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🤸Romania National Gymnastics Programme

Romania · Deva National Gymnastics Training Center

Major honours

3Olympic women's team gold medals
2Olympic all-around gold medals
7Comaneci's perfect 10s, 1976
3Comaneci's gold medals, Montreal 1976

A program built by one school and one coaching couple. The selection-and-concentration model Bela and Marta Karolyi began in Onesti became a world standard when 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci scored seven perfect 10s at Montreal in 1976, and was formalized into a national system when the Deva training center opened in 1978. The results concentrated in the women's team event: Olympic team gold at Los Angeles 1984, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, with Comaneci winning the all-around in 1976 and Simona Amanar in 2000. At Athens 2004, Catalina Ponor swept beam and floor. But after the Karolyis emigrated to the United States and the coaching generation turned over, the program collapsed sharply in the 2010s, failing to qualify a women's team for either Rio 2016 or Tokyo 2020. Romania returned to the team event at Paris 2024, and Ana Barbosu's reclaimed floor bronze offered the first sign of rebuilding.

Record comparison

Olympic team gold medals
3
Olympic all-around gold medals
2
First Olympic gymnastics gold
1976
Most recent Olympic gold
2004

Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.

Club legends

Nadia ComaneciSimona AmanarCatalina PonorLavinia MilosoviciBela Karolyi

Rivalry

The team rivalry with the Soviet women from 1976 to 1992 was the defining axis of Cold War gymnastics. At Paris 2024, a dispute over ownership of the floor bronze medal went all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the United States, with the medal ultimately awarded to Ana Barbosu.

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