Daniela Mărănducă | |
---|---|
Full name |
Daniela Mărănducă-Nicolai |
Country represented |
|
Born |
June 17 1976 |
Years on National Team |
1991-1994 |
Club |
CSS Farul Constanţa |
Coach(es) |
Octavian Belu, Maria Fumea |
Current status |
Retired |
Daniela Mărănducă (-Nicolai) (born June 17, 1976 in Constanţa, Romania) is a retired artistic and aerobic gymnast. During her career she won nine medals at world or European championships (six gold, two silver and one bronze).
Career[]
Daniela started gymnastics at the age of 6 at Farul Constanţa Club. In 1991 she became the first gymnast from that club to be selected in the national team. At the beginning of her senior career she was not selected to participate at major international competitions. Instead she competed at the Romanian Internationals and Romanian Nationals. In 1993 she finished third all around at the Romanian Internationals behind Lavinia Miloşovici and Lyudmila Stovbchataya.
Soon after this competition she broke her ankle and severely sprained her wrist during practice. She was told that she will not be able to return to gymnastics but after recovering from her injuries she went back to Constanţa to train with the junior team. She made it back in the national team in 1994. Her determination to return to the national team was a great inspiration to the juniors training at Farul. Among these juniors was Simona Amânar who declared that seeing Daniela train and returning to the national team was "the best lesson [I] had ever learned".
1994 was a good year for Daniela. She won several medals at some minor competitions and went with the team in Dormunt to compete in the 1994 World Championships. Her performance on all four events, highlighted by a 9.8 on vault and a 9.837 on floor helped the team to win the gold medal. She was also voted the most beautiful gymnast by the journalists covering the championships.
Daniela retired from artistic gymnastics at the end of 1994 and went back to Constanţa where she majored in Environmental studies and helped with coaching at Farul.
Medal Count[]
Year | Event | TF | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Romanian Internationals | 3rd | |||||
1994 | Dortmund World Team Championships | 1st |