Gabriela Mihalcea (née Margineanu; born 27 January 1964) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

. She holds the Romanian record of for the pole vault. She was two-time national champion in high jump and a six-time pole vault champion. Mihalcea was the foremost Romanian woman vaulter following the event's introduction to the standard programme and won the bronze medal at the first major international championship: the

1996 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 1996 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Globe Arena, Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden from Friday, 8 March to Sunday, 10 March 1996.1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 6th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France from March 7 to March 9, 1997. It was the first athletic championships to introduce women's pole vault. There were a total numb ...

) and was fourth in the event's debut at the

1998 European Athletics Championships The 17th European Athletics Championships were held from 18 August to 23 August 1998 in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. Men's results Track 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , Field 1990 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , Women's resul ...

Career

Mihalcea began her career in the high jump and reached the peak of the national scene with victories at the

Romanian Athletics Championships The Romanian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Romanian Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Romania.Niculina Vasile Niculina Vasile (born 13 February 1958) is a retired high jumper from Romania, who set her personal best on 2 June 1985, jumping 1.98 metres at a meet in Bucharest. A three-time national champion (1981, 1982 and 1984), Vasile competed at the 198 ...

and

Alina Astafei Alina Astafei (known before 1995 as Galina Astafei; born 7 June 1969) is a Romanian-German track and field athlete who attained German citizenship in 1995. She was one of the world's leading high jumpers in the 1990s. Representing Romania, sh ...

. She achieved a best of in 1985, then had her career best of in 1987, which brought her to thirteenth on the seasonal rankings (her highest ever in that event).Gabriela Mihalcea
Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2016-01-16. Her high jumping career ceased in 1987 after she was banned for two years by the

International Amateur Athletics Federation World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

for testing positive for banned steroids. Following her return from her doping ban, she changed her focus to the pole vault, which was becoming an increasingly popular women's event (thought not yet part of international programmes). She led the way for Romanian women, taking the first three national titles that were available in the sport between 1991 and 1993. She steadily improved to in 1993 then in 1994. She ranked just outside the world's top ten during this period. She cleared four metres for the first time in 1995, doing so both indoors and outdoors. However, she lost her national streak to Gianina Rusu that same year. The

Vala Flosadóttir Vala Flosadóttir (born 16 February 1978 in Reykjavík) is an Icelandic former athlete competing in the pole vault. Biography She saw her heyday in the late nineties, when she set five world junior records and two world indoor records. She won va ...

. The women's pole vault gradually began to be incorporated into major competitions and the standard of the athletes improved. Mihalcea neared four metres in qualifying at the

1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 6th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France from March 7 to March 9, 1997. It was the first athletic championships to introduce women's pole vault. There were a total numb ...

, but did not make the first ever women's final at the championship. Mihalcea improved her best to that season.Gabriela Mihalcea
IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-01-17. The 1998 season saw her become the inaugural champion at the

Balkan Indoor Athletics Championships The Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships, also known as the ''Balkan Indoor Games'' ( el, Βαλκανικοί Αγώνες Κλειστού Στίβου), is an annual international regional indoor track and field competition between athletes fr ...

and she also won the 1998 Balkan Athletics Championships title in a championship record of four metres (succeeding the initial champion Tania Koleva of Bulgaria).Balkan Indoor Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-01-17. She returned to the peak of Romanian vaulting in this same period, with national titles in 1998 and 1999. She debuted at the

and was among the leading entrants with a new best of . She managed in the first European outdoor final, but this was only enough for fourth as

Anzhela Balakhonova Anzhela Anatoliyivna Balakhonova ( uk, Анжела Анатоліївна Балахонова; born 18 December 1972) is a retired female pole vaulter from Ukraine who won the silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. She held t ...

Nicole Humbert Nicole Humbert, née Rieger (born 5 February 1972 in Landau) is a retired German pole vaulter. Her personal best is 4.51 metres, achieved in July 2001 in Salamanca. This ranks her seventh among German pole vaulters, behind Annika Becker, Yvonne B ...

and

Yvonne Buschbaum Balian Buschbaum (born 14 July 1980 in Ulm) is a former German pole vaulter. Life and career Buschbaum competed in women's pole vaulting before his gender transition, winning the title of German Youth Champion multiple times. In 1999 Buschbau ...

shared the podium with equal marks of , which would have been a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

just three years earlier. She achieved her best results in her final year of high level competition in 1999. She was a qualified non-starter at the

1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, ...

, but cleared indoors in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

to set a meet record at the Balkan Indoor Championships. Mihalcea then followed this with outdoors in

Dreux Dreux () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the Eure, about 35 km north of Chartres. Dreux station has rail connections to Argentan, Paris and Granvi ...

, France. Both of these marks were Romanian national records for the event and were also over-35 masters world records. Her masters marks were bettered by

Stacy Dragila Stacy Renée Dragila (née Mikaelson; born March 25, 1971) is an American former pole vaulter. She is an Olympic gold medalist and a multiple world champion. Early life Dragila was born and raised in Auburn, California, northeast of Sacramen ...

in 2008, but she remains the Romanian record holder. Mihalcea had her last marks over four metres in the 2000 season, achieving a best of that season at the European Cup Super League in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

Personal bests

*Pole vault outdoor – (1999) *Pole vault indoor – (1999) *High jump outdoor – (1987) All info from All AthleticsGabriela Mihalcea
All Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-01-16.

National titles

Romanian Athletics Championships The Romanian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Romanian Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Romania.Romanian Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-01-16. **Pole vault: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999

International competitions

References

External links