Gina Gogean

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Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Olympic medal record
Silver	1992 Barcelona	Team competition
Silver	1996 Atlanta	All-around
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Team competition
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Vault
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Balance beam
World Championships
Gold	1994 Brisbane	Vault
Gold	1994 Dortmund	Team
Gold	1995 Sabae	Team
Gold	1995 Sabae	Floor Exercise
Gold	1996 San Juan	Vault
Gold	1996 San Juan	Floor Exercise
Gold	1997 Lausanne	Team
Gold	1997 Lausanne	Floor Exercise
Gold	1997 Lausanne	Balance Beam
Silver	1993 Birmingham	Floor Exercise
Silver	1993 Birmingham	All-around
Bronze	1993 Birmingham	Balance Beam
Bronze	1994 Brisbane	Floor Exercise
Bronze	1995 Sabae	Vault
Bronze	1997 Lausanne	Vault

Gina Gogean (born 9 September 1977 or 1978) is a former gymnast from Romania who competed internationally in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

Gogean was born Câmpuri, Vrancea County, Romania. During her career, she competed under a passport that listed her birth year as 1977. However, in 2002 the Romanian newspaper ProSport obtained hospital records indicating that she had actually been born in 1978. Gogean and her mother have denied this, and her official birth year is still listed as 1977 or "unknown" in many sources. [1]

Gogean initially trained at CSS Foscani, near her home village, under the tutelage of Sergiu and Tatiana Popa. She made her international debut at the prestigious Japan Junior International meet in 1989, where she placed fourth in the all-around and took the gold medal on floor exercise.

By 1990, Gogean was representing Romania at major meets such as the Goodwill Games. She began to make a name for herself at the 1992 European Championships where she finished 2nd all-around and won the floor exercise. Crowds and analysts were impressed with the young athlete's exceptional difficulty. She was equally impressive at 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The youngest member of the experienced Romanian team, Gina put up some of the highest scores for her team throughout the compulsories and optionals. She won a team silver, finished 6th in the all-around, and was 5th on vault. Though her teammate and close friend Lavinia Milosovici was one of the stars of the Olympics, Gina nonetheless had established herself as a gymnast to watch for in the future.

In a sport where young ladies are constantly fighting the battle of time as well as their maturing bodies, Gina continued to be one of the top gymnasts in the world each year after the Olympics. She was constantly criticized for her lack of artistry in her gymnastics (particularly her post-1992 routines), and her stoic demeanor. Nevertheless, each year her gymnastics continually showed improvement from the year prior and her results reflected that. She finished a close 2nd in the all-around behind rival Shannon Miller at the 1993 World Championships. Though she did not medal in the all-around the following year, she became the World Champion on vault, and won a bronze on floor. She also became the European All-Around Champion that year, and played a critical role in helping the Romanian team win the 1994 Team World Championship--the country's first since 1987. Gina will always be remembered for the horrendous fall she suffered in the qualifying rounds of this competition. While attempting a back handspring-layout-back handspring combination on beam, her foot slipped off the side and the back of her head slammed into the beam before she crashed to the floor. Miraculously, she suffered no injury, and only took an extra moment to collect herself before jumping back up on the beam.

Though Gina struggled in major all-around competition through 1995 and 1996, her gymnastics continued to improve and she won more individual event World titles. At the 1995 World Championships, she helped the Romanians win their second team title, and went on to win the bronze on vault and the gold on floor. She added two more golds to her haul at the 1996 World Championships on vault and floor. Going into the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Romanians were the favorites to win team gold. However, clearly overwhelmed by the raucous American crowd, the Romanians had a lackluster performance and finished a disappointing 3rd. Gina, however, had the performance of her career during the all-around and won the silver medal behind Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine. She also won two more bronze medals on the vault and beam. Her performances in the Olympics were particularly impressive, as Gina underwent an emergency appendectomy only 5 weeks before the competition. By a bizarre and miraculous stroke of luck, she had been traveling on a train to Bucharest at the time; which was the only city where hospitals could perform the kind of non-invasive surgery that Gina needed to return to training quickly. Had she received traditional surgery, she would not have been able to recommence light training for at least 6 weeks and would have missed the Olympics.

Most expected Gina to retire after the Olympics, but continued to compete after the retirement of Lavinia Milosovici. She admitted in an ABC interview during the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland that the new Code of Points made gymnastics too difficult for her, and that she intended to retire after the competition was over. Gina, in the unfamiliar role of being the leader of the team, led the Romanians to their 3rd straight World team title. A clear crowd favorite, she performed well in the all-around finals, but finished just off the podium in 4th. She rebounded by winning the world title on beam (though it was somewhat controversial), and her third straight title on floor. All-in-all, Gina finished her career by winning 20 World and Olympic medals, nine of them gold. Though she may not have been the most crowd appealing gymnast at times, she was one of the most successful in gymnastics history and she established an impressive legacy for Romanian gymnastics.

On July 1, 2006 Gina Gogean married Cristian Gorza, a former classmate of hers, in a ceremony in Deva, Romania. Her former coaches, Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, served as the godparents. Teammates Andreea Raducan and Maria Olaru were among the guests.

Recently, Gina is doing much work as a judge, for example at this year's Romanian Nationals.

[edit] Major medals

1998 World Cup: 2nd VT, 2nd FX, 3rd BB
1997 World Championships: 1st team, 1st BB, 1st FX, 3rd VT, 4th AA
1997 Romanian Nationals: 1st BB, 1st FX, 2nd VT, 7th AA *3 events only
1996 Olympic Games: 2nd AA, 3rd Team, 3rd VT, 3rd BB, 7th FX
1996 World Championships: 1st FX, 1st VT 1996 European Championships: 1st team, 2nd FX
1995 European Cup: 3rd UB, 5th AA
1995 World Championships: 1st team, 1st FX, 3rd VT, 14th AA
1994 Team World Championships: 1st Team
1994 World Championships: 1st VT, 3rd FX, 4th AA
1994 European Championships: 1st AA, 1st team, 1st BB, 3rd FX, 4th VT, 8th UB
1993 World Championships: 2nd AA, 2nd FX, 3rd BB, 4th VT
1992 Olympic Games: 2nd team, 5th VT, 6th AA
1992 World Championships: 7th VT, 9th BB, 11th FX
1992 European Championships: 1st FX, 2nd AA, 2nd VT, 8th BB, 8th UB
1992 Champions All: 1st AA
1990 Goodwill Games: 3rd FX, 9th AA
1989 Japan Junior International: 1st FX, 4th AA, 4th BB, 6th UB, 6th VT