Dominique Moceanu

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Dominique Moceanu on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids

Olympic medal record
Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1996 Atlanta	Team competition

Dominique Helena Moceanu (born September 30, 1981 in Hollywood, California) is an American gymnast of Romanian descent who was a member of the Olympic Gold medal winning 1996 U.S. Women's Gymnastics team in Atlanta (the "Magnificent 7").

The hallmarks of Moceanu's gymnastics, in the early stage of her elite career, were daring tricks on balance beam and spunky, inspired presentation on floor exercise. In the latter part of her elite career, under the direction of new coaches, she developed a more elegant, mature style. Although she was never considered to be an overwhelmingly innovative gymnast, she did display a high level of difficulty in her gymnastics, particularly on beam and floor.

Dominique was one of the last gymnasts to be trained by the legendary Romanian coaches Marta and Béla Károlyi in Houston Texas. Although she began her gymnastics career at LeFleur's in Florida, by the time she was twelve she was one of Károlyi's stars. Under Károlyi's tutelage she became the US Junior National Champion in 1994. In 1995 she repeated her success as a senior, becoming the youngest gymnast ever to win the US Championships. She was the youngest member of the American team at the 1995 World Championships in Sabae, Japan. Dominque did not disappoint, earning the highest American placement in the all-around competition and becoming the only American gymnast to win an individual medal, a silver on the balance beam.

Dominique was expected by many to be a major medal threat at the 1996 Olympics. However, following the 1996 US Nationals, where she placed third in the all-around, she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right tibia. Her injury forced her to sit out of the Olympic Trials, but she was petitioned onto the team on the strength of her Nationals scores.

At the Olympics, Dominique contributed heavily to the team gold medal, turning in such strong performances that she qualified for the event finals on balance beam and floor exercise. However, she faltered in the last rotation of team finals, falling on both of her vaults. She only advanced to the all-around finals as a replacement for injured teammate Kerri Strug. Small mistakes cost her a medal, but she still placed a respectable ninth. In BB event finals, Dominique suffered a horrifying fall when she missed a foot on a layout and crashed into the balance beam on her head. She finished the exercise and went on to a strong performance in the floor finals later that day, finishing fourth and just missing a medal.

Following the Atlanta Olympics, Dominique participated in numerous tours and professional gymnastics exhibitions before returning to competition. With the retirement of the Károlyis, she went through several coaching changes before finally settling down at Mary Lee Tracy's CGA gym in 1999.

Dominique participated in the 1997 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, leading a new and mostly inexperienced US team. She was elected team captain, but the competition was not a positive experience for her.

By 1998 she had returned to top form, becoming the first and only American to win the all-around title at the Goodwill Games. In doing so, she defeated reigning World All-Around Champion Svetlana Khorkina, as well as the World silver and bronze medalists, Simona Amanar and Elena Produnova. Most consider the meet the highlight of her career. Indeed, she was cleaner and performed harder skills here than ever before in her career. And all of this while being a full foot taller than in Atlanta.

In late 1998 Moceanu was in the news for another reason--she sued for legal emancipation from her parents, in order to regain control of the money she'd earned as a gymnastics professional, claiming her father had squandered her earnings. She has since reconciled with her parents.

She qualified to the 2000 Olympic Trials, but was forced to withdraw with a knee injury. After a five-year hiatus from elite gymnastics, Dominique announced a return to competition in 2005. However, injury kept her from competing in the '05 Nationals. She has remained committed to her comeback efforts, training difficult skills on floor and vault.

Recently, Moceanu received an invitation to attend the 2006 national training camp & competed at the 2006 US Classic. She stuck a full twising Tsukahara vault but went out of bounds on her tucked full-in pass and fell on her double pike pass on floor. Moceanu was informed that she would qualify for Nationals by attending the National Training Camp and competing at least two events at the Classic. Despite meeting these requirements, she was not able to qualify to Nationals based on her Classic performances.

She currently attends John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

On November 3, 2006, she married long-time boyfriend Michael Canales in Houston, Texas.[1]

[edit] Popular appeal

In the months leading up to the Atlanta Olympics, Dominique was one of the most recognizable faces of USA Gymnastics, eclipsing more decorated teammates such as Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes. Her plucky attitude, showmanship and bubbly interviews gave her a wide fan base both in and out of the gymnastics community. In 1995 alone, Moceanu was featured in Vanity Fair and wrote an autobiography, Dominique Moceanu: An American Champion. The book was a best-seller and ranked number seven on the New York Times' Best Sellers List.