Mihaela Melinte is a Romania

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 hammer throw

Hammer throw

The modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...

er. She holds the world junior record, and with 76.07 metres she held the world record until Tatyana Lysenko

Tatyana Lysenko

Tatyana Viktorovna Lysenko is a Russian hammer thrower. She used to hold the world record with 77.80 metres, achieved on 15 August 2006 in Tallinn....

 beat it in July 2005. The twelve-time Romanian national champion, Melinte is also a former European and World champion, but has never participated in the Olympics.

She failed a drugs test at the Notturna di Milano

Notturna di Milano

Notturna di Milano is an annual track and field meeting which is held in September at the Arena Civica in Milan, Italy. First held in 1998, the meeting received IAAF permit meeting status the following year...

 meeting in 2000 (ruling her out of the 2000 Sydney Olympics

Athletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, 46 events in athletics were contested, 24 for men and 22 for women. There were a total number of 2134 participating athletes from 193 countries.-Men's events:...

) and she was banned from the sport for two years for taking nandrolone

Nandrolone

Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body, albeit in minute quantities of less than 0.4 ng/ml. Nandrolone is most commonly sold commercially as its decanoate ester and less commonly as a phenylpropionate ester...

 (an anabolic steroid). Following her ban, she never again reached a major global podium or threw over 72 metres – some way off her previous world record mark.

She took second place in the women's hammer at the 2005 European Cup Winter Throwing, but was less successful at the 2006 edition, where she finished eleventh overall. She finished fourth in both the 2007 and 2008 European Cup Winter Throwing

European Cup Winter Throwing

The European Cup Winter Throwing is an annual continental athletics competition for athletes specialising in the events of discus, javelin and hammer throwing and the shot put. The winter event, organised every March by the European Athletics Association, is intended as a counter-balance to the...

 events. She was the bronze medallist at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie

Athletics at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie

At the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie, the athletics events were held at the Stade Général Seyni Kountché in Niamey, Niger, from 11–16 December 2005. A total of 43 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 20 by female athletes. France sent the largest squad and topped the medal table with 19...

.

Achievements

Representing
1997	World Student Games Athletics at the 1997 Summer Universiade The Athletics Tournament at the 1997 Summer Universiade took place in the Stadio Cibali in Catania, Sicily at the end of August 1997, shortly after the World Championships in Athens, Greece. New events were the women's hammer throw, pole vault and half marathon competition.-Men’s events:-Women’s...	Catania Catania Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and... , Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...	1st	69.84 m Athletics at the 1997 Summer Universiade – Women's hammer throw The final of the Women's Hammer Throw competition at the 1997 Summer Universiade took place on August 29, 1997 in Catania, Italy. The event was contested for the first time at the Summer Universiade.-Medalists:-Abbreviations:...
	European U23 Championships 1997 European Athletics U23 Championships The 1997 European Athletics U23 Championships is the 1997 version of the European Athletics U23 Championships. It was held in the Finnish city of Turku.-Men's Results:-Women's Results:-Medals table:-External links:*...	Turku, Finland	1st	70.26 m
1998	Goodwill Games 1998 Goodwill Games The 1998 Goodwill Games was the fourth edition of the international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The competition was held in New York, United States from July 19 to August 2, 1998.-Medal table:-References:*...	New York, United States	1st	72.64 m
	European Championships 1998 European Championships in Athletics The 17th European Athletics Championships were held from 18 August to 23 August 1998 in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary.-Track:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Field:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Track:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Field:...	Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter... , Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	1st	71.17 m
1999	World Student Games Athletics at the 1999 Summer Universiade The Athletics Tournament at the 1999 Summer Universiade took place in the new Estadio Son Moix in Palma de Mallorca, Spain from July 4 to July 9, 1999. Five Universiade records were set.-Men’s events:-Women’s events:-References:* *...	Palma de Mallorca, Spain	1st	74.24 m
	World Championships 1999 World Championships in Athletics The 7th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and August 29....	Sevilla, Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...	1st	75.20 m
2003	World Championships 2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.-Track:...	Paris, France	6th	68.69 m 2003 World Championships in Athletics – Women's hammer throw These are the official results of the Women's Hammer Throw event at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France. There were a total number of 44 participating athletes, with the final held on Thursday 28 August 2003.-Medalists:-Schedule:...
	World Athletics Final	Szombathely Szombathely Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria... , Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	3rd	69.27 m
2005	World Championships 2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland , the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic sports, some of...	Helsinki, Finland	11th	64.31 m
	Jeux de la Francophonie Athletics at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie At the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie, the athletics events were held at the Stade Général Seyni Kountché in Niamey, Niger, from 11–16 December 2005. A total of 43 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 20 by female athletes. France sent the largest squad and topped the medal table with 19...	Niamey Niamey -Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city... , Niger	3rd
2006	European Championships 2006 European Championships in Athletics The 19th European Athletics Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, between 7 August and 13 August 2006. The competition arena was the Ullevi Stadium and the official motto "Catch the Spirit"...	Gothenburg, Sweden	20th	63.96 m
2007	World Championships 2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...	Osaka, Japan	33rd	62.40 m