Maria Olaru
| Maria Olaru | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| — Gymnast — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |
 Romania
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| Born |
June 4, 1982 Fălticeni, Romania |
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| Residence | Timișoara, Romania | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 48 kg (106 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Maria Olaru (born June 4, 1982) is a Romanian former Olympic artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic, World, and European gold medalist with the team. Individually, she was the 1999 all-around world champion and the 2000 Olympic all-around silver medalist. Her best event was the vault on which she medaled at world and continental competitions. Olaru was one of the tallest gymnasts competing in the late 1990s, standing 160 cm (5 ft 3 in). After retirement she became an assistant professor at the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education of the West University of Timișoara.
Born in Fălticeni, Olaru began gymnastics at the age of six there, but quickly transferred to the local gymnastics club in Deva. She moved up to the junior national team in 1993, but after six months, she returned to her home club. In 1995 she rejoined the junior team in Bucharest. Olaru graduated to the Deva national training facility in 1996, after winning gold on vault at the Junior European Championships. In the same year she also won the Top Gym Trophy in Charleroi, Belgium.
In 1998 Olaru moved up to senior competition, taking first place with the Romanian team and second on vault at the European Championships. The following year, she contributed to the team gold medal at the 1999 World Championships in Tianjin, China and became the second Romanian gymnast in history, after Aurelia Dobre, to win the all-around title. In 2000 she was, with Simona Amânar, Loredana Boboc, Andreea Isărescu, Claudia Presăcan and Andreea Răducan, a member of the Romanian team at the 2000 Olympics. There she shared in the team gold medal and won a silver in the all-around (after the Răducan controversy). She also qualified for the balance beam event final and placed sixth.
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