Larisa Iordache

Larisa Iordache
— Gymnast —
Personal information
Full name	Larisa Andreea Iordache
Nickname(s)	Pikachu, Pici
Country represented	Romania
Born	(1996-06-19) June 19, 1996 Bucharest, Romania
Height	1.50 m (4 ft 11 in)[1]
Weight	37 kg[2]
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Club	CSS Dinamo
Head coach(es)	Octavian Bellu
Assistant coach(es)	Mariana Bitang, Florin Cotutiu
Former coach(es)	Lacramioara Moldovan, Claudiu Moldovan, Gheorghe Orban, Ramona Micu, Adela Popa, Daniel Nistor, Aurica Nistor
Choreographer	Corina Dorean
Medal record Olympic Games Bronze 2012 London Team World Championships Bronze 2013 Antwerp Floor Exercise European Championships Gold 2012 Brussels Team Gold 2012 Brussels Floor Exercise Gold 2013 Moscow Balance Beam Silver 2012 Brussels Balance Beam Silver 2013 Moscow All-Around Silver 2013 Moscow Vault Silver 2013 Moscow Floor Exercise World Cup Gold 2013 Doha Balance Beam Gold 2013 Anadia Balance Beam Gold 2013 Anadia Floor Exercise Gold 2013 Glasgow All-Around Silver 2013 Doha Vault Silver 2013 Doha Floor Exercise Silver 2013 Stuttgart All-Around

Larisa Andreea Iordache (Romanian pronunciation: [laˈrisa andˈreja jorˈdake]; born June 19, 1996) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is the 2013 European individual all-around silver medalist. She won a bronze medal as part of the Romanian team at the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[1] She also won two gold and one silver medals at the 2012 European Championships. In Moscow, at the 2013 European Championships, she won one gold medal in balance beam and three silvers (all-around, floor and vault).

Personal information

Larisa Iordache began gymnastics at the age of five. She was taking ballet classes but wanted to begin gymnastics after watching it on TV and her grandmother took her to her first event. She has an older brother, Razvan, who plays soccer.^[3]

Junior career

2010

In April, Iordache competed at the 2010 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom. She contributed an all around score of 55.550 towards the Romanian team's second place finish^[4] and individually she placed third in the all around final with a score of 55.675.^[5] In event finals, she placed fourth on vault scoring 13.862, second on balance beam scoring 14.575, and tied first on floor scoring 14.275.^[6]

In September, Iordache competed at the Romanian Championships in Resita, Romania. She won the all around competition with a score of 58.400.^[7]

In October, Iordache competed at the Schiltigheim International in Schiltigheim, France. She won the all around final with a score of 58.000. In event finals, she placed second on vault scoring 14.350, first on uneven bars scoring 14.250, first on balance beam scoring 14.900, and first on floor scoring 14.500.^[8]

2011

In June, Iordache competed at the Gym Festival in Trnava, Slovakia. She won the all around final with a score of 59.500. In event finals, she placed first on uneven bars scoring 14.250, first on balance beam scoring 15.600, and first on floor scoring 14.850.^[9]

Later in June, Iordache competed in an international meet against the United Kingdom, in Lilleshall, United Kingdom. She helped the Romanian team win first place and individually she won the all around competition with a score of 58.300.^[10]

In May, Iordache competed as a guest at the French Team Championships in Toulouse, France. She contributed an all around score of 58.800 towards Alliance Dijon's first place finish.^[11]

In July, Iordache competed at the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Trabzon, Turkey. She contributed an all around score of 57.800 towards the Romanian team's second place finish^[12][13] and individually she won the all around final with a score of 57.550.^[14] In event finals, she placed second on vault scoring 14.225, second on uneven bars scoring 13.475, first on balance beam scoring 15.000 and first on floor scoring 14.275.^[15]

Senior career

2012

At the beginning of March, Iordache competed at the American Cup in New York City, United States. She placed third in the all around competition with a score of 59.332.^[16]

At the end of March, Iordache competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Doha, Qatar. She placed fourth in the uneven bars final with a score of 14.525.^[17]

In April, Iordache competed at an international meet against France in Cholet, France. She helped Romania to win the team competition and individually she won the all around with a score of 60.150.^[18]

Later in April, Iordache competed at an international meet against Germany and the United Kingdom in Ulm, Germany. She helped Romania to win the team competition and individually she won the all around with a score of 59.750.^[19]

In May, Iordache competed at the 2012 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Brussels, Belgium. She contributed an all around score of 58.757 towards the Romanian team's first place finish. In event finals, she placed second on balance beam with a score of 15.133 and first on floor with a score of 15.233.^[20] Her coach Octavian Belu said, "Larisa has all the qualities to clinch great results. It was her first time in a big competition like that, but she did really well."^[21]

At the beginning of July, Iordache competed at an international meet against France, Germany, and Italy in Bucharest, Romania. She helped Romania to win the team competition and individually she won the all around with a score of 60.850.^[22]

London Olympics

Iordache with the 2012 Olympic Romanian team.

At the end of July, Iordache competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.^[23] Prior to the competition, she developed Plantar fasciitis in her left foot causing severe pain. Her coach, Mariana Bitang said, "We don't know what will happen — it depends how things go after this. If she's fine, she will do all events to qualify to the all-around final. It's hard to say now."^[24] She helped the Romanian team qualify fourth to the team final^[25] and individually she qualified to the all around final with a score of 57.800.^[26] In the team final, she contributed scores of 14.800 on vault, 13.766 on uneven bars, and 15.300 on balance beam toward the Romanian team's third place finish.^[27] Iordache said, "You always want to do better, but any Olympic medal is important for a team. We are happy."^[28] She placed ninth in the all around final with a score of 57.965^[29] and sixth in the balance beam final with a score of 14.200.^[30]

2013

Iordache performing on floor at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium on 4 October 2013

At the 6th Doha FIG World Challenge Cup in Qatar, Iordache placed second on the vault final behind Phan Thi Ha Thanh with a score of 14.675, and seventh on the uneven bars final with a score of 13.325 on 28 March 2013.^[31] On 29 March, she placed first on the balance beam final ahead of Zeng Siqi and Gabrielle Jupp with a score of 15.500, and second on the floor exercise final behind Diana Bulimar with a score of 14.425.^[32]

At the 2013 European Championships in Moscow, Iordache had a fantastic start qualifying first to the all around finals and beam finals, second to floor finals, and fourth to vault finals. At the all around finals, Iordache had a great start, performing a routine of the score 14.833 on beam, 14.866 on floor, and 14.9 on vault. In the final rotation, she performed an average routine on bars and scored 13.833, which bumped her to second place after Aliya Mustafina of Russia. In the vault final on 20 April, Iordache tied with Dutch gymnast Noël van Klaveren for second place with a score of 14.466.^[33] After this she won silver in the floor final and gold in the beam final.

At the 2013 Anadia World Grand Prix she won gold on beam (15.650) and floor (14.650, tied with Diana Bulimar).^[34]

In October, Iordache competed at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. In the all-around final, she tried to stay close to her rivals. On vault, her double twisting yurchenko was very clean, and she showed improvements on bars, her weakest event (14.200). On beam, she did a back handspring full twist, but then fell on her round off layout (13.833). She finished strong on floor, hitting most of her landings (14.700) for the 4th place.^[35] In the beam final, she fell on her back handspring full twist, and only scored 13.933, ranked 7th. However, in the floor exercise final, she managed to grab the bronze medal with a double twisting double tuck, a full twisting double tuck and a double pike (14.600). This is also her first medal in the World Championships.

References

External links

• Larisa Iordache at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique

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