Silvia Stroescu

Silvia Stroescu

Press conference at 2000 European Gymnastics Championships in Paris.
Personal information
Full name Silvia Alexandra Stroescu
Country represented  Romania
Born May 8, 1985 (1985-05-08) (age 26)
Bucharest
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Club Steaua Bucharest
Head coach(es) Octavian Bellu
Assistant coach(es) Mariana Bitang
Former coach(es) Angela Cacovean
Eponymous skills Stroescu(floor)

Silvia Alexandra Stroescu (b. May 8, 1985 in Bucharest, Romania)[1] is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic, world, and European gold medalist with the team. A skill on the floor exercise is named after her; "Stroescu" is a stretched forward salto with 2½ twists.[2]

Contents

Early life and career

She was one of the most successful junior gymnast of her generation. The major achievements of her junior years were the win of the prestigious Top Gym Trophy (1998) and of four medals (two gold and two silver) at the 2000 Junior European Gymnastics Championships.[3] At these championships she won gold on floor (9.725), tied for gold on balance beam with Sabina Cojocar (9.6), earned a share of the Romanian team's silver medal, and placed second all-around (37.973) behind teammate Sabina Cojocar. [3] Initially, Stroescu did not qualify for the all around event due to the two-per-country rule, having achieved the third qualification score among her teammates. But, in the all around final she replaced Carmen Ionescu who withdrew in her favor.[4]

Senior career

Her senior debut at a major international event was at the 2001 World Championships. Here she contributed to Romania’s sixth team title[5] by competing on beam and uneven bars. Individually, she placed eleventh all around and seventh on floor. [6] Later that year she won the mixed pair Swiss Cup event together with Marian Drǎgulescu.[7] In the period 2002-2003 she did not make the team for major international events but she competed at the national championships and at some friendly international competitions.[4] After being sidelined for two years she joined the team for the 2004 European Championships where she contributed to the team title.[8] Just weeks before the 2004 Olympic games she decided to give up gymnastics being disappointed for not making the Olympic team. However, her disappointment was short lived and she returned to replace injured Aura Munteanu. Stroescu went to Athens and was part of an immensely successful Romanian women's gymnastics team (four golds, one silver and one bronze in six events) that also included Oana Ban, Monica Roşu, Catalina Ponor, Daniela Sofronie and Alexandra Eremia. Though the team members were less experienced than most of their rivals, the Romanians hit every routine to take the team gold by a comfortable margin. World champions USA were second, and the Russians, led by Svetlana Khorkina, took the bronze.[9]

References

  1. ^ Sports Reference Silvia Stroescu
  2. ^ FIG Code of Points 2009-2012, Women's Artistic Gymnastics, page 167
  3. ^ a b Gymn Forum Results Junior European Championships 2000 - Paris
  4. ^ a b Bio and List of competitive results Geocities Gymnastics Biographies Silvia Stroescu
  5. ^ Federation Internationale de Gimnastique Silvia Stroescu
  6. ^ European Union of Artistic Gymnastics 35th World Championships 2001 -Gent
  7. ^ Gymn Forum Results Swiss Cup 2001
  8. ^ Gymnastics Results 2004 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships
  9. ^ 2004 Olympic Games Women's Artistic Gymnastics Finals. GymnasticsResults.com. Retrieved March 10, 2007.

External links