Marian Drăgulescu facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Marian Drăgulescu
Personal information
Full name	Marian Drăgulescu
Nickname(s)	The Moroccan
Country represented	Romania
Born	(1980-12-18) 18 December 1980 (age 44) Bucharest, Romania
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international
Gym	CSA Steaua București
Head coach(es)	Dănuț Grecu
Assistant coach(es)	Stefan Gal
Eponymous skills	Drăgulescu (vault)
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 0 1 2 World Championships 8 2 0 European Championships 10 6 2 Total 18 9 4 Representing  Romania Olympic Games Silver 2004 Athens Floor Exercise Bronze 2004 Athens Team Bronze 2004 Athens Vault World Championships Gold 2001 Ghent Floor Exercise Gold 2001 Ghent Vault Gold 2002 Debrecen Floor Exercise Gold 2005 Melbourne Vault Gold 2006 Aarhus Floor Exercise Gold 2006 Aarhus Vault Gold 2009 London Floor Exercise Gold 2009 London Vault Silver 2003 Anaheim Vault Silver 2015 Glasgow Vault European Championships Gold 2000 Bremen Floor Exercise Gold 2002 Patras Team Gold 2002 Patras Vault Gold 2004 Ljubljana Team Gold 2004 Ljubljana All-Around Gold 2004 Ljubljana Floor Exercise Gold 2004 Ljubljana Vault Gold 2005 Debrecen Floor Exercise Gold 2006 Volos Vault Gold 2017 Cluj-Napoca Floor Exercise Silver 2000 Bremen Team Silver 2006 Volos Team Silver 2006 Volos Floor Exercise Silver 2016 Bern Floor Exercise Silver 2016 Bern Vault Silver 2017 Cluj-Napoca Vault Bronze 2000 Bremen All-Around Bronze 2002 Patras Floor Exercise

Marian Drăgulescu (born December 18, 1980, in Bucharest) is a famous former Romanian artistic gymnast. During his amazing career, he won 31 medals at the Olympic Games, World, and European Championships. This includes eight gold medals at the World Championships and ten gold medals at European Championships.

Marian was especially strong in the vault and floor exercises. He became a multiple world champion and won Olympic medals in these events. A special move on the vault, called the handspring double front somersault with a half turn, is even named after him in the gymnastics rulebook! He was also the European champion in the all-around competition in 2004.

Early Life and First Competitions

When Marian was a young boy, he first went to gymnastics classes to avoid karate. Later, he tried swimming because it was free. But after three months, swimming started costing money, so he went back to the gym.

Marian first competed as a junior at a big international event in 1998. This was the European Championships in St. Petersburg. There, he won a gold medal on the pommel horse and a silver on vault. He also earned a bronze medal on floor and with his team.

Senior Gymnastics Career

Early Success (1999–2003)

Marian's first time competing as a senior was at the 1999 World Championships. He finished fourth on vault and eighth on high bar. The next year, he won a bronze medal in the all-around, a gold on floor, and a silver with his team at the 2000 European Championships.

At his first Olympic Games in 2000, he placed sixth on floor and 13th in the all-around. He quickly bounced back at the World Championships in Ghent, Belgium. There, he was in top form, winning gold medals on both floor and vault.

In 2002, he added three more gold medals to his collection. He won two golds on vault and with his team, plus a bronze on floor at the European Championships. He also won a gold medal at the 2002 World Championships. Because of his great achievements, he was named "Gymnast of the Year" in 2002. At the 2003 World Championships, he won a silver medal on vault.

The 2004 Olympic Games

The 2004 European Championships in Ljubljana were very successful for Marian. He helped his team win their title again, which they had first won in 2002. Marian also won the all-around title, and gold medals on floor and vault. Only one other gymnast, Nadia Comăneci, had won four gold medals at a European Championships before him.

His success made him a favorite for medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. At the Olympics, Marian helped his team win a bronze medal. He was doing very well in the all-around event until he made a mistake on the high bar.

In the men's floor exercise, he won a silver medal. It was a very close competition, and a tiebreaker was needed with the gold medalist, Kyle Shewfelt. On the men's vault, he performed his own incredibly difficult vault, which is named after him. He scored a 9.9, which was one of the highest scores given in a major competition since 1995. He seemed set to win gold, but he fell on his second vault. Even with the fall, Marian still won a bronze medal.

After Athens and the 2008 Olympics

Marian announced he would retire in mid-2005. However, he soon returned to gymnastics. At the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, he won the vault title. He had worked on a new second vault, which helped him greatly.

After that, Marian was a top performer in the vault event. He kept his title at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. He also won the floor title there. Marian no longer competed in all six events, which allowed him to focus more on his best ones.

In 2007, Marian had a tough time at the European Championships. On floor, he landed badly and hurt the back of his head. He tried to continue but had to stop. Later that day, he competed in the vault final but missed his second vault and injured his back again. Doctors told him to stop training and get checked out. Because of this, he missed the 2007 World Championships. He only started training again a few months before the 2008 Olympic Games.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Marian made it to the vault finals. But just like in Athens 2004, he fell on his second vault after a nearly perfect first one. This meant he missed his chance to win an Olympic gold medal. He finished fourth on vault and did not win any medals at these Games.

Comebacks and Later Career

Marian was very disappointed after the Beijing Olympics. He said his "soul broke" after falling on his vault. He announced he would retire and become a gymnastics coach. However, he changed his mind and competed for a club in Germany. He performed very well on floor and vault, getting top scores. After this, he formally announced his retirement again. He then started coaching gymnastics in Bucharest. His goal was to train a gymnast even better than himself.

In 2009, Marian decided to come back to gymnastics once more. He had a very successful return, winning both the floor and vault titles at the 2009 World Championships.

In 2010, Marian was part of the Romanian team at the World Championships. He competed on vault, floor, and high bar. In 2011, he made another comeback at the Romanian Nationals, competing in the all-around for the first time in seven years. He then joined the team at the 2011 World Championships. He helped his team qualify for the 2012 Olympics. He also made it to the all-around, floor, and vault finals. However, he had to withdraw from all finals due to an injury.

In 2015, Marian won gold in vault at the Israel Cup. He was also working on a new skill, possibly a "Drăgulescu 2," which would be his original vault with an extra full twist. Later that year, at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, he won a silver medal in the vault final. At 34 years old, he was the oldest vault finalist at these championships.

In May 2016, Marian (at age 36) competed at the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland. He won silver medals on both vault and floor. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Marian qualified for the vault final. He tied for the bronze medal, but due to tie-break rules, he finished in fourth place. This was the second time a tie-break at the Olympics did not work in his favor.

In 2017, Marian represented Romania at the European Championships. He won gold in the floor exercise, his first European victory in 11 years! The next day, he won a silver medal in the vault. At the 2017 World Championships, he finished fourth in the vault final. At 36 years old, he was again the oldest vault finalist.

At the 2019 World Championships, Marian again placed fourth in the vault final. He was 38 years old, making him the oldest vault finalist once more.

In 2020/2021, Marian qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He decided to focus only on the vault event. At 40 years old, he competed in the vault qualifications but did not make it to the finals.

Competitive History

Year	Competition	Team	Individual events
			AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
1999
	World Championships		26				4		8
2000
	European Championships
	Olympic Games	6	13	6
2001
	World Championships
2002
	World Championships						7
	European Championships
2003
	World Championships	4	6	4
2004
	European Championships
	Olympic Games		8
2005
	European Championships	N/A
	World Championships
2006
	European Championships
	World Championships
2007
	European Championships			7			5
	World Championships	Did not compete due to injury
2008
	Olympic Games	7		7			4
2009
	World Championships	N/A
2010
	World Championships		2592
2011
	World Championships		21st1	2nd1			3rd1
2015
	World Championships
2016
	European Championships
	Olympic Games						4
2017
	European Championships
	World Championships	N/A					4
2019
	World Championships
2020
	Olympic Games			Q3			16

¹Drăgulescu qualified for individual finals of the AA (21st), FX (2nd) and VT (3rd), but due to being injured, he could not compete in any final, withdrawing from all events at the championships.
²Even Drăgulescu was documented under the individual AA event, he qualified for Romania's national squad as a member of the team event only, contributing on FX, VT and HB to team total.
³Drăgulescu had earlier qualified to compete in the opening rounds of the individual FX event as an apparatus specialist, but chose not to do so to focus just on the individual VT event instead.

Awards and Honors

• Gymnast of the Year (2002): He shared this award with gymnast Elena Gómez.
• Romanian Sportsman of the Year (2005): He received this honor at a Sports Gala, sharing it with fencer Mihai Covaliu.
• Romanian Sportsman of the Year (2009): He shared this title with boxer Lucian Bute.

Images for kids

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  Marian Drăgulescu (center) with Flavius Koczi (left) and Anton Golotsutskov (right) at the 2009 World Championships.

See Also

In Spanish: Marian Drăgulescu para niños