Steliana Nistor

Steliana Nistor
— Gymnast —
Steliana Nistor in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Steliana Nistor
Nickname(s)	Stela, Steliata
Country represented	Romania
Born	(1989-09-15) September 15, 1989 (age 27) Sibiu
Height	149 cm (4 ft 11 in)
Weight	43 kg (95 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior
Club	C.S.S. SIBIU
Head coach(es)	Nicolae Forminte
Assistant coach(es)	Lucian Sandu, Liliana Cozma
Former coach(es)	Mihaela Stănuleţ, Raluca Bugner, Livia Ponoran
Music	"Happy Valley" by Vanessa Mae
Retired	2008
Medal record Representing  Romania Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team World Championships 2007 Stuttgart All-Around 2007 Stuttgart Balance Beam 2007 Stuttgart Team European Championships 2008 Clermont Team 2006 Volos Team 2007 Amsterdam Uneven Bars 2008 Clermont Uneven Bars 2007 Amsterdam Balance Beam

Steliana Nistor (born September 15, 1989 in Sibiu, Romania) is a retired Romanian gymnast. She was a key member of the Romanian team between 2006 and 2008, where she helped the Romania win team bronze medals at the 2007 World Championships and the 2008 Olympics. Individually, she is the 2007 world all-around and beam silver medallist, the 2007 and 2008 European silver medallist on the uneven bars and the 2007 bronze medallist on the balance beam. Nistor was a strong all-around competitor but her best events were balance beam and uneven bars.

Steliana began gymnastics at the age of five, at the gymnastics club CSS Sibiu under the training of the former Olympic champion Mihaela Stănuleţ and of the coach Raluca Bugner (since 1998). In 1998 she placed first with the team at an international competition in France. In 2001 she won the all-around title, gold on bars and beam and bronze on floor at the Romanian junior championships in her age category. These successes allowed her to join the national junior gymnastic team in 2002. As a national junior she medaled in several international and national competitions. The 2004 European Junior Championships Amsterdam was an especially successful meet for Steliana. She won gold in the all around and floor final events and silver in the team and vault finals. Her all around score was the highest score of all the gymnasts, including the senior ones.

Since 2005, Steliana has been a member of the senior national gymnastic team. Unfortunately she was sidelined for nearly six months with back and knee injuries and she did not compete at all in 2005. It was only after an intensive rehabilitation process that she was able to return, and Nistor sometimes wore a protective brace on her right knee. She returned to the international competitions in 2006 at the Cottbus cup where she finished 6th in the beam finals. At the European Championships, Volos Greece she medaled silver with the team and she finished 6th on the uneven bars finals. At that competition she only competed on uneven bars. However, during 2006 she reestablished herself as contender in all around competitions winning the all around silver behind Sandra Izbaşa at the Romanian Nationals. Steliana was also a member of the national team competing for the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. According to the team's coach Nicolae Forminte, the 2006 team was Romania's most unexperienced generation since the time of Nadia Comăneci. From all the team members only Floarea Leonida had the experience of a world championship. In Aarhus, the Romanian team placed 4th in the team competition, the first time since 1981 that the Romanian team failed to medal at a world championship. She also placed 4th all-around behind her teammate Sandra Izbaşa and 7th on beam and on uneven bars. She ended 2006 by pairing with Marian Drăgulescu for the silver medal at the Swiss Cup and by winning gold on beam and bronze on floor at the Glasgow Grand Prix.