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Corina Ungureanu

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Corina Ungureanu
Full nameCorina Georgiana Ungureanu
Country represented Romania
Born (1980-08-29) 29 August 1980 (age 44)
Ploieşti, Romania
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
Medal record
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1997 Lausanne Team
Gold medal – first place 1999 Tianjin Team
Goodwill Games
Bronze medal – third place 1998 New York Floor Exercise
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1998 St Petersburg Team
Gold medal – first place 1998 St Petersburg Floor exercise

Corina Georgiana Ungureanu (born August 29. 1980 in Ploieşti) is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed internationally between 1993 and 1999. She was a member of two gold medal-winning World Championships teams and was the 1998 European Champion on the floor exercise.

Ungureanu began gymnastics at the Petrolul Ploieşti club in her hometown of Ploieşti, but spent the major part of her career training in Bucharest under Leana Sima. In the national training center in Deva, she was coached by Octavian Belu. Ungureanu's first international assignment was a junior dual meet between Romania and Germany, where she placed first with her team and eighth in the all-around. She resurfaced on the international scene again in 1996, when she won the all-around title at the EcoAir Cup. She did not compete in the 1996 Olympics, but was a member of the gold medal-winning Romanian teams at the 1997 and 1999 World Gymnastics Championships. She was forced to retire in 1999 due to a spinal cord injury.

After retiring from gymnastics, she sparked some controversy by posing nude for the January 2000 edition of Playboy Romania. These pictures were reprinted in Playboy Japan in May 2000 and led to her producing a nude photobook, Corina Ungureanu Photograph Collection (コリーナ・ウングレアーヌ 写真集) ISBN 4-7976-7021-5, in Japan later that year. In 2002, along with former teammates Lavinia Miloșovici and Claudia Presăcan, Ungureanu appeared in two Japanese DVDs, Gold Bird and Euro Angels, which included scenes of the three gymnasts performing gymnastics routines topless. A second nude photobook, LCC Gold ISBN 4-87279-118-5, appeared at the same time. A number of photographs from the photobook and DVDs were subsequently published in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai. An edited version of the DVDs entitled 3 Gold Girls was released in Germany in 2004.

The DVDs proved controversial as some of the scenes and publicity material featured the gymnasts in their official Romanian team leotards. It later emerged that they had not been aware of the contractual obligation to wear their official leotards until filming had already begun [1]. In the wake of the controversy, Ungureanu and her former teammates were banned from coaching or competing in Romania from 2002 to 2007. To compensate, Ungureanu spent some time coaching in Italy.

In 2004, her authorized biography, Corina Ungureanu: Beginning and End, written by Laurian Stãnchescu was published. Ungureanu is now also a spokesmodel for Bucovina SA, a bottled water company in Romania. She currently manages a coffee shop called New Haven in Ploieşti with her boyfriend. In early 2007 she took up a coaching position in England, alongside former colleague Claudia Presăcan.

Ungureanu posed for Playboy Romania again in March 2008.

Major awards

Key: AA: all-around; BB: balance beam; FX: floor exercise; UB: uneven bars; VT: vault

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