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MARIAN DRAGULESCU
Marian Dragulescu (born December 18, 1980 in Bucharest) is a Romanian gymnast. He won four gold
medals at the 2004 European championships, making him one of the favorites for medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
A power athlete, he has long specialized in vault and floor.
Dragulescu helped his team to a bronze medal and was a forerunner in the all around event until a mistake on the high
bar, after which he still thrilled the crowd with a difficult routine. He won silver in the men's floor only after a
tiebreaker was needed with gold medalist Kyle Shewfelt. On the men's vault he
performed the exceptionally difficult vault that bears his name (a handspring double front with half turn) and received a
9.9, the highest score awarded in World or Olympic competition since 1995. It seemed he needed only to land his second
vault to take gold, but he fell. However, Dragulescu was still awarded the bronze, a controversial decision because the
disparity between the judges scores was greater than is permitted and therefore some or all of them should have been altered.
They were not, and Shewfelt was pushed into fourth place. The Canadian federation filed a protest, but the result stood.
Dragulescu announced his retirement in 2005, but has since returned and in the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, he
won the vault title. He had long been hampered by the lack of a strong second vault, but debuted a new one — a round
off half twist entry to forwards two and a half twist. Since then he has dominated that event, retaining his title at the
2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, and also taking the floor title.
Dragulescu no longer competes in all six events,
which has given him more time to focus on those he does still train. As such, he has gained even more success in his strong events.
For more information, visit his
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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