Lavinia Miloşovici

Lavinia Miloşovici (born October 21, 1976 in Lugoj) (Serbian: Lavinija Milošević/Лавинија Милошевић) is a Romanian Olympic gymnast of Serbian origin. She is a double Olympic champion, five times world champion and four times a European champion, as well as multiple silver and bronze medalist. Miloşovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, was considered Romania's top gymnast of the 1990s, earning an impressive 19 World Championship or Olympic medals. She is probably best remembered for her performances at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where she scored a perfect 10 on the floor exercise during the event finals. Milo's 10 was one of only two awarded at those games, and as it turns out, the last ever to be awarded in Olympic competition. She also placed third in the all-around, beaten by Tatiana Gutsu and Shannon Miller. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Milo medalled in every single World Championship and Olympic Games between 1991 and 1996. However, her career mirrored that of Romanian icon Daniela Silivas in that she was never able to win a single major all-around title. She fell during the 1993 World Championships, and critical mistakes placed her second then third in 1994 and 1995. Though she lacks a major world all around title, in every world, European and Olympic games she entered, Milosovici always returned with an all-around medal, an individual gold or both. Though she may have come up short in all-around competitions, there is no disputing the impact that her leadership had on her younger teammates. Under her guidance, Romania won two world team titles in 1994 and 1995. Miloşovici also 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 eventually with only six athletes instead of seven. The Romanian team has always been noted for their sisterly team spirit, and Miloşovici was part of this tradition. In team competition, she was always to be seen hugging her fellow gymnasts, congratulating them for good performances and comforting them after mistakes. At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona--as did her longtime rival Shannon Miller, who looked to improve upon the silver medal in Barcelona. Though Milo was largely overlooked throughout the competition, her trademark consistency allowed her to take advantage of her competitor's mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since Nadia Comaneci to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. Her teammates Gina Gogean and Simona Amanar made history as well. With Gogean winning the silver and Amanar tying Milo for the bronze, the Romanian team became one of the few to have all of their competitors medal in the all-around. After retiring, Milo returned to Lugoj to coach gymnastics. In 2002, she, along with former teammates Corina Ungureanu and Claudia Presecan, sparked controversy by posing naked in photographs for a Japanese photobook, LCC Gold ISBN 4872791185, and performing gymnastics routines topless for the Japanese DVDs Gold Bird and Euro Angels. 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 they began filming [1]. For this, she and her former teammates were banned from coaching or judging in Romania for five years, from 2002 to 2007. Miloşovici is married to police officer Cosmin Vânatu. They have one daughter, Denisa Florentina.

Major results

1996 Olympic Games: 3rd team; 3rd AA; 8th UB
1996 European Championships: 1st team; 1st FX; 3rd AA; 4th UB
1996 World Championships: 3rd FX
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

Miscellaneous facts

• Coached by Octavian Belu at the national training center in Deva, Transylvania.
• Father is Olympic wrestler Tănase Miloşovici.
• Miloşovici's family actually emigrated to Romania from Yugoslavia.
• At the age of nine, Miloşovici contracted scarlet fever and was almost forced to retire from gymnastics.
• Miloşovici was the last gymnast ever to receive a perfect 10.0 score in Olympic competition.

External links

• Bio at romanian-gymnastics.com
• Biography in Legends of Gymnastics
• Biography by Gymnastica.com
• Complete list of competitive results at Gymn Forum
• Whatever Happened to Lavinia Milosovici?
• SportsIllustrated article about the Japanese DVD controversy
• Article on the Japanese DVD controversy from romanian-gymnastics.com