Marian Drăgulescu

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Marian Drăgulescu : biography

December 18, 1980 –

Post Athens and the 2008 Olympic Games

Drăgulescu announced his retirement mid-2005, but has since returned and in the world championships in Melbourne in 2005 he won the vault title. He had long been hampered by the lack of a strong second vault, but debuted a new one- a round off half twist entry to forwards two and a half twist. Since then he has dominated that event, retaining his title at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and winning the floor title as well. Drăgulescu no longer competed in all six events, which had given him more time to focus on those he still trained.

In 2007 he participated at the European Championships which turned to be an unfortunate event for him. On the floor exercise he did not manage to complete his routine. After a heavy landing to the back of his head on a layout Thomas salto, he twice attempted to run into his final tumbling pass. Instead of tumbling, he stopped and walked off the podium. Later in the afternoon Dragulescu competed in the vault final, but missed his second vault (round-off, half-on, 2-1/2 twisting front). Seven Countries Win European Event Golds, John Crumlish, April 29, 2007 The heavy landing caused him a back injury and he was advised by the doctors in Romania to stop training and to undergo a detailed investigation in the USA. Therefore, he missed the 2007 world championships and he resumed training only a couple of months before the 2008 Olympic Games Romanian Dragulescu doubtful for Olympics, March 2, 2008 Marian attempted to win an Olympic title on vault at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. But, the same situation from Athens 2004 happened at Beijing 2008 too, after a perfect first vault (noted 16.800) he fell at the second one and lost his chance to win his first Olympic Gold Medal. In addition, when comparing to Athens, he did not medal. Instead he placed fourth on vault, seventh on floor and seventh with the team. Events Final Men Team Final Men

Post Beijing

Drǎgulescu was very disappointed when he failed to medal at the Beijing Olympics, saying "my soul broke" after he fell on the landing of his second vault attempt. He announced his retirement and his intention to become a gymnastic coach. Romanian gymnast Marian Dragulescu retires, September 5, 2008 However, he reconsidered retirement and went to compete in Germany for Fabian Hambuchen’s club, KTV Straubenhardt. In the club’s first three competitions, Dragulescu competed on floor and vault, obtaining the league’s top scores on the latter event: 16.500 in the first two competitions, and 16.300 in the third one. “The Moroccan won’t give up”, translation of Prosport article October 23, 2008 The club won the second place in December 2008. Bundesliga news, December 14, 2008 (in German) After competing in the German league Dragulescu formally announced his retirement. He went to coach gymnastics alongside his former team colleagues Marius Urzică and Dan Potra at Dinamo Club Bucharest. He declared that his goal is to create a gymnast better than himself."Meanwhile in Not-AYOF news…", summary of Prosport article, January 19, 2009

2009

Marian Dragulescu, [[Flavius Koczi and Anton Golotsutskov at the 2009 World Championships ]] However, in 2009 he once again reconsidered his retirement from artistic gymnastics. He had a very successful comeback winning the floor and the vault titles at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

2010-2011

Drǎgulescu skipped the 2010 European Championships and the 2010 Romanian Nationals. However, he was a member of the Romanian team at the 2010 World Championships. Here he only competed on vault, floor, and high bar but did not manage to qualify with the team or in any event final. 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships After skipping the 2011 spring competition season Drăgulescu once again made a comeback at the Romanian National Championships at the end of August. Ponor, Dragulescu to return at Romanian nationals in Onesti, by Amanda Turner, August 25, 2011 This competition marked his comeback as an all around gymnast after a break of more than seven years. In October he joined the team at the 2011 World Championships and competed in the preliminary rounds for the Romanian team, helping them to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. He made the all-around, floor and vault finals giving him an opportunity to regain his titles. However, due to an injury he was unable to compete pulling out of all three events. Tokyo News, by Emanuel Fantaneanu, October 15, 2011

Awards

  • Gymnast of the Year (2002); He shared the title with gymnast Elena Gómez.
  • To honour his past achievements the Romanian Sporting Press awarded him the sportsman of the year award (2005) in a Sports Gala. He shared the award with fencer Mihai Covaliu. Gymnastic Marian Dragulescu and fencer Mihai Covaliu, joint Sportsmen of the Year 2005
  • Romanian sportsman of the year (2009), he shared the title with boxer Lucian Bute. Marian Dragulescu and lucian Bute win sportsman of the year 2009 awards (Romanian), December 21, 2009