Simona Amânar

A seven-time Olympic and ten-time World Championship medallist, Simona Amânar is a former artistic gymnast from Romania. She is best known for having a vault named after her "Amanar", which is one of the most challenging skills in women’s gymnastics.

Simona began gymnastics at the age of six and became a part of the senior national team in 1994, aiding the team in winning World and European Championships titles. However, her individual career excellence began in 1995. Between 1994 and 1999, she helped her nation win four successive world team titles and the 2000 Olympic team title. This led to establishing Romania as the top-ranked team in the world in women’s gymnastics.

Simona took retirement in 2000 and got married in 2002. Eventually, she became the vice president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

Here are some of her major career achievements:

• Bagged a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in 1996 and two gold and a bronze medal in 2000 in different events at the Olympic Games
• Won six gold medals and four silver medals in different events of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships between 1994 and 1999
• Earned gold medals in vault and floor exercise in 1998, silver medals in vault and balance beam and a bronze medal in the floor exercise in 2000 at the World Cup Final
• Won a silver medal and three bronze medals at the 1998 Goodwill Games in floor exercise, all around, vault and uneven bars events, respectively
• Bagged six gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals at the European Women’s Gymnastics Championships between 1994 and 2000 in different events
• In 2007, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.