Maria Olaru

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Medal record
Competitor for Romania
Artistic Gymnastics
Olympic Games
Gold	2000 Sydney	Team competition
Silver	2000 Sydney	All-around
World Championships
Gold	1999 Tianjin	Team
Gold	1999 Tianjin	All Around
Bronze	1999 Tianjin	Vault
European Championships
Gold	1998 St Petersburg	Team
Silver	1998 St Petersburg	Vault

Maria Ludovica Olaru (born June 4, 1982 in Fălticeni) is a retired Olympic gymnast from Romania.

Olaru began gymnastics at the age of six in her hometown of Fălticeni, but quickly transferred to the local gymnastics club in Deva. She moved up to the junior national team in 1993, but after six months, she returned to her home club. In 1995 she rejoined the junior team in Bucharest. Olaru graduated to the Deva national training facility in 1996, after taking first place on the vault at the Junior European Championshps.

In 1998 Olaru moved up to senior competition, taking first place with the Romanian team and second on the vault at the European Championships. The following year, she helped the Romanian squad to a gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China and became the second Romanian gymnast in history, after Aurelia Dobre, to win the all-around title. She continued her success at the 2000 Olympics, where she shared in the team gold medal and won a silver in the all-around. She also qualified for the balance beam event final and placed sixth.

Olaru was one of the tallest gymnasts competing in the late 1990s, standing 5'3"/160cm. Her strengths were vaulting and floor exercise, however, she was best known as an all-around gymnast.

Olaru retired after the 2000 Olympics, noting that the new Code of Points would not be suited to gymnasts of her height, and enrolled as a student at the West University of Timişoara.

[edit] Skills

Vault: Double-twisting Yurchenko
Uneven Bars: Kip cast to handstand 1.5 handstand pirouette to mixed grip giant, immediate pike Jaeger; giant 1.5 pirouette into Tkatchev, Pak salto, Back-in Full-out tucked dismount
Balance Beam: piked front mount, wolf jump, tucked Korbut; flip flop, full (or flip flop, layout step out, Korbut); switch side; front tuck, tuck jump; 3/4 twisting Shushonova; cartwheel, swing through double full dismount
Floor Exercise: Round-off, whip back, 2.5 twist, punch pike; front-handspring, front double twist, punch front; Round-off, back-handspring, triple twist. Her music for floor routines was:
- 1999: "Invisible Circus" by Vienna Symphony Orchestra
- 2000: Soundtrack from the movie Black Cat, White Cat