Lavinia Corina Miloșovici (, born 21 October 1976) 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 artistic gymnast.Jane Perlez (13 July 1995
"Romanian Coach Keeps Up the Fight"
''New York Times'' Also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, Miloșovici is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts and one of the most prolific female all-around medalists ever, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female Romanian gymnast ever, after

Larisa Latynina Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (, née Diriy, Дирий; born 27 December 1934) is a Russian former artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 List of multiple Olympic medalists, individual Olympic medals and four team medals for the Sovie ...

and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast, along with Lu Li, to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the

International Gymnastics Hall of Fame The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics. The early IG ...

in 2011.Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
IGHF presents Class of 2011, 6 May 2011

Early life and career

Miloșovici was born into a family with Serbian roots. Her mother, Ildiko, was a competitive volleyball player, while her father, Tănase, was a national team wrestler. She began gymnastics at the age of six and moved to the Deva National Training Centre as she excelled in the sport.FIG biography
International Gymnastics Federation
Gymnastics Greats, 2008
''International Gymnast'', 2001 Miloșovici's gymnastics career was nearly derailed when she contracted

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

at the age of 10, and again when the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

in 1989 temporarily closed Deva. However, she continued to train, and by 1990 she was representing Romania in international meets such as the

American Cup The American Football Association Challenge Cup (also known as the American Association Cup or simply American Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1884, and organised by t ...

and the World Sports Fair.List of competitive results
Gymn-Forum She competed at the 1991 Junior European Championships, winning two gold medals.

Senior career

Miloșovici made her debut as a senior in 1991, winning her first all-around title at the Romanian National Championships. She joined the Romanian team at the 1991 World Championships, where she contributed to the team's bronze medal, won her first individual World Championships title on the vault, and placed third on the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

. Miloșovici won her second individual world title on uneven bars at the 1992 World Championships. At the 1992 Olympics in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Miloșovici won a total of four medals. She placed third in the all-around and second with the Romanian team. She was very close to winning the all-around, being tied for 1st with eventual winner Tatiana Gutsu after three rotations, but a big hop on her beam dismount to start the night (9.850) and a small hop on her uneven bars dismount in the final rotation (9.900) cost her the victory. In the event finals, she tied with Hungarian

Henrietta Ónodi Henrietta Ónodi (born May 22, 1974) is a Hungarian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and won a gold and a silver medal in 1992. After retiring from gymnastics in 1997 she moved to the United States, married American O ...

for the vault gold medal and won floor exercise with a perfect score of 10.0. She scored her 10.0 on the floor exercise the same night that China's Lu Li scored a 10.0 on the

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

. Miloșovici's 10.0 in the event finals was only the second awarded in Barcelona, and the last ever awarded at any Olympics." BARCELONA: GYMNASTICS; Miller Picks Up 3 Medals In a Day"
Gerard Eskenazi, ''New York Times,'' 2 August 1992 She was the only gymnast at those Games to win two individual golds, and was the most successful overall gymnast of that Games, leaving with six total medals. After the 1992 Olympics, Miloșovici continued to compete. In the 1993 European Cup, she finished third in the all-around, won gold on both vault and uneven bars, and silver on floor. At the World Championships, she made all four apparatus finals and she won the gold on beam. She also won the silver medal on vault, but finished eighth in the all-around after a fall on beam. In 1994 and 1995, she led the Romanian team to two World Championships team titles. Shortly before the 1994 World Championships, she and her teammates staged a strike at Deva to protest non-payment of prize money owed from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. In spite of the depleted training time, they still won the team gold medal at Worlds. Miloșovici's best all-around finish in a World Championship or Olympic competition came in 1994, when she took second to

Shannon Miller Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1992 Summer Olympics all-around silver medallist, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan ...

(losing by a margin of 0.038), after being the early favourite as the top qualifier to the all-around final. A step on dismount of her uneven bars routine and a minor wobble in the side somersault on beam cost her the win. Miloșovici once again made all four apparatus finals, and concluded the 1994 Worlds with a silver on floor and a bronze on vault. She lost the floor gold by 0.013 to Dina Kochetkova. At the European Championships, a fall off the uneven bars on the dismount kept her off the all-around podium, but she rebounded to win a gold on vault, silver on floor, and bronze on beam in the individual event finals. She delivered a dominant performance at the 1994 Team Worlds, where she easily won the individual all-around points tally with 39.500 points, an average score of 9.875 over the four events, and led Romania to an emphatic victory. She also received the highest score of the quadrennium at this meet with a 9.950 on the floor exercise. At the 1995 Sabae World Championships, she captured the all-around bronze. She was in tears after the competition, as she realized this was likely her last realistic shot at a major all-around title. At this point she was affected by growth spurt, and overshadowed by younger teammates Gina Gogean and

Simona Amânar Simona Amânar (; born 7 October 1979) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She is the 2000 Olympic all-around champion, and a seven-time Olympic and ten-time World Championship medalist. Amânar helped Romania win four consecutive world te ...

. The only event final she qualified for due to the two-gymnasts-per-country rule was the uneven bars, despite being the fourth highest qualifier on floor (Amânar and Gogean were the top two qualifiers). Miloșovici won the bronze medal on floor at the 1996 World Championships, before winning the team and floor gold medals at the European Championships. She also finished third in the all around. Miloșovici led the Romanian team to a bronze at the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several key gymnasts and forced them to compete with only six athletes instead of seven. Milosovici had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all around finish in Barcelona; with her consistency and competitors' mistakes, she was tied for the bronze with Amanar, and became the first gymnast since

Nadia Comăneci Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner (; born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian retired gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score ...

to medal in the all around at consecutive Olympics. This also marked her fourth all-around medal in World and Olympic competition, a feat since equalled only by

Svetlana Khorkina Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina (; born 19 January 1979) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast. She competed in three Summer Olympics: 1996 Summer Olympics, 2000 Summer Olympics, and 2004 Summer Olympics. During her career, Khorkina won seven Oly ...

, Aliya Mustafina and

Simone Biles Simone Arianne Biles Owens ( Biles; born March 14, 1997) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one ...

. Interestingly, whilst Milosovici won the all around bronze medal at the 1995 Worlds, 1996 European and 1996 Olympics, Lilia Pokdopayeva was the gold medalist in all three finals. In her last competition, Milosovici finished eighth in the uneven bars final. She originally qualified for the beam final, but was replaced by her teammate Alexandra Marinescu. Overall, Miloșovici won a total of 26 Olympic, World and European medals in her career, including 11 gold medals. She is currently ranked fifth in terms of the total number of medals won at the World Championships, behind Simone Biles, Svetlana Khorkina, Gina Gogean and Larisa Latynina. She is also one of only 10 female gymnasts to have medalled in all six events at the World Championships.

Post-retirement

Miloșovici announced her official retirement in the summer of 1997. After retiring, she returned to Lugoj to coach gymnastics and attended the Sports University in Timișoara. On 23 October 1999, Milo married her childhood friend, Cosmin Vinatu. According to Prosport, Cosmin was a sergeant major in the police force. The two were childhood friends, but lost touch when Milo moved to Deva. Then, in 1998, Milo was out with her brother and a group of his friends and they ran into Cosmin at a bar. Their wedding took place at the Termal restaurant in Timișoara, with over 350 guests. Milo told Prosport that the couple expected to live in Timișoara after the wedding, though she does own a house in her hometown of Lugoj. They had one daughter, Denisa Florentina, who was born in 2004 and died in 2008. Milosovici grieves chronically for the loss of her daughter, Denisa, going to the cemetery once or twice per week with her family.Kanal D Romania (18 October 201

"Kanal D Romania" (18 October 2016) The child's godmother was former teammate

. In January 2013, Lavinia gave birth to a boy, Cosmin Mihai, and in July 2016 Lavinia's second son, Andrei Nicolae, was born. In-between the birth of her first and second sons, she suffered a miscarriage. In 2002, Miloșovici, along with former teammates Corina Ungureanu and Claudia Presăcan, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for a Japanese photobook, ''LCC Gold'', and performing gymnastics routines topless for the Japanese DVDs ''Gold Bird'' and ''Euro Angels''. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazine '' Shukan Gendai'', and an edited version of the DVDs entitled ''3 Gold Girls'' was released in Germany in 2004. Because the gymnasts had posed for some of the photographs and footage wearing their official Romanian team

leotards A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870). There are sleeveless, short-sleeved, and ...

, the

Romanian Gymnastics Federation The Romanian Gymnastics Federation (RGF), or Gymnastics Federation of Romania, is the governing body of gymnastics in Romania. Established in 1906, it supervises gymnastics clubs and gymnasts' participation in international competitions. In 2013, Ad ...

banned them from coaching and judging in the country for five years, and the Japanese Junior Gymnastic Club Federation contemplated banning Romanian gymnasts from a major international junior competition."Five year suspension for retired Romanians"
''International Gymnast'', 18 December 2002"Romania in clear over naked Gymnastics"
''Sports Illustrated''/Associated Press, 17 December 2002

Competitive history

References

External links