| Claudia Presăcan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Claudia Maria Presăcan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1979-12-28)28 December 1979 (age 46) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |  Romania(1993–2000 (ROM)) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gym | Deva national training center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Headcoach(es) | Octavian Bellu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assistantcoach(es) | Mariana Bitang | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Claudia Maria Presăcan (born 28 December 1979 inSibiu) is aRomanianartistic gymnast who competed at the senior international level between 1994 and 2000. She was a three-time team gold medalist at the World Championships with the Romanian team and was also a member of the gold medal-winning Romanian squad at the2000 Olympics inSydney.
Presăcan was born inSibiu and began gymnastics when she was 4½ years old. She moved to the junior Romanian national training center inBucharest in 1993 and began competing internationally the same year, placing third overall and winning two silver medals at the Top Gym junior tournament inCharleroi,Belgium. In 1994 she participated in the Junior European Championships, where she won a gold medal onfloor exercise.[1]
Presăcan moved into senior competition later in 1994, participating in the1994 Team World Championships with the Romanian team and contributing to their gold medal performance. She was also a member of the first-place Romanian team the following year at the1995 World Championships inSabae. However, she missed the1996 Olympics due to abroken hand.
Presăcan returned to competition in 1997, winning her third World Championships medal with the Romanian team at that year's World Championships in Lausanne. Injuries kept her from the 1999 team, but she recovered in time to earn a place on the Romanian squad at the 2000 Olympics. She contributed to the team's gold medal and qualified for thebalance beam event final, where she placed fourth, just out of the medals.
After the conclusion of the Games, it was revealed that Presăcan had competed with a severe case ofanemia. Despite having ahemoglobin level of 6.3, she had been cleared to compete by team physician Ioachim Oana.[2][3]
After Presăcan retired from gymnastics in late 2000, she had a brief career inrowing, serving as acoxswain for the Romanian rowing team at the 2001University Games.[1][2][4]
In 2002, Presăcan, along with former teammatesCorina Ungureanu andLavinia Miloșovici, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for aJapanesephotobook,LCC GoldISBN 4-87279-118-5, and performing gymnastics routinestopless for the JapaneseDVDsGold Bird andEuro Angels. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazineShūkan Gendai, and an edited version of the DVDs entitled3 Gold Girls was released inGermany in 2004. Because the gymnasts had posed for some of the photographs and footage wearing their official Romanian teamleotards, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation 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.[5][6]
Presăcan is currently working as a coach on theIsle of Man.[7]
Key: AA: all-around; BB: balance beam; FX: floor exercise; UB: uneven bars; VT: vault
