Nicoleta Daniela "Dana" Șofronie (born 12 February 1988 in Constanța, Romania) is a Romanian

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the '' Code of Points'' used ...

. She is an Olympic and European gold medalist with the team, as well as the silver medalist on floor exercise at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

and the all-around silver medalist at the 2004 European Championships.

Gymnastics career

Șofronie started gymnastics in 1992 in her hometown, Constanța, and moved to

Deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...

in 2002 to train with the national team.International Gymnast Magazine, Ascension in Rotterdam, by John Crumlish, June/July 2004, page 10 In 2003, she was an alternate to the Romanian team at the

2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 37th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States, from 16 to 24 August 2003. Tie-breakers were not used at this competition. If two gymnasts received identical scores in the event finals, they were ...

.Gymnastics Greats
The Alternate Practically unknown before 2004, she gained international recognition by winning a silver medal in the all-around final at the 2004 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. Her score in the all-around was 0.38 points behind that of the gold medalist, Alina Kozich of Ukraine, one of the narrowest margins of victory in European history. After three rotations ( vault,

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 ...

and

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 ...

), Kozich was 0.137 points behind Șofronie. However, in the last rotation, the floor exercise, Șofronie did not receive full credit for her dance connections, which lowered the start value of her routine to 9.70. At the same time, speculation was made that a Russian judge, Lyubov Adrianova, had influenced the elevation of Kozich's start value from 9.90 to 10. Despite this controversy, the

European Union of Gymnastics European Gymnastics is one of five continental unions that represents the interests of Europe in the International Gymnastics Federation ( or ''FIG''). It was formed on 27 March 1982 as the European Union of Gymnastics ( or ''UEG'') and adopted i ...

and the

International Federation of Gymnastics The International Gymnastics Federation (French language, French: ''Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique'', abbr. FIG) is the body governing competition in all disciplines of gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It wa ...

both affirmed the results of the competition. Șofronie also contributed to the Romanian team's gold-medal performance in Amsterdam, the first time since 1998 that they had taken this title. A picture of her performing at the championships was on the cover of the June/July 2004 issue of ''International Gymnast''. Later that year, she helped the Romanian team win the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. She competed on vault, bars and floor in the team final, scoring 9.400, 9.562 and 9.562, respectively. Individually, she won a silver medal on floor behind teammate

Cătălina Ponor Cătălina Ponor (; born 20 August 1987) is a Romanian former Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast who competed at three Summer Olympic Games: 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics, 2016. She won three ...

, placed fifth in the all-around final and sixth on uneven bars. Unusually for a Romanian gymnast, she was a strong bars worker and comparatively weak on beam. Following a subpar performance at the 2005 European Championships, Șofronie retired from the sport and pursued her education.

Retirement

After retiring from gymnastics, Șofronie graduated from high school and university. She was for a short period a member of the Romanian Golden Team, a gymnastics show set up by Marius Urzică. She is currently working as an assistant coach at the Constanța club where she started her career.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sofronie, Nicoleta Daniela 1988 births Living people Gymnasts from Constanța Romanian female artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts for Romania Olympic gold medalists for Romania Olympic silver medalists for Romania Olympic medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics European champions in gymnastics 21st-century Romanian sportswomen