Simona Amânar

Simona Amânar (Romanian pronunciation: [siˈmona amɨˈnar]; born 7 October 1979) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She is the 2000 Olympic all-around champion, and a seven-time Olympic and ten-time World Championship medalist. Amânar helped Romania win four consecutive world team titles (1994–1999), as well as the 2000 Olympic team title.^[1] She has a vault named after her, one of the most difficult in women's gymnastics, and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2007.^[2]

Simona Amânar
Full name	Simona Amânar
Nickname(s)	Simi
Born	(1979-10-07) 7 October 1979 (age 45) Constanța, Romania
Height	158 cm (5 ft 2 in)
Gymnastics career
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	Romania
Years on national team	1994–2000 (ROM)
Level	Senior International
Gym	Deva National Training Center
Head coach(es)	Octavian Bellu
Assistant coach(es)	Mariana Bitang
Eponymous skills	Amanar (vault)
Retired	2000
Medal record Representing  Romania Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta Vault 2000 Sydney Team 2000 Sydney All-Around 1996 Atlanta Floor Exercise 1996 Atlanta Team 1996 Atlanta All-Around 2000 Sydney Floor Exercise World Championships 1994 Dortmund Team 1995 Sabae Team 1995 Sabae Vault 1997 Lausanne Team 1997 Lausanne Vault 1999 Tianjin Team 1996 San Juan Vault 1997 Lausanne All-Around 1999 Tianjin Vault 1999 Tianjin Floor Exercise World Cup Final 1998 Sabae Vault 1998 Sabae Floor Exercise 2000 Glasgow Vault 2000 Glasgow Balance Beam 2000 Glasgow Floor Exercise Goodwill Games 1998 New York Floor Exercise 1998 New York All Around 1998 New York Vault 1998 New York Uneven Bars European Championships 1994 Stockholm Team 1996 Birmingham Team 1996 Birmingham Vault 1996 Birmingham Uneven Bars 1998 St. Petersburg Team 2000 Paris Vault 1998 St. Petersburg All-Around 1998 St. Petersburg Vault 2000 Paris Balance Beam 1998 St. Petersburg Balance Beam 1998 St. Petersburg Floor Exercise 2000 Paris Team

Biography

Simona Amânar is an ethnic Aromanian.^[3][4]

Career

1994–1995

In 1994, her first year on the senior national team, Amânar contributed to Romania's team titles at the World and European Championships.

Amânar began to excel as an individual performer at the 1995 European Cup, placing second in the all-around behind Svetlana Khorkina of Russia and winning gold on both vault and floor exercise. At the 1995 World Championships, she helped Romania secure its second consecutive world team title and became co-champion on vault (with all-around winner Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine). Amânar's powerful floor routine and vaults put her in the lead after two rotations in the all-around, but she dropped to fourth after an average uneven bars routine and a shaky balance beam routine.

1996

Amânar won a silver medal on vault at the 1996 World Championships, behind teammate Gina Gogean and ahead of Cuba's Annia Portuondo-Hatch.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Amânar was one of the front-runners for several individual medals, but her Olympics started inauspiciously when she fell off the beam during the compulsories. Though she later posted the highest all-around score in the optionals (39.387, her lowest score being a 9.800 on the balance beam), her combined compulsory and optionals scores put her fourth among her teammates, and she did not qualify for the final.^[5] However, in a scenario similar to the Unified Team's substitution of Tatiana Gutsu for Rozalia Galiyeva at the 1992 Olympics,^[6] Amânar replaced her teammate Alexandra Marinescu in the all-around final.^[5] The Romanian head coach, Octavian Bellu, said that Amânar deserved to compete because she had worked harder and was a better athlete than Marinescu. Amânar ended up sharing the bronze medal with teammate Lavinia Miloşovici, behind Gogean.^[5]

In both the 1996 Olympic all-around and the 1995 World Championships all-around, Amânar failed to score over 9.800 on the floor exercise despite well-executed and difficult tumbling. In the Olympics, she scored a 9.887 in the team optionals (the highest score of the entire Olympics on any event, for men or women), but only a 9.737 in the all-around. She did not start from a 10.0 in the all-around—despite having the most tumbling bonus points of anyone at the Games—because her tour jeté half-turn (Strug), a C element, was not completed. Thus, she did not have enough simple A, B, and C skills, and much of her D- and E-rated tumbling had to count as easier elements to fulfill those requirements. Amânar did not perform a double turn in the team optionals or the all-around because it was not necessary as long as she completed her Strug. However, when she failed to complete the Strug, four of her six tenths in D and E elements had to count toward requirements, which left her with only .2 counting toward her bonus. Without the error, Amânar would have finished ahead of Gogean and Miloşovici.

In the event finals, Amânar completed her Strug and added a double turn to fulfill the more stringent Competition III requirements. She earned a 9.850 and the silver medal, behind Podkopayeva and just ahead of Dominique Dawes of the United States. She won the vault final the day before, largely because of her 9.875 score for her double-twisting Yurchenko vault.^[7] She left the 1996 Olympics with four medals, including Romania's team bronze.^[8]

1997–1999

Romania won its third straight team title at the 1997 World Championships. Amânar again replaced a higher-scoring Marinescu in the all-around competition and won the silver medal behind Russia's Khorkina, followed by a gold medal on vault.

In the 1999 World Championships, Amânar led the Romanian team to a fourth consecutive title (there was no Worlds competition in 1998). However, she fell off the bars during the all-around and placed well out of the medals. She also lost her vaulting title to Russia's Elena Zamolodchikova, who dominated that event in the following years due to a more difficult second vault: a double-twisting Tsukahara. Amânar won her only medal of the competition on the floor, taking home the silver behind teammate Andreea Răducan.

2000

At the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Romanians edged out the Russians to take the team title—their first since 1984 and their first ever in a non-boycotted Olympics.^[9]

In the all-around, the vaulting horse was set too low by the Olympic organizers, and the favorite for the title, Svetlana Khorkina, fell on her signature vault.^[10] Several other gymnasts fell or stumbled because of the same problem. Many went on to make mistakes on their next event, knowing their medal chances were gone, only to be informed later of the error and their chance to vault again.^[10][11] The three Romanian women either managed to perform well on the faulty vault or vaulted after the mistake had been corrected. They swept the medals, with Răducan winning the gold, Amânar the silver, and Maria Olaru the bronze.^[12]

Răducan was subsequently found to have used a cold medicine containing a banned substance. Although her results in other events were allowed to stand, she was stripped of her all-around gold medal, which went to Amânar.^[13][14] Initially, Amânar refused to accept the medal, insisting that Răducan had rightfully earned the title. Olaru took the same stance when the silver was awarded to her.^[15] However, they eventually reconsidered and decided to bring the medals home to Romania as symbolic victories of the country.^[16] Amânar continued to insist, however, that Răducan was the true Olympic all-around champion.^[17]

In the event finals, Amânar had the opportunity to defend her Olympic vault title from four years earlier. However, she stumbled badly while debuting a new vault (a 21⁄2 twisting laid-out Yurchenko, which was then named after her), and did not win a medal. She went on to win bronze on floor exercise after losing points for a step out of bounds on her last tumbling pass.

Legacy

Amânar ranks highly (117th) on the list of most medal gymnasts in the world, with 10 World and 7 Olympic medals.^[18] She played a large role in the four consecutive World team titles and Olympic title that established Romania as the top-ranked women's gymnastics team in the world.

The Amanar vault^[19] involves a round-off entry onto the vaulting table followed by a laid-out salto with 21⁄2 twists. Amânar first competed this skill at the 2000 Olympics. It has a difficulty score of 6.5, 6.3 and 5.8 in the women's 2009–2012, 2013–2016 and 2017–2020 Code of Points.

Post-retirement

Amânar retired in 2000, shortly after the Olympic Games. She married Cosmin Tabără, a lawyer, on 9 March 2002, in Timișoara, and gave birth to a son, Alexandru Iosif, five months later.^{[citation needed]} She is the vice president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

Eponymous skill

Amânar has one eponymous skill in the Code of Points, the Amanar vault.^[20]

Apparatus	Name	Description	Difficulty[a]
Vault	Amanar	Round-off flic-flac on - stretched salto backward with 2½ turn (900°) off	5.4

1. Valid for the 2022-2024 Code of Points

Competitive history

Year	Event	AA	Team	VT	UB	BB	FX
1993	China Cup	3rd
	Romanian Nationals	5th		2nd			3rd
1994	American Cup	9th
	European Championships		1st
	GBR-ROM Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	International Mixed Pairs		6th
	Massilia Elite	5th	2nd
	USA-ROM Dual Meet	7th	1st
	Team World Championships		1st
1995	European Cup	2nd		1st	5th	3rd	1st
	FRA-ROM Dual Meet	2nd	1st
	French International	3rd				3rd	5th
	GBR-ROM Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	Kosice Cup	2nd				2nd	2nd
	ROM-GER Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	Romanian Nationals	2nd
	World Championships	4th	1st	1st			6th
1996	European Championships	4th	1st	1st	1st	5th	7th
	French International			3rd	5th
	Hungarian International	1st
	ITA-BLR-ROM-RUS Meet	2nd
	International Championships of Romania	1st
	World Championships			2nd
	Olympic Games	3rd	3rd	1st	5th		2nd
1997
	World Championships	2nd	1st	1st
	Chunichi Cup	2nd
	Blume Memorial	2nd
	DTB Cup			1st		6th	3rd
	Arthur Gander Memorial	1st
1998	European Championships	2nd	1st	2nd
	Chunichi Cup	6th
	DTB Cup			1st	2nd	1st	2nd
	Romanian International	1st		2nd		1st	1st
	Swiss Cup			3rd	2nd	2nd	3rd
1999
	World Championships	14th	1st	2nd			2nd
	Chunichi Cup	2nd
	Arthur Gander Memorial	2nd
	Romanian International	1st		1st	2nd	1st	1st
	International Mixed Pairs	1st	1st
2000	European Championships	8th	3rd	1st		2nd	5th
	Olympic Games	1st	1st	6th			3rd
	Chunichi Cup	1st
	Cottbus World Cup			2nd		7th	2nd
	Romanian International	2nd
	National Championships	1st

See also

• List of Olympic female gymnasts for Romania
• List of Olympic medal leaders in women's gymnastics
• List of top female medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Simona Amânar". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2 December 2016.
2. "Simona Amanar – The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame". www.ighof.com. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
3. Bucurescu, Adrian (28 August 2016). "Sunt aromânii în criză identitară?". Cotidianul (in Romanian).
4. Toma, Mihai; Conțescu, Daniel (4 November 2013). "Aromânii care au făcut România mare! Intră aici și ascultă cea mai tare melodie dedicată Simonei Halep". Libertatea (in Romanian).
5. Clarey, Christopher (26 July 1996). "U.S. Gymnasts Take Back Seat in All-Around". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
6. Glauber, Bill (31 July 1992). "Zmeskal steps out, then down: World champion is tearful 10th as Gutsu, Miller reign". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
7. Penner, Mike (29 July 1996). "After the Rest Bow Out, Chow Gets Silver Medal". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
8. "Simona Amanar". olympic.org. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
9. Roberts, Selena (20 September 2000). "Romania Conquers and Americans Are Left Divided". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
10. Pells, Eddie (21 September 2000). "Gymnastics: Olympic Vault Set Too Low". ABC News. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
11. Isaacson, Melissa (22 September 2000). "'Unthinkable' Error Mars Gymnastics Competition". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
12. Roberts, Selena (22 September 2000). "Romania Sweeps as Controversy Swirls". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
13. Roberts, Selena (26 September 2000). "Gymnast Tests Positive and Loses Gold". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
14. Pucin, Diane (26 September 2000). "Romanian Teenager Stripped of Gold". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
15. "Romanian gymnastics team gives up two all-around medals". juneauempire.com. 26 September 2000. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
16. Chaudhary, Vivek (29 September 2000). "Bitter pill as tiny gymnast loses gold". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
17. "Amanar retires as Raducan feted". BBC News. 1 October 2000. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
18. "SIMONA AMANAR". Olympic.org. Olympics.org. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
19. FIG Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Women's Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points 2009–2012, page 163
20. "2022-2024 Code of Points Women's Artistic Gymnastics" (PDF). International Gymnastics Federation. p. 68, 206. Retrieved 22 January 2022.

External links

• Bio at romanian-gymnastics.com
• List of competitive results at Gymn Forum
• Amânar (vault skills)
• Simona Amânar at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Simona Amânar at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
• Simona Amânar at Olympedia (archive)
• Simona Amânar at Olympics.com
• Simona Amânar at the Comitetul Olimpic și Sportiv Român (in Romanian) (archive)