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SABINA COJOCAR
Sabina Carolina Cojocar (born October 23, 1985 in Sibiu, Romania) is a retired international elite gymnast from
Romania as well as a singer.
Cojocar began gymnastics at the age of 3-1/2, though she told her coach she was five. She made her international debut at the age
of 14 at the 2000 Junior European Championships in Paris, France, placing second with her team and winning the all-around title. She
was touted as the new leader of the young Romanian team and quickly drew international attention, appearing on the cover of
International Gymnast magazine.
In August of 2001, Sabina competed in the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. She won the all around title, upsetting more
established gymnasts such as Svetlana Khorkina, and earned a bronze medal on the floor
exercise. She made her debut at the World Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium, later in the year. She placed first with the
Romanian team, sixth in the all-around, and fourth on beam.
Cojocar underwent shoulder surgery in December 2001. In early 2002, she was one of the gymnasts affected when coach Octavian
Belu decided to send the entire senior national team home from the Deva training center. Cojocar returned to her home club in Sibiu to train.
She was one of the only gymnasts eventually asked to return to Deva, and competed in the 2002 World Championships placing 5th on the vault and
9th on floor exercise.
However, in 2003 Sabina was forced into retirement due to a chronic liver problem. She was diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia in
2000 and prescribed Zocor. The medicine was not intended for use by children, and had several serious side effects for Cojocar. She
complained of weakness and severe muscle and ligament pain, but Belu forced her to continue training and taking the medicine. After
leaving Deva, Cojocar was vocal in the media about the problems on the national team. In addition to the medication problems, she alleged
that Belu was physically abusive to the gymnasts, and that some girls had suffered "terrible beatings." In 2004, Sabina returned to
training to make one final push towards the Olympic Games, however she was not successful.
In September 2007, Sabina released the song "I Don't Wanna Lose U" on MySpace,
a song she wrote herself. Sabina also revealed on her blog that she is planning on trying out to become Romania's entrant in the 2008 Eurovision
Song Contest. She is working with Romania's 2006 representative, Mihai Traistariu to achieve this goal.
For more information, visit her biography at romanian-gymnastics.com
or her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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