002 she married the lawyer Cosmin Tabără and gave birth to a son in the same year. She worked at the Universitatea de Vest din Timişoara and became vice president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. In 2007 she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.