Andreea Răducan

Răducan was one of the "new-generation gymnasts" groomed to take over the torch of Romanian gymnastics excellence after the retirements of the Olympic medalists Lavinia Miloșovici and Gina Gogean. She began gymnastics at the age of four and a half[1] in her hometown of Bârlad. In 1996, after winning over twenty medals in local and regional competitions, she was invited to train at the Romanian junior team facility in Onești. Two years later, she was promoted to the national training center in Deva.

Răducan's first major international event was the 1998 Junior European Championships, where she won a silver medal on the balance beam, tied for bronze on the floor exercise[2] and took fourth place in the all-around. The next year, she rose to the senior ranks and made an impact at the World Championships in Tianjin, China, winning the floor exercise final and placing fifth in the all-around.[1]

While Răducan's work on the uneven bars was considered weak, her skills on beam, vault and floor exercise were applauded. She was also admired because, unlike other members of the Romanian team, she showed a great deal of expression in her choreography and a wide variety of complex skills in her routines.

Răducan competed well at the Sydney Olympics, helping the Romanian women to win their first Olympic team gold medal since 1984. She qualified for the floor and vault event finals, and, along with her teammates Simona Amânar and Maria Olaru, the all-around finals. In the preliminary round of competition, she had the second highest all-around score of all competitors in the competition, trailing Russia's Svetlana Khorkina by 0.288.[3]

The all-around was mired in controversy. The vault was set 5 centimeters too low, creating a dangerous situation that completely altered the gymnasts' pre- and post-flights. As a result of the incorrectly set vault, many gymnasts suffered serious crashes and injuries during both the warm-ups and the competition, including Khorkina.[4] The British gymnast Annika Reeder was hurt badly enough to withdraw from the remainder of the competition.[5] Even those who escaped injury found themselves shaken by their experiences on the vault. When the error was discovered in the third rotation, International Federation of Gymnastics officials reset the vault height and allowed the competition to continue. They did permit the gymnasts who had vaulted in the first two rotations to take another turn on vault and to be rescored; not every athlete accepted this offer.[6]

Răducan was one of the gymnasts who had vaulted on the incorrectly set apparatus but did not suffer a fall on the event and performed without serious error. She continued through the competition, turning in strong performances on beam and floor, and ended up with the all-around gold medal. On the podium with her were her Romanian teammates; Amânar with silver and Olaru with bronze. Răducan was the first Romanian gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title since Nadia Comăneci in 1976; it was also the first time since 1960 that gymnasts from a single country swept the WAG all-around podium at the Olympics.[6][7] It was also the last time it was possible for three gymnasts from the same country to sweep the all-around, as the "two per country rule" was introduced in the next Olympic cycle.[8] Andreea went on to win the silver medal in the Vault final, behind Elena Zamolodchikova of Russia and ahead of Ekaterina Lobazniouk of Russia. Speculations around the all around gold arose and Andreea was informed that there was a possibility that she could be stripped of her all around gold medal. This affected her mentally and she went to the floor final fazed by the situation. She fell on her third tumbling pass, and received a score of 9.275. Without that error, she would have scored a 9.775, which was enough for the bronze medal.

Răducan continued to train in Deva after the Olympics. With the retirement of her Sydney teammates Amânar, Olaru and Presăcan, she found herself one of the senior gymnasts at Deva.[22] At the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, Belgium, she was part of the gold medal-winning Romanian team and picked up four individual medals: gold on floor and beam and bronze in the all-around and vault. Injuries and other concerns marred her training in 2002, and after a poor showing at the Worlds in Hungary, she quietly retired.

After retiring, Răducan became a sports announcer in Romania. Her assignments for EuroSport have included the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She also has her own television show and does modelling and promotional work. Răducan also has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Bucharest.[23]

In 2010, Răducan released her autobiography, The Other Side of the Medal, which provides further insight into the disqualification of her all-around result at the 2000 Olympic Games.[24] The 2020 "Golden Girl" film, directed by Adrian Robe and Denisa Morariu-Tamas, covers her attempt to reclaim her title.[25]

On August 4, 2017, Andreea Răducan was elected president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation (RGF). She takes over from Adrian Stoica, who was the President of the Federation for 12 years.[26] It is expected to a huge challenge for Răducan to improve the performances of the Romanian team, who did not qualify a full team to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[27] The failure to qualify marked the first time Romania did not field a gymnastics team at the Games since 1968.

Drawing on the success of Romania successfully hosting the European Gymnastics Championships April 18–23, 2017,[28] Romania was expected to contend for the all-around and individual titles at the 2017 World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, Canada. Unfortunately, their arguably best all-around gymnast Larisa Iordache suffered a torn Achilles tendon during warm-up for qualifying.[29] Romania's other hope for a medal, Cătălina Ponor, multiple medal winner in her gymnastics career, failed to qualify in either of the events she competed – beam or floor.[30]

She stepped down from her position upon the failure of either the women's or men's teams qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[31]

• Vault: Round-off 1/2 twist on, front layout off.
• Balance beam: full twisting back salto, double pike back dismount, tucked Korbut
• Floor exercise: Double laid-out salto, Whip salto (immediate connection) Back-double pike salto, 2.5 twisting back layout (immediate connection) punch-layout-front, Triple-twisting back layout.

• 1998–2000: "Las Carretas del Rocio" by the Orquestra Española de Juan Alfonso
• 2000: "Reel Around The Sun" from the album Riverdance by Bill Whelan
• 2001: "Éclipse" from the album Nouvelle Expérience by René Dupere
• 2002: "Meet Her At The Love Parade" by Da Hool and "Right in the Night" by Jam & Spoon featuring Plavka

• Doping at the Olympic Games
• List of doping cases in sport
• List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for Romania
• List of top female medalists at major artistic gymnastics events

• Răducan, Andreea (2013). The Other Side of the Medal. Wiseman Publishing. ISBN 978-6-0693-1883-6.

• Andreea Madalina Raducan at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Andreea Răducan at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
• Andreea Raducan at Olympics.com
• Andreea Raducan at Olympic.org (archived)
• Andreea Răducan at Olympedia
• Andreea Raducan at the Comitetul Olimpic și Sportiv Român (in Romanian) (English translation)
• Andreea Raducan at IMDb
• Official website