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LAVINIA MILOSOVICI
Lavinia Corina Milosovici (born October 21, 1976 in Lugoj) is a Romanian Olympic gymnast of Serbian origin.
She is a double Olympic champion, five times world champion and four times a European champion, as well as multiple silver and
bronze medalist.
Milosovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, was considered Romania's top gymnast of the 1990s,
earning an impressive 19 World Championship or Olympic medals. She is probably best remembered for her performances at the
1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where she scored a perfect 10 on the floor exercise during the event finals.
Milo's 10 was one of only two awarded at those games, and as it turns out, the last ever to be awarded in Olympic competition.
She also placed third in the all-around, beaten by Tatiana Gutsu and
Shannon Miller.
An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Milo medalled in every single World
Championship and Olympic Games between 1991 and 1996. However, her career mirrored that of Romanian icon
Daniela Silivas in that she was never able to win a single major all-around title.
She fell during the 1993 World Championships, and critical mistakes placed her second then third in 1994 and 1995. Though
she lacks a major world all around title, in every world, European and Olympic games she entered, Milosovici always returned
with an all-around medal, an individual gold or both.
Though she may have come up short in all-around competitions, there is no disputing the impact that her leadership had
on her younger teammates. Under her guidance, Romania won two world team titles in 1994 and 1995. Milosovici also led the
Romanian team to a bronze at the 1996 Olympics, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several
key gymnasts and eventually with only six athletes instead of seven. The Romanian team has always been noted for their
sisterly team spirit, and Milosovici was part of this tradition. In team competition, she was always to be seen hugging her
fellow gymnasts, congratulating them for good performances and comforting them after mistakes.
At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona,
as did her longtime rival Shannon Miller, who looked to improve upon the silver
medal in Barcelona. Though Milo was largely overlooked throughout the competition, her trademark consistency allowed her
to take advantage of her competitor's mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since
Nadia Comaneci to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. Her teammates
Gina Gogean and Simona Amânar made history
as well. With Gogean winning the silver and Amanar tying Milo for the bronze, the Romanian team became one of the few to
have all of their competitors medal in the all-around.
After retiring, Milo returned to Lugoj to coach gymnastics. In 2002, she, along with former teammates
Corina Ungureanu and Claudia Presecan, sparked controversy by posing naked
in photographs for a Japanese photobook, LCC Gold, and performing gymnastics routines topless for the
Japanese DVDs Gold Bird and Euro Angels. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were
subsequently published in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai. An edited version of the DVDs entitled
3 Gold Girls was released in Germany in 2004. The DVDs proved controversial as some of the scenes and publicity
material featured the gymnasts in their official Romanian team leotards. It later emerged that they had not been aware
of the contractual obligation to wear their official leotards until they began filming. For this, she and her former
teammates were banned from coaching or judging in Romania for five years, from 2002 to 2007.
Milosovici is married to police officer Cosmin Vânatu. They have one daughter, Denisa Florentina.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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