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MARIA OLARU
Maria Ludovica Olaru (born June 4, 1982 in Falticeni) is a retired Olympic gymnast from Romania.
Olaru began gymnastics at the age of six in her hometown of Falticeni, 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
taking first place on the vault at the Junior European Championshps.
In 1998, Olaru moved up to senior competition, taking first place with the Romanian team and second on the vault at
the European Championships. The following year, she helped the Romanian squad to a gold medal at the World Gymnastics
Championships in Tianjin, China and became the second Romanian gymnast in history, after
Aurelia Dobre, to win the all-around title. She continued her success at the
2000 Olympics, where she shared in the team gold medal and won a silver in the all-around. She also qualified for the
balance beam event final and placed sixth.
Olaru was one of the tallest gymnasts competing in the late 1990s, standing 5'3" (160 cm). Her strengths were
vaulting and floor exercise. However, she was best known as an all-around gymnast.
Olaru retired after the 2000 Olympics, noting that the new Code of Points would not be suited to gymnasts of her height.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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