Lavinia Milosovici
Encyclopedia
Lavinia Corina Miloşovici (born October 21, 1976 in Lugoj) is a Romania
n Olympic gymnast. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloşovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female all-around gymnasts of the decade, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská
, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloşovici was also the last gymnast ever to receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
in 2011.
. She began gymnastics at the age of 6 and moved to the Deva National Training Centre as she excelled in the sport.
Miloşovici's gymnastics career was nearly derailed when she contracted scarlet fever
at the age of 10, and again when the Romanian Revolution in 1989 temporarily closed Deva. However, she continued to train, and by 1990, was representing Romania in such international meets as the American Cup
and the World Sports Fair. She competed well at the 1991 Junior European Championships, winning two gold medals.
, where she contributed to the team's bronze medal and won her first individual World Championships title, on the vault
, and placed third on the balance beam.
Miloşovici won her second individual world title on uneven bars at the 1992 World Championships
. At the 1992 Olympics
in Barcelona
, Miloşovici won a total of four medals, placing third in the all-around, second with the Romanian team, tying with Hungarian Henrietta Ónodi
for the vault gold medal, and winning floor exercise with a perfect score of 10.0. Miloşovici's 10, in the event finals, was only the second awarded in Barcelona, and the last ever awarded at any Olympics.
After the 1992 Olympics, Miloşovici continued to compete, winning the world title on beam in 1993, which completed her quartet of golds on each of the individual apparatuses, and the world silver medal on vault that same year. In 1994 and 1995, she led the Romanian team to two World Championships team titles. Shortly before the 1994 World Championships, she and her teammates staged a strike at Deva to protest nonpayment of prize money owed from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation; in spite of the depleted training time, they still won the team gold medal at Worlds. Milosovici's best all-around finish in World Championship or Olympic competition came in 1994 when she took second to Shannon Miller in a controversial finish, after being largely considered the early favorite. Milo concluded the 1994 Worlds with a silver on floor and a bronze on vault. At the 1995 Sabae World Championships, she capture the all-around bronze.
Miloşovici led the Romanian team to a bronze at the 1996 Olympics
, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several key gymnasts and forced them to compete with only six athletes instead of seven. At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona and only because of her consistency did she take advantage of her competitors' mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since Nadia Comăneci
to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. This also marked her fourth all-around medal in World and Olympic competition, a feat equalled only by Svetlana Khorkina in recent decades.
In 2002, Miloşovici, along with former teammates Corina Ungureanu
and Claudia Presecan
, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for a Japan
ese photobook
, LCC Gold ISBN 4872791185, and performing gymnastics routines topless for the Japanese DVD
s Gold Bird and Euro Angels. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai
, and an edited version of the DVDs entitled 3 Gold Girls was released in Germany
in 2004. Because the gymnasts had posed for some of the photographs and footage wearing their official Romanian team leotards
, 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.
On October 23rd, 1999, Milo married her childhood friend, Cosmin Vinatu. According to Prosport, Cosmin is a sergeant major in the police force. The two were childhood friends, but lost touch when Milo moved to Deva. Then, in 1998, Milo was out with her brother and a group of his friends and they ran into Cosmin at a bar. Needless to say, Milo and Cosmin's friendship was renewed. Their wedding took place at the Termal restaurant in Timisoara, with over 350 guests. Milo told Prosport that the couple expected to live in Timisoara after the wedding, though she does own a house in her hometown of Lugoj. They had one daughter, Denisa Florentina, who was born in 2004 and died in 2008.On March 20, 2004, Milo and husband Cosmin were surprised with the early arrival of their first child - daughter Denise Florentina. Born 2 months early, and by Caesarean section, the baby weighed in at only 1.1 kg and with an Apgar score of 1. Expecting a boy, the couple had chosen the name Denis.
When their young daughter emerged, they modified the name, to Denisa. The middle name Florentina, was chosen because of the upcoming holiday Floriilor (holiday of the flowers). The Godmother is former teammate, Simona Amanar.
1996 European Championships: 1st team; 1st FX; 3rd AA; 4th UB
1996 World Championships
: 3rd FX; 10th UB
1995 World Championships
: : 1st team; 3rd AA; 5th UB
1995 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA
1994 World Championships
: : 2nd AA; 2nd FX; 3rd VT; 5th BB; 6th UB
1994 Team World Championships: 1st team
1994 European Championships: 1st team; 1st VT; 2nd FX; 3rd BB; 6th AA; 7th UB
1993 World Championships
: : 1st BB; 2nd VT; 5th FX; 5th UB; 8th AA
1993 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st FX; 1st BB; 1st VT; 3rd UB
1992 Olympic Games: 1st FX; 1st VT (tie); 2nd team; 3rd AA; 4th UB; 8th BB
1992 World Championships
: 1st UB; 4th VT; 8th FX
1992 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st UB; 1st FX; 1st VT
1991 World Championships
: 1st VT; 3rd team; 3rd BB; 4th FX; 7th AA
1991 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st VT; 2nd FX
1991 Junior European Championships: 1st VT; 1st FX; 2nd BB; 6th AA
1990 World Sports Fair: 3rd FX; 3rd VT; 7th AA
1990 American Cup: 5th AA
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Olympic gymnast. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloşovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female all-around gymnasts of the decade, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská
Vera Cáslavská
Věra Čáslavská is a Czech gymnast. Blonde, cheerful and possessing impressive stage presence, she was generally popular with the public and won a total of 22 international titles...
, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloşovici was also the last gymnast ever to receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics....
in 2011.
Early life and career
Lavinia Miloşovici was born on October 21, 1976 in Lugoj to Serb parents. Her mother, Ildiko, was a competitive volleyball player, while her father, Tănase, was a national team wrestlerWrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
. She began gymnastics at the age of 6 and moved to the Deva National Training Centre as she excelled in the sport.
Miloşovici's gymnastics career was nearly derailed when she contracted scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
at the age of 10, and again when the Romanian Revolution in 1989 temporarily closed Deva. However, she continued to train, and by 1990, was representing Romania in such international meets as the American Cup
American Cup (gymnastics)
The American Cup, is an elite senior level international gymnastics competition held in the United States, and is generally considered to be one of the first major competitions of the Gymnastics season, as it is held in March or February of each year. In 1978-79 the event was sponsored by Dial and...
and the World Sports Fair. She competed well at the 1991 Junior European Championships, winning two gold medals.
Senior career
Miloşovici made her debut as a senior in 1991, winning her first all-around title at the Romanian National Championships. She joined the Romanian team at the 1991 World Championships1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 26th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Indianapolis, USA, in the Hoosier Dome, September 6 to 15, 1991.-Medals:-All-round:-Apparatus:-All-round:-Apparatus:-References:**...
, where she contributed to the team's bronze medal and won her first individual World Championships title, on the vault
Vault (gymnastics)
The vault is an artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus. Vaulting is also the action of performing a vault. Both male and female gymnasts perform the vault...
, and placed third on the balance beam.
Miloşovici won her second individual world title on uneven bars at the 1992 World Championships
1992 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 27th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Paris, France, in 1992.The team and all-around events were not contested at the 1992 Worlds. The format was similar to that of the 2002 Worlds, with medals being awarded for the individual WAG and MAG apparatus...
. At the 1992 Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Miloşovici won a total of four medals, placing third in the all-around, second with the Romanian team, tying with Hungarian Henrietta Ónodi
Henrietta Ónodi
Henrietta Ónodi is an Olympic gold winner Hungarian gymnast who competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics....
for the vault gold medal, and winning floor exercise with a perfect score of 10.0. Miloşovici's 10, in the event finals, was only the second awarded in Barcelona, and the last ever awarded at any Olympics.
After the 1992 Olympics, Miloşovici continued to compete, winning the world title on beam in 1993, which completed her quartet of golds on each of the individual apparatuses, and the world silver medal on vault that same year. In 1994 and 1995, she led the Romanian team to two World Championships team titles. Shortly before the 1994 World Championships, she and her teammates staged a strike at Deva to protest nonpayment of prize money owed from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation; in spite of the depleted training time, they still won the team gold medal at Worlds. Milosovici's best all-around finish in World Championship or Olympic competition came in 1994 when she took second to Shannon Miller in a controversial finish, after being largely considered the early favorite. Milo concluded the 1994 Worlds with a silver on floor and a bronze on vault. At the 1995 Sabae World Championships, she capture the all-around bronze.
Miloşovici led the Romanian team to a bronze at the 1996 Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several key gymnasts and forced them to compete with only six athletes instead of seven. At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona and only because of her consistency did she take advantage of her competitors' mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the first female gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer...
to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. This also marked her fourth all-around medal in World and Olympic competition, a feat equalled only by Svetlana Khorkina in recent decades.
Post-retirement
Miloşovici announced her official retirement in the summer of 1997. After retiring, she returned to Lugoj to coach gymnastics and attended the Sports University in Timisoara.In 2002, Miloşovici, along with former teammates Corina Ungureanu
Corina Ungureanu
Corina Georgiana Ungureanu is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed internationally between 1993 and 1999...
and Claudia Presecan
Claudia Presecan
Claudia Maria Presăcan, is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed at the senior international level between 1994 and 2000...
, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese photobook
Photobook
A photo-book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. The most critically acclaimed photo-books celebrate the creative work of an individual photographer, but can also result from the collaboration between a photographer and a writer, an...
, LCC Gold ISBN 4872791185, and performing gymnastics routines topless for the Japanese DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s Gold Bird and Euro Angels. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai
Shukan Gendai
is a Japanese weekly magazine published since 1959 by Kodansha. Published simultaneously with Weekly Post , it includes articles about political scandals, sports and celebrities; nude photos; movie information; book reviews; and other articles of interest to middle-aged salarymen...
, and an edited version of the DVDs entitled 3 Gold Girls was released in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 2004. Because the gymnasts had posed for some of the photographs and footage wearing their official Romanian team leotards
Uniform (gymnastics)
Athletes competing or training artistic gymnastics wear specific attire. The standard of dress for international competition is regulated by the FIG and the Code of Points.-Women:-Leotards:For females, the standard competition uniform is a leotard...
, 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.
On October 23rd, 1999, Milo married her childhood friend, Cosmin Vinatu. According to Prosport, Cosmin is a sergeant major in the police force. The two were childhood friends, but lost touch when Milo moved to Deva. Then, in 1998, Milo was out with her brother and a group of his friends and they ran into Cosmin at a bar. Needless to say, Milo and Cosmin's friendship was renewed. Their wedding took place at the Termal restaurant in Timisoara, with over 350 guests. Milo told Prosport that the couple expected to live in Timisoara after the wedding, though she does own a house in her hometown of Lugoj. They had one daughter, Denisa Florentina, who was born in 2004 and died in 2008.On March 20, 2004, Milo and husband Cosmin were surprised with the early arrival of their first child - daughter Denise Florentina. Born 2 months early, and by Caesarean section, the baby weighed in at only 1.1 kg and with an Apgar score of 1. Expecting a boy, the couple had chosen the name Denis.
When their young daughter emerged, they modified the name, to Denisa. The middle name Florentina, was chosen because of the upcoming holiday Floriilor (holiday of the flowers). The Godmother is former teammate, Simona Amanar.
Major results
1996 Olympic Games: 3rd team; 3rd AA; 8th UB1996 European Championships: 1st team; 1st FX; 3rd AA; 4th UB
1996 World Championships
1996 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1996.The team and all around events were not contested at the 1996 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The format was similar to that of the 1992 and 2002 Worlds, with medals being awarded for the individual WAG...
: 3rd FX; 10th UB
1995 World Championships
1995 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 30th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held at Sun Dome Fukui in Sabae, Japan in 1995.- All-round :NB: Team rosters are incomplete.- Apparatus :- All-around :- Vault :- Uneven Bars :- Balance Beam :- Floor Exercise:...
: : 1st team; 3rd AA; 5th UB
1995 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA
1994 World Championships
1994 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 1994 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Brisbane, Australia from 19–24 April 1994.Only the all-around and apparatus events were contested at this meet. A team World Championships meet was held in Dortmund, Germany in November 1994...
: : 2nd AA; 2nd FX; 3rd VT; 5th BB; 6th UB
1994 Team World Championships: 1st team
1994 European Championships: 1st team; 1st VT; 2nd FX; 3rd BB; 6th AA; 7th UB
1993 World Championships
1993 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Birmingham, England in 1993. There was no team competition at this meet; gymnasts competed in the all-around and event finals only....
: : 1st BB; 2nd VT; 5th FX; 5th UB; 8th AA
1993 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st FX; 1st BB; 1st VT; 3rd UB
1992 Olympic Games: 1st FX; 1st VT (tie); 2nd team; 3rd AA; 4th UB; 8th BB
1992 World Championships
1992 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 27th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Paris, France, in 1992.The team and all-around events were not contested at the 1992 Worlds. The format was similar to that of the 2002 Worlds, with medals being awarded for the individual WAG and MAG apparatus...
: 1st UB; 4th VT; 8th FX
1992 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st UB; 1st FX; 1st VT
1991 World Championships
1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 26th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Indianapolis, USA, in the Hoosier Dome, September 6 to 15, 1991.-Medals:-All-round:-Apparatus:-All-round:-Apparatus:-References:**...
: 1st VT; 3rd team; 3rd BB; 4th FX; 7th AA
1991 Romanian Nationals: 1st AA; 1st VT; 2nd FX
1991 Junior European Championships: 1st VT; 1st FX; 2nd BB; 6th AA
1990 World Sports Fair: 3rd FX; 3rd VT; 7th AA
1990 American Cup: 5th AA