Sabina Cojocar (ROM) – October 23^rd, 1985

Sabina Carolina Cojocar was born on October 23, 1985 in Sibiu, Romania. She made her international debut at the 2000 the Junior European Championships where she won gold in the all-around, beam and vault, also collecting silver on floor and in the team competition. Her success led to her being featured on the cover of the the June/July 2000 edition of International Gymnast Magazine.

In 2001 she won the all-around title at the last Goodwill Games. Later that year she attended the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, Belgium, where she was part of the gold willing Romanian team. She placed 6^th in the individual all-around. During the beam final she had a small wobble on her aerial walkover, her only visible mistake, but it cost her a medal and she finished 4^th.

In what would be her last competition she attended the 2002 World Championships in Debrecen, Hungary finishing 9^th on floor and 5th on vault.

She left the famed Romanian training facility Deva in 2003 due to a chronic liver problem that she had suffered since 2000. The medicine she had been prescribed with was not for children and she was experiencing extreme weakness and severe muscle pain.

After she left Deva she spoke about some coaches having abusive training tactics; her complaints coincided with the release of Alexandra Marinescu’s book — Alexandra´s Secrets — which also detailed the harsh training techniques at Deva.

After her retirement she coached for a while in her club in Sibiu. She also took a shot at professional singing in 2007-2008, publishing a song she wrote (I don´t wanna lose u) on My Space. Nowadays she continues to sing as a hobby and works as a jewelry designer with an online store.

She’s one of the few gymnasts to do two consecutive back-handsprings into a full twist on beam; while on floor she was the first to do a front layout with 2.5 twists.  The skill was wrongfully attributed, however, to Silvia Stroescu eleven years ago and it has not been rectified.

Watch Sabina Cojocar on Beam at the 2001 World Beam Finals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u92yJkzXr9Q

Article: Isabel Zamora
Editor: Maree Jones

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