Gabriela Szabo (, ; born 14 November 1975) is a retired

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n runner. She competed in the 1500 m and 5000 m events at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. Szabo is a three-time

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. She was named the

BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year The BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year, Balkan Athlete of the Year, or simply Athlete of the Balkans () is an annual sports athlete of the year award. The winner of each year's award is announced by the Bulgarian News Agency, Bulgarian News Agenc ...

in 1999. Throughout her entire career she was coached by Zsolt Gyöngyössy, whom she eventually married. In May 2005 she retired from competitions due to exhaustion. She held the European record in the 3000 m between 2002 and 2019.

Early life

Szabo was born to a

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 ...

mother and a Hungarian father. As a child, Szabo used to speak Hungarian with her friends, but she can only understand a few words today, which she regrets.

Post-sport career

As of 19 August 2013 she held the honorific title of Romanian Tourism Ambassador,Romanian Tourism Ambassadors post by DrumLiber.ro
21 August 2013, drumliber.ro, accessed on 21 August 2013 together with 7 other cultural and sport personalities of Romania. On 5 March 2014, she was appointed Minister of Youth and Sport in the

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

social-democratic government. She held the position until 17 November 2015.

Competition record

Personal bests

Outdoor (track)

1500 metres - 3:56.97 (1998)
One mile - 4:19.30 (1998)
3000 metres - 8:21.42 (2002)
5000 metres - 14:31.48 (1998)

Indoor

1500 metres - 4:03.23 (1999)
One mile - 4:23.19 (2001)
2000 metres - 5:30.53 (1998)
3000 metres - 8:32.88 (2001)
5000 metres - 14:47.35 (1999)

2001 Accident

Szabo is remembered for a collision with German long-jumper

Kofi Amoah Prah Kofi Amoah Prah (born 20 December 1974 in Accra, Ghana) is a retired Ghanaian-German long jumper. He won the silver medal at the 1992 European Indoor Championships, finished seventh at the 1998 IAAF World Cup, eleventh at the 1998 European Cham ...

during an indoor meeting at Stuttgart in 2001. Szabo was leaving the track after her competition had finished while Amoah was running for his attempt. Szabo walked into Amoah's path and they collided heavily.

References

External links

Official website of Gabi Szabo
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Gabriela 1975 births Living people Romanian female middle-distance runners Romanian female long-distance runners Olympic athletes for Romania Olympic gold medalists for Romania Olympic silver medalists for Romania Olympic bronze medalists for Romania Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Bistrița Romanian sportspeople of Hungarian descent World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Romanian sportsperson-politicians Ministers of regional development of Romania Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) IAAF Golden League winners European Athlete of the Year winners Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners FISU World University Games gold medalists for Romania World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1995 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1997 Summer Universiade