1994

In 1994, her first year on the senior national team, Amânar was known primarily as a team player and contributed to Romania's team titles at the World and European championships.

1995

Amânar began to excel as an individual performer at the 1995 European Cup, placing second all-around behind Svetlana Khorkina of Russia and winning gold on both vault and floor. She continued her success at the World Championships that year, helping Romania secure its second consecutive world team title and becoming co-world champion on vault (with all-around champion Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine). Amânar's powerful floor routine and vaults put her in the lead after two rotations in the all-around. However, she dropped to fourth overall after an average bar routine and a shaky beam routine.

1996

Amânar won a silver medal on vault at the World Championships, behind teammate Gina Gogean and ahead of Cuba's Annia Portuondo-Hatch.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Amânar was one of the front-runners for several individual medals, but her Olympics started inauspiciously when she fell off the beam during the compulsories. Though she later posted the highest all-around score in the optionals (39.387), her combined compulsory and optionals scores put her fourth among her teammates, and she did not qualify for the all-around final. However, in a scenario similar to the Unified Team's substitution of Tatiana Gutsu for Rozalia Galiyeva at the 1992 Olympics, Amânar replaced her teammate Alexandra Marinescu in the final, which was legal at the time. The Romanian head coach, Octavian Bellu, said that Amânar deserved to compete because she had worked harder and was a better athlete than Marinescu. Amânar ended up sharing the bronze medal with teammate Lavinia Miloşovici, behind teammate Gogean.

In both the 1996 Olympic all-around and the 1995 World Championships all-around, Amânar failed to score over 9.800 on the floor exercise despite well-executed and extremely difficult tumbling. In Atlanta, she scored a 9.887 in the team optional competition (the highest score of the entire Olympics on any event, for men or women) and only a 9.737 in the all-around. She did not start from a 10.0 in the all-around—despite having the most tumbling bonus points of anyone at the Games (.6 in D and E elements, and .3 in connection value)—because her tour jeté half-turn (Strug), a C element, was not completed. Thus, she did not have enough simple A, B, and C skills to meet her value part requirements, and much of her D- and E-rated tumbling had to count as easier elements to fulfill those requirements.

The requirements for the 9.4 base score, for each level of competition, were as follows: Competition I (team optionals): 3 As, 3 Bs, 2 Cs; Competition II (all-around): 3 As, 3 Bs, 2 Cs, 1 D; Competition III (event finals): 3 As, 3 Bs, 2 Cs, 2 Ds.

Amânar did not perform a double turn in either the team optionals or the all-around because it was not necessary as long as she completed her Strug. She included few A, B, and C skills in her routine because her excess D and E tumbling bonus could count to fulfill these simpler element requirements. However, when she failed to complete her Strug, four of her six tenths in D and E elements had to count toward requirements, which left her with only .2 counting toward her bonus. In the Code of Points at the time, gymnasts needed .3 in D and E skill bonus and .3 in connection value bonus to start from a 10.0. Without the error, Amânar would have finished well ahead of her more established compatriots Gogean and Miloşovici.

In the event finals in Atlanta, Amânar completed her Strug and added a double turn to fulfill the more stringent Competition III (event final) requirements. She earned a 9.850 and the silver medal, behind Podkopayeva and just ahead of Dominique Dawes of the United States. She won the vault final the day before, largely because of her 9.875 score for an enormous double-twisting Yurchenko vault. She left the 1996 Olympics with four medals, including Romania's team bronze.

1997

Amânar again replaced a higher-performing Marinescu in the all-around competition at the 1997 World Championships. She won the silver medal behind Russia's Khorkina: She scored higher than Khorkina on three of the four events, but the discrepancy between their performances on the uneven bars gave the title to Khorkina. Amânar's vaulting score was not as high as in previous all-around competitions because of a rule change that required the athletes to perform two different vaults. Her second vault, a Phelps, was much weaker than her first, the double-twisting Yurchenko. Nevertheless, Amânar won the vault title, and the victory made her a two-time World champion and Olympic champion on the event. Romania also won its third straight team title.

1999

In the 1999 World Championships, Amânar led the team to a fourth consecutive title, but fell off the bars during the all-around and placed well out of the medals. She lost her vaulting title to Russia's Elena Zamolodchikova, who dominated that event in the following years due to a more difficult second vault: a double-twisting Tsukahara. Amânar learned that vault by 2000, but only completed it at the European Championships. Her younger teammates carried the banner for the Romanians. Maria Olaru won the all-around, and Andreea Răducan won the title on floor exercise. Amânar won her first (and only) World Championship medal on the floor, taking home the silver behind Răducan.

2000

At the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Romanians once again edged out the Russians to take the team title—their first since 1984 and their first ever in a non-boycotted Olympics. The vaulting horse was set too low by the Olympic organizers before the women's all-around, and the undisputed favorite for the all-around title, Svetlana Khorkina, fell on her signature vault. Several other gymnasts in the competition fell or stumbled because of this same problem. Many went on to make mistakes on their next event, knowing their medal chances were gone, only to be informed later of the error and their chance to vault again. The three Romanian women either managed to perform well on the faulty vault or vaulted after the mistake had been corrected. They swept the medals, with Răducan winning the gold, followed by Amânar and Olaru.

Răducan had used a cold medicine containing a banned substance. Although her results in other events were allowed to stand, she was stripped of her gold medal, which went to Amânar. Initially, Amânar refused to accept the medal, insisting that Răducan had rightfully earned the title. Maria Olaru took the same stance when the silver was awarded to her, and China's Liu Xuan also refused the bronze. However, the two Romanians eventually reconsidered, deciding to bring the medals home to Romania as symbolic victories of the team. Amânar later returned the gold medal to Răducan. Although Răducan intended to file paperwork with the International Olympic Committee, Amânar is still credited as the 2000 all-around champion. To this day, Amânar says she believes that Răducan is the true Olympic all-around champion and refuses to acknowledge herself as the winner.

In the event finals, Amânar had the opportunity to defend her Olympic title from four years earlier. However, she stumbled badly while debuting a new vault—a 21⁄₂ twisting laid-out Yurchenko, which was then named after her — although her medal hopes were erased. She went on to win bronze on floor exercise after losing points for a step out of bounds on her last tumbling pass.

Career summary

Throughout her career, Amânar was a power athlete, showing exceptional difficulty on vault and floor but less on beam and bars. Her strength was difficult skills rather than expression. She maintained a hugely successful career at the highest ranks of the sport for more than five years. Amânar ranks highly on the list of most medaled gymnasts, with 17 World and Olympic medals. She played a crucial role in the four consecutive World team titles and Olympic title that firmly stamped Romania as the top-ranked team women's gymnastics team in the world.

Eponymous skills

A vault element is named after her, the "Amânar." It involves a round-off entry onto the vaulting table followed by a laid-out salto with 21⁄₂ twists. She first competed this skill at the 2000 Olympics. The vault is currently worth 6.3 points in the Women's Code of Points.

Post retirement

Amânar retired in 2000, shortly after the Olympic Games. She married Cosmin Tabără, a lawyer, on March 9, 2002, in Timişoara. She gave birth to a son, Alexandru Iosif, five months later. She is the vice president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

Competitive history

Year	Event	AA	Team	VT	UB	BB	FX
1993	China Cup	3rd
	Romanian Nationals	5th		2nd			3rd
1994	American Cup	9th
	European Championships		1st
	GBR-ROM Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	International Mixed Pairs		6th
	Massilia Elite	5th	2nd
	USA-ROM Dual Meet	7th	1st
	Team World Championships		1st
1995	European Cup	2nd		1st	5th	3rd	1st
	FRA-ROM Dual Meet	2nd	1st
	French International	3rd				3rd	5th
	GBR-ROM Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	Kosice Cup	2nd				2nd	2nd
	ROM-GER Dual Meet	3rd	1st
	Romanian Nationals	2nd
	World Championships	4th	1st	1st			6th
1996	European Championships	4th	1st	1st	1st		7th
	French International			3rd	5th
	Hungarian International	1st
	ITA-BLR-ROM-RUS Meet	2nd
	International Championships of Romania	1st
	World Championships			2nd
	Olympic Games	3rd	3rd	1st	5th		2nd
1997
	World Championships	2nd	1st	1st
	Chunichi Cup	2nd
	Blume Memorial	2nd
	DTB Cup			1st		6th	3rd
	Arthur Gander Memorial	1st
1998	European Championships	2nd	1st	2nd
	Chunichi Cup	6th
	DTB Cup			1st	2nd	1st	2nd
	Romanian International	1st		2nd		1st	1st
	Swiss Cup			3rd	2nd	2nd	3rd
1999
	World Championships	14th	1st	2nd			2nd
	Chunichi Cup	2nd
	Arthur Gander Memorial	2nd
	Romanian International	1st		1st	2nd	1st	1st
	International Mixed Pairs	1st	1st
2000	European Championships	8th	3rd	1st		2nd	5th
	Olympic Games	1st	1st	6th			3rd
	Chunichi Cup	1st
	Cottbus World Cup			2nd		7th	2nd
	Romanian International	2nd
	National Championships	1st

[ Source: Wikipedia ]