Alexandra Marinescu
| Alexandra Marinescu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Alexandra Marinescu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Alex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |
 Romania
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| Born |
19 March 1982 Bucharest, Romania |
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| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Level | Senior International | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gym | Triumf Bucharest; Deva national training center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach(es) | Eliza Stoica; Octavian Bellu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assistant coach(es) | Mariana Bitang | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Alexandra Marinescu (born 19 March 1982) is a retired Romanian Olympic artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic bronze medalist with the team and a two-time world champion with the team. Individually, she is a world silver medalist on beam and a seven-time Junior European medalist. She currently works as a minimal electro DJ based in Bucharest.
Marinescu was born in Bucharest. During her career as a competitive gymnast, she competed under a falsified passport which listed her year of birth as 1981; her age was advanced by one year to make her age-eligible for the 1995 World Championships and the 1996 Olympics. Her year of birth is still listed as 1981 in the official F.I.G. database, however, Marinescu herself has stated that this is incorrect and she was born in 1982. In a 2002 interview, she revealed, "Without asking for his permission, but rather communicating him their decision, they told my father that they had to modify my age by changing in the passport the year when I was born. Instead of 1982 they wrote 1981. They explained to my father that it was my only chance to get to the Olympic Games."
As a young child, Marinescu was involved with swimming, but eventually switched over to gymnastics. Unlike many of her Romanian teammates, who transferred to the national training center in Deva as juniors, Marinescu spent the bulk of her career training at her home club, Triumf, in Bucharest with coach Eliza Stoica. She arrived at Deva in early 1996, during the buildup to the Atlanta Olympics.
As a result of the different training environment, Marinescu's gymnastics style stood out. She had long lines, elegant presentation and a sense of artistry that was missing from most routines crafted at Deva, but showed less difficulty in her tumbling and vaulting than Deva trained athletes such as Lavinia Miloșovici and Gina Gogean.
At the age of twelve, Marinescu was the European Junior Champion; the following year, she won the pre-Olympic test event in Atlanta. In 1996, she placed second on the balance beam at the World Championships and successfully defended her all-around title at the Junior European Championships. Leading into the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Marinescu was touted as one of Romania's best chances for an individual medal, and was compared to legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci by the media.
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