Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Helena Moceanu is a retired Romanian American gymnast. She was a member of the gold-medal-winning United States women's gymnastics teamat the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGymnast
Date of Birth30 September 1981
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
awkward bowl brown classes feeling gym haircut huge kid street tiniest worry
I was awkward-looking with huge brown eyes, dark brown, pencil-straight hair styled into an old-school Romanian bowl haircut from the 1980s. And I was very, very small. I was always the tiniest kid on my street and in my classes at school... The gym was the one place I didn't have to worry about feeling awkward for being so petite.
belittle figures gymnastics male scream sports watch
Gymnastics is the greatest sport in the world, and one of the hardest, but we have to watch out for domineering male figures who try to belittle and scream at young girls.
blue country gold gymnastics people represent standing women
I was able to represent my country and put on the red, white, and blue - how many people in the world get to do that? Standing on the podium with my teammates, and being the first women's gymnastics team to win this gold medal, it was life-changing!
believe coaches compete environment good gymnastics looking taking
I believe you can be young and compete in gymnastics if you have a coach who is looking out for you and if there is a good gym environment where the coaches are taking care of you emotionally and physically.
among came child dream escaping giving gymnastics life popular regime sports states united
In Romania, of course, gymnastics is among the most popular sports, and my parents had a dream of escaping the Ceausescu regime and giving their child a better life. So they came to the United States and put me in gymnastics.
atlanta games gymnastics jewel medal olympic receiving sacrifices standing successful
Standing on the podium at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and receiving a gold medal was the crowning jewel in a successful gymnastics career and, most certainly, the confirmation that my parents' sacrifices were not in vain.
believe gymnastics opportunity
It's human nature to be timid in the face of obstacles, but I have learned to believe that challenges are opportunities for genius to shine. In order to feel alive, we have to accomplish things that we once believed we could not.
running gymnastics years
My parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class when I was three years old, and I just was drawn to gymnastics. I loved it. It was my playground, and I could run around and be free there.
felt good gymnastics left people
I thought, 'Why am I not out there? I can still do this.' I felt I still had a lot of good gymnastics left in me that people didn't get to see.
compete good hungry junior national titles won worried
I was very hungry to compete internationally when I was 10 years old, and I was good enough to compete, so that part never made me afraid or worried at all. When I was at my peak, around 12 and 13, I won my junior national and senior national titles back to back.
orthodox profoundly raised religious spiritual
I was raised into the Romanian Orthodox culture by my parents, and most notably my mother, who is a profoundly religious and spiritual woman.
bend injured leg olympic
I got injured at the Olympic Trials in 2000. I could not jump. I could not walk on my leg properly. I couldn't bend my knee. I couldn't straighten it.
forced ready retirement
I was forced out of the sport into retirement through injuries. I wasn't ready to leave.
allowing asking control felt financial freedom learning needed questions start within
My father wasn't allowing me control and the financial freedom that I was asking for. I was 17, about to be 18 within a year, so I started asking more questions because I felt that I needed to start learning about those things.