Ecaterina Szabo

Early life and career An ethnic Hungarian from Transylvania, she was named Katalin, which was later changed to Ecaterina by the Communists to try to hide her Hungarian background. Szabo's first language is Hungarian. Later she trained with Márta and Béla Károlyi. After the Károlyis' defection to the United States in 1981, she was coached by Adrian Goreac, Adrian Stan and Maria Cosma at Cetate Deva. She enjoyed tremendous success as a junior. Szabo became the first gymnast to win two Junior European all-around titles, competing against Lavinia Agache and Natalia Ilienko (in 1980) and Olga Mostepanova and Yelena Shushunova (in 1982). Individually, in 1980 she won gold on vault, beam and floor and placed fourth on uneven bars and in 1982 she won gold on vault and floor, silver on uneven bars and placed fourth on balance beam.

Senior career

1983 Szabo's first major international event was the 1983 European Championships in Goteborg. There she won gold on floor and uneven bars, silver on vault and bronze (tie) all around. At the 1983 World Championships she placed third all around after Olga Mostepanova and Natalia Yurchenko. In this event she scored two perfect tens, one on floor and one on vault. In addition to her all around bronze she won gold on floor and silver on vault and uneven bars. She did not qualify for the beam finals. She also contributed heavily to the team silver medal by scoring perfect tens on floor and uneven bars in the team optional.

1984 Olympics

In response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania) boycotted the Games. In the absence of the Soviet competitors, Szabo entered the competition as the favourite. Even with the Soviets competing, Szabo would have been a strong contender. While preparing for the Olympics, Szabo scored a perfect 40.0 for her compulsory exercises at a dual meet held in Czechoslovakia.

Post-retirement After the 1987 Worlds Szabo retired from artistic gymnastics and she went to study at the University of Physical and Sports Education in Bucharest. After graduation, she worked as a coach at Deva where she trained among others Nadia Haţegan, Andreea Cacovean, and the 1999 World Champion Maria Olaru. In June 1991, Szabo married Christian Tamas, a former member of Romania's kayak team. The two later had two sons named Lorenzo and Zeno. In 1992, the family left Romania and settled in Chamalieres, France where she now works as a coach. A kindergarten in her hometown of Zagon, the Szabó Kati Óvoda, bears her name since 2007. In 2008, the sports hall of Sfântu Gheorghe was renamed in the honor of the four-time Olympic champion.

Szabo in 2017Szabo has been open about the systematic age falsification perpetrated by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, to allow gymnasts to compete despite not meeting the minimum age requirement of 15 years. Although she revealed that her documents were falsified to indicate a 1967 birth year instead of 1968, Her skills included a tucked backward salto with a full twist on beam (e.g. 1982 Ennia Cup ). On floor she performed difficult passes such as 1½ twist back salto to 1½ twist back salto, punch front or 1½ twist back salto to 1½ twist back salto, salto forward 1/2, punch front. She also mounted floor exercise with a double back flip with a full twist in a piked position. At the 1983 Worlds and 1984 Olympic Games Event Finals she also dismounted with a double back flip with a full twist in a tuck position which was unheard of. Most gymnasts at the time did not even mount with this move. This cemented the Olympic title in the Floor Exercise for her in which she received a perfect 10.0 for the exercise beating both Julianne McNamara and Mary Lou Retton for the gold medal.

Competitive history YearEventTeamAAVTUBBBFX Junior 1978 Romanian Championships 6 1980 Chunichi Cup 17 Junior European Championships 4 ROM-GBR Dual Meet ROM-SUI Dual Meet 6 Swiss Cup 1981 Daciada International Championships of Romania International Junior Championships (Tokyo) International Junior Championships (Sapporo) 1982 Balkan Championships Ennia Gold Cup 4 International Championships of Romania Junior European Championships 4 Senior 1983 Catania Cup City of Popes Jr. International European Championships ESP-ROM Dual Meet FRG-ROM Dual Meet GBR-ROM Dual Meet Gymnastics Hit Parade of Rome HOL-ROM Dual Meet International Championships of Romania Romanian Championships World Championships 1984 Balkan Championships Chunichi Cup ESP-ROM Dual Meet Golden Sands International International Championships of Romania Romanian Championships ROM-TCH Dual Meet Tokyo Cup Olympic Games 1985 Balkan Championships DTB Cup 4 ESP-ROM Dual Meet European Championships 5 6 6 FRA-ROM-SUI Tri-Meet Gander Memorial HOL-ROM Dual Meet International Championships of Romania Romanian Championships ROM-TCH Dual Meet SUI-ROM-FRG Tri-Meet Swiss Cup Summer Universiade World Championships 5 6 4 1986 Balkan Championships DTB Cup ESP-ROM-BUL Tri-Meet Gander Memorial Romanian Championships ROM-TCH Dual Meet World Cup Final 4 5 4 1987 Madrid Grand Prix SUI-ROM Dual Meet 4 Summer Universiade 5 World Championships 14