Simona Amânar, who was born in the city of Constanta on the 7th of October, made her senior debut in 1994 helping her team to the European and World titles. A year later, at the 1995 World Championships, Simona began to make a name for herself by finishing 4th in the all-around and winning the vault title (tied with Lilia Podkopayeva).
In early 1996 Simona showed her strength at Europeans. She finished fourth in the all-around and qualified to all the event finals and won two gold medals, on vault and bars. Her bars title was tied with Khorkina and Podkopayeva. On beam she finished 5th and on floor she finished 7th.
At her first Olympics, Simona contributed to her team’s third place finish but did not advance to the all-around final. Her teammate Alexandra Marinescu was pulled from the AA competition so Simona could take her place. She made the trade worth by winning a bronze medal, her success came partly because of her excellent vault rotation where she competed a double twisting Yurchenko, a difficult and out of ordinary vault at the time.
The same vault also brought her the Olympic vault title, the only gold medal for Romania in the gymnastics competition at the 1996 Games. Simona also won a silver medal on floor.
At the 1997 Worlds, Amânar was the 4th Romanian after qualifications but was allowed to compete of the final after Alexandra Marinescu was pulled from the competition. And once again Simona made it worthwhile by winning a silver medal behind Khorkina. She also took the vault title, making it her third straight major win on the apparatus after taking the title at the 1995 Worlds and 1996 Olympics.
At the 1998 Europeans Simona medalled on all the event finals she qualified to, she won silver on both the all-around and vault, and bronze on beam and floor. At the 1999 World Championships, Amânar fell off the uneven bars during the all-around final, missing out on a medal. During the event finals she won two silvers, vault and floor.
At the 2000 Europeans Amânar finished 8th in the all-around after a bad uneven bars routine, but made up during the event finals by winning the vault title and taking a silver on beam; she also finished fifth on floor.
At the 2000 Olympics, the veteran Amânar, helped her team to their first ever Olympic Team Title at a fully attended Olympic Games, after that success she along her teammates, Răducan and Olaru, swept the podium in the all-around final. Amânar who originally finished second in the all-around moved up to first after Răducan tested positive to a banned substance. Since Raducan had unknowingly ingested the substance in a cold medicine, her disqualification is highly regarded as unfair and even if the official results show Amânar as the winner of the 2000 all-around title, it is Răducan who is widely acknowledged as the legitimate winner, even by Simona herself.
Amânar, who went on to win a bronze medal on floor, had a bittersweet vault final. She debuted a brand new vault that was named after her, the now widely re-known two and a half twisting Yurchenko, however a poor landing left her out of the podium in 6th place. Given the modern popularity of the vault, Amânar should not be that disappointed in losing the medal as her name is among the most famous in present gymnastics.
Amânar, who is the second most decorated Romanian gymnast in terms of Olympic medals with a total of 7, had her last competition at the World Cup Final held in Glasgow in late 2000 where she won a silver on vault and beam and a bronze on floor.
In 2002 Simona was married and gave birth to a son, ten years later, in 2012, she gave birth to a baby girl. Simona now goes by the name Simona Amânar-Tabără.
A young Simona Amânar competing at the 1994 Worlds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op0jsOpecrw
Article by Isabel Iz