Lavinia Miloșovici

Lavinia Miloșovici
— Gymnast —

Miloşovici (left) at the 1992 Olympics
Personal information
Full name Lavinia Corina Miloșovici
Nickname(s) Milo
Country represented  Romania
Born (1976-10-21) 21 October 1976
Lugoj, Romania[1]
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Level Senior International
Gym Deva National Training Center
Head coach(es) Octavian Bellu
Assistant coach(es) Mariana Bitang
Retired 1997
Medal record
Representing  Romania
Olympic Games
1992 Barcelona Vault
1992 Barcelona Floor exercise
1992 Barcelona Team
1992 Barcelona All-around
1996 Atlanta Team
1996 Atlanta All-around
World Championships
1991 Indianapolis Vault
1992 Paris Uneven Bars
1993 Birmingham Balance Beam
1994 Dortmund Team
1995 Sabae Team
1993 Birmingham Vault
1994 Brisbane All-Around
1994 Brisbane Floor
1991 Indianapolis Team
1991 Indianapolis Balance Beam
1994 Brisbane Vault
1995 Sabae All-Around
1996 San Juan Floor
European Championships
1994 Stockholm Team
1994 Stockholm Vault
1996 Birmingham Team
1996 Birmingham Floor
1994 Stockholm Floor
1994 Stockholm Balance Beam
1996 Birmingham All-Around

Lavinia Corina Miloșovici (born 21 October 1976) is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast.[2] An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloșovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female all-around gymnasts of the decade, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast along with Lu Li to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011.[3] Her trademarks included her four-event mastery, consistency, longevity and versatile skill set, as well as her leadership abilities.

Early life and career

Miloșovici was born in a family with Serbian roots.[2] Her mother, Ildiko, was a competitive volleyball player, while her father, Tănase, was a national team wrestler. She began gymnastics at the age of 6 and moved to the Deva National Training Centre as she excelled in the sport.[4][5][6]

Miloșovici's gymnastics career was nearly derailed when she contracted scarlet fever at the age of 10, and again when the Romanian Revolution in 1989 temporarily closed Deva. However, she continued to train, and by 1990, was representing Romania in such international meets as the American Cup and the World Sports Fair.[5][7] She competed well at the 1991 Junior European Championships, winning two gold medals.[7]

Senior career

Miloșovici made her debut as a senior in 1991, winning her first all-around title at the Romanian National Championships.[7] She joined the Romanian team at the 1991 World Championships, where she contributed to the team's bronze medal and won her first individual World Championships title, on the vault, and placed third on the balance beam.[4]

Miloșovici won her second individual world title on uneven bars at the 1992 World Championships. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Miloșovici won a total of four medals, placing third in the all-around, second with the Romanian team, tying with Hungarian Henrietta Ónodi for the vault gold medal, and winning floor exercise with a perfect score of 10.0. She scored her 10 on the same night that China's Lu Li also scored a 10 (hers being for her performance on the uneven bars). Miloșovici's 10, in the event finals, was only the second awarded in Barcelona, and the last ever awarded at any Olympics.[8][9]

After the 1992 Olympics, Miloșovici continued to compete, winning the world title on beam in 1993, which completed her quartet of golds on each of the individual apparatuses, and the world silver medal on vault that same year. In 1994 and 1995, she led the Romanian team to two World Championships team titles. Shortly before the 1994 World Championships, she and her teammates staged a strike at Deva to protest nonpayment of prize money owed from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation; in spite of the depleted training time, they still won the team gold medal at Worlds.[7][10] Milosovici's best all-around finish in World Championship or Olympic competition came in 1994 when she took second to Shannon Miller in a controversial finish, after being considered the early favorite. Milo concluded the 1994 Worlds with a silver on floor and a bronze on vault. At the 1995 Sabae World Championships, she captured the all-around bronze.

Miloșovici led the Romanian team to a bronze at the 1996 Olympics, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several key gymnasts and forced them to compete with only six athletes instead of seven.[11] At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona and only because of her consistency did she take advantage of her competitors' mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since Nadia Comăneci to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. This also marked her fourth all-around medal in World and Olympic competition, a feat since equalled only by Svetlana Khorkina, Aliya Mustafina and Simone Biles.

Post-retirement

Miloșovici announced her official retirement in the summer of 1997.[12] After retiring, she returned to Lugoj to coach gymnastics and attended the Sports University in Timisoara.[5]

On 23 October 1999, Milo married her childhood friend, Cosmin Vinatu. According to Prosport, Cosmin was a sergeant major in the police force.[7] The two were childhood friends, but lost touch when Milo moved to Deva. Then, in 1998, Milo was out with her brother and a group of his friends and they ran into Cosmin at a bar. Needless to say, Milo and Cosmin's friendship was renewed. Their wedding took place at the Termal restaurant in Timisoara, with over 350 guests. Milo told Prosport that the couple expected to live in Timisoara after the wedding, though she does own a house in her hometown of Lugoj. They had one daughter, Denisa Florentina, who was born in 2004 and died in 2008. The Godmother was former teammate, Simona Amânar. In January 2013, Lavinia gave birth to a boy, Cosmin Mihai,[6][13] and in July 2016 Lavinia's second son, Andrew Nicholas, was born.[14]

In 2002, Miloșovici, along with former teammates Corina Ungureanu and Claudia Presăcan, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for a Japanese photobook, LCC Gold, and performing gymnastics routines topless for the Japanese DVDs Gold Bird and Euro Angels. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai, and an edited version of the DVDs entitled 3 Gold Girls was released in Germany in 2004. Because the gymnasts had posed for some of the photographs and footage wearing their official Romanian team leotards, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation banned them from coaching and judging in the country for five years, and the Japanese Junior Gymnastic Club Federation contemplated banning Romanian gymnasts from a major international junior competition.[15][16]

Major results

Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX
1990American Cup 5th
World Sports Fair 7th 3rd 3rd
1991European Championships (Junior) 6th 1st 2nd 1st
Romanian Nationals 1st 1st 2nd
World Sports Fair 7th 3rd 3rd
1991 World Championships3rd 7th 1st 3rd 4th
1992Romanian Nationals 1st 1st 1st 1st
1992 World Championships 4th 1st 8th
1992 Olympic Games2nd 3rd 1st 4th 8th 1st
1993Romanian Nationals 1st 1st 3rd 1st 1st
1993 World Championships 8th 2nd 5th 1st 5th
1994European Championships1st 6th 1st 7th 3rd 2nd
1994 World Championships 2nd 3rd 6th 5th 2nd
1994 World Team Championships1st
1995Romanian Nationals 1st
1995 World Championships1st 3rd 5th
1996European Championships1st 3rd 4th 1st
1996 World Championships 10th 3rd
1996 Olympic Games3rd 3rd 8th

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lavinia Miloșovici. sports-reference.com
  2. 1 2 Jane Perlez (13 July 1995) "Romanian Coach Keeps Up the Fight", New York Times
  3. ↑ Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique IGHF presents Class of 2011, 6 May 2011
  4. 1 2 FIG biography International Gymnastics Federation Archived 1 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. 1 2 3 Whatever happened to Lavinia Miloşovici? Gymnastics Greats, 2008
  6. 1 2 Legends:Lavinia Miloşovici International Gymnast, 2001
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 List of competitive results Gymn-Forum
  8. ↑ " BARCELONA: GYMNASTICS; Miller Picks Up 3 Medals In a Day" Gerard Eskenazi, New York Times, 2 August 1992
  9. ↑ "Comaneci gets world record status" International Gymnast, 19 July 2007
  10. ↑ Jere Longman (28 September 1994) " The Cost of Freedom: Romanian Gymnasts Stage Training Slowdown", New York Times
  11. ↑ "Romanian Women Are Uneasy Favorites" Christopher Clarey, New York Times, 17 July 1996
  12. ↑ "Gymnastics: Milosovici retires" The Independent, 19 July 1997
  13. ↑ "Hope Growing Along with Milosovici's Baby" International Gymnast 4 April 2004
  14. ↑ Lavinia Miloșovici este din nou mamă! Fosta campioană olimpică a născut un băiețel de nota 10. libertatea.ro (16 July 2016)
  15. ↑ "Five year suspension for retired Romanians" International Gymnast, 18 December 2002
  16. ↑ "Romania in clear over naked Gymnastics". Sports Illustrated/Associated Press, 17 December 2002
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