Cluj-Napoca
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status
, subdivision_name2 ...
) is a retired
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
artistic gymnast
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...
. She is an Olympic gold medalist with the team and a world silver medalist on beam and with the team. Her best events were the floor and the balance beam.Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique Oana Ban
Early career
Oana Ban started to train for gymnastics in her hometown at "Viitorul" Gymnastics Club with coaches Rodica Câmpean and Anton Ciupe. "Following in Vanda Hadarean's Footsteps" English translation from Romanian Ban quickly rose to prominence as one of Romania's top junior world-class gymnasts. She competed in her first Romanian national championships in 1998, winning the
floor exercise
In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...
event in the junior division. The following year, she was invited to join the Romanian national team, and began working with coaches
Octavian Belu
Octavian Ioan Atanase Bellu (; born 17 February 1951) is the current head of the Romanian national women's artistic gymnastics team.
He was the main coach, with interruptions, from 1990 to 2005Mariana Bitang
Mariana Bitang (born August 3, 1962, in Râmnicu Sărat) is a coach for the Romanian national women's artistic gymnastics team. Along with her partner, Octavian Bellu, she helped Romania win five consecutive team gold medals at the World Champion ...
at the elite training facility in Deva. Success in major international junior meets soon followed, including a first-place finish at the Top Gym tournament in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
in 1999Gymn Forum Results Top Gym 1999 and a bronze medal at the 2001 European Youth Olympic Days. 2001 European Youth Olympic Days
Senior career
2002-2003
With her early January birth date, Ban missed the eligibility cutoff for the 2001 World Championships by 11 days. She was forced to wait until 2002 to make her international senior debut. At the 2002 World Championships in
Debrecen
Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...
, Ban won a silver medal on the
balance beam
The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...
, one of Romania's only victories of the competition, and placed fourth on the floor finals.Gymn Forum Results 2002 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Later that year she placed second all around at the Chunichi Cup (behind teammate
Oana Petrovschi
Oana Andreea Petrovschi (born 5 February 1986 in Bârlad, Romania) is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast.Gymn Forum Results 2002 Chunichi Cup and won the Massilia Cup. 2002 Massilia Gym Cup In 2003, Ban had a similarly strong showing, contributing to the Romanian team's silver medal at the 2003 World Championships and placing sixth in the all-around final.Gymn Forum Results 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Women Team 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Women All Around That year she successfully competed in several international competitions, winning the all around silver medal at the Gander Memorial behind
Cătălina Ponor
Cătălina Ponor (; born 20 August 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast who competed at three Olympiads: 2004, 2012, and 2016. She won three gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens on balance beam, floor and as part of the R ...
Svetlana Khorkina
Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina (russian: Светлана Васильевна Хоркина; born 19 January 1979) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the 2004 Summer Ol ...
.Gymn Forum Results 2003 Chunichi Cup She also won silver on beam at the 2003 Cottbus Cup 2003 Cottbus Cup and the 2003 DTB Cup 2003 DTP Cup and won the Swiss cup together with
Marian Drăgulescu
Marian Drăgulescu (born 18 December 1980 in Bucharest) is a former Romanian artistic gymnast. During his senior gymnastics career he won 31 medals at Olympic Games at World and European Championships, of which eight are gold medals at the World ...
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
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 ...
, where she, along with teammates
Monica Roșu
Monica Roşu (born 11 May 1987) is a former artistic gymnast from Romania. During her career, she won two Olympic gold medals (team and vault), a silver medal with the Romanian team at world championships, and two gold medals at the European Cha ...
,
Alexandra Eremia
Alexandra Georgiana Eremia (born 19 February 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast.
,
Cătălina Ponor
Cătălina Ponor (; born 20 August 1987) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast who competed at three Olympiads: 2004, 2012, and 2016. She won three gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens on balance beam, floor and as part of the R ...
Silvia Stroescu
Silvia Alexandra Stroescu (born 8 May 1985 in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is an Olympic, world, and European gold medalist with the team.
Early life and career
She was one of the most successful junior gymnast of he ...
, won the gold medal in the team competition. Ban contributed heavily to the Romanian victory, competing on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor in the team finals.Gymn Forum Results 2004 Athens Olympic Games Women Team Finals Individually, she qualified for both the all-around and the floor exercise final. She also placed fifth in the qualifications for the balance beam final but she could not compete due to the two per country rule. Unfortunately, an injury sustained on her last event in the team competition forced her to sit out both competitions and essentially ended her Olympic experience. For Ban, the situation was unfortunate: she had qualified to the all-around in an impressive third place; her qualifying floor score would have been good enough for second place. She was replaced in the floor final by Daniela Şofronie who won the silver medal. Daniela Şofronie
Post retirement
Ban retired from gymnastics after the Olympics; she is currently a coach in her hometown of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She participated in the 4th televised competition of ''
Kunoichi
is a Japanese cant term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female shinobi or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Yamada Futaro in his novel ''Ninpō Hakkenden'' (忍法八犬伝) in 1964 ...
'' in Japan. She made it past the First Stage of the competition, but failed on the ''Floating Bridge'' of Stage 2.
Skills
During her career, Ban specialized on floor exercise and beam. Her favorite event was floor; she was renowned for her difficult tumbling and fast-paced, playful, crowd-pleasing choreography. As many of her Romanian teammates, her weakness was the uneven bars. In spite of her powerful tumbling skills and strength, Ban was not an especially strong vaulter. Nonetheless, she was able to perform as an all-around gymnast for the Romanian team, and posted scores that frequently placed her in the top ten at major competitions. She qualified in third place for the Olympic all-around in Athens and would have been a medal contender had injury not prevented it.