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ALEXANDRA MARINESCU
Alexandra Marinescu (born March 19, 1982) is a retired Romanian Olympic gymnast. She currently works
as a trance 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.
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 Milosovici
and Gina Gogean.
At the age of 12, 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 Comaneci by the media.
The Olympics proved to be a difficult competition for Marinescu. She contributed to the team bronze medal and qualified
for the all-around final. However, coach Octavian Belu pulled her from the all-around and replaced her with teammate
Simona Amânar. Belu's official reason, as given to the media, was that
Marinescu did not "work hard enough." Marinescu's only chance to shine at the Olympics came in the balance beam event final.
She was the first competitor in the final, suffered two falls during her routine, and finished last with a score below 9.0.
Marinescu continued training in 1997, representing Romania at such competitions as the American Cup. At the World
Championships in Lausanne she shared in the team gold medal, however, once again, she was pulled from the all-around finals
in favor of Amânar.
Marinescu retired in early 1998, citing serious back problems. She has remained a public figure in Romanian gymnastics
due to her outspoken criticism of the Deva coaches and training system. While former Romanian Gymnastics Federation president
Adrian Stoica has denied Marinescu's allegations of abuse at Deva, many of her teammates have stepped forward in the Romanian
press to corroborate and substantiate her claims.
Marinescu's experiences were detailed in the book Alexandra's Secrets, written by ProSport journalist Andrei Norescu.
The book, which was published in Romania in 2002, won the 2003 "Best Book of the Year" award from the Romanian Sports Press
Association. An English-language translation entitled The Secrets of a Gymnast was released in the United States
in January 2006.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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