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
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.
challenges taught cost
As a competitive gymnast, my life has always been filled with challenges that would ultimately define my future. From day one, I was taught to be prepared at all costs.
summer sports careers
The time leading up to the 1996 Olympics was the most demanding and stressful of my career. The sport I had loved so much was slowly becoming a nightmare as I trained with Bela and Marta Karolyi the summer before the Olympics.
people mind littles
Autographs and pictures do get a little old, but I don't mind if the people want it.
adoption given born
I had this sister that was born who was given up for adoption, and I never knew it.
years joy training
Training with Bela and Marta Karolyi took the joy out of the Olympics for me. I look back and feel there was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. For years, I felt it was my problem.
adversity use overcoming
I learned to take those experiences that were difficult in my life and in the adversity that I had overcome to use it for a positive change.
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.
I know, I know ... I'm getting old.
best less months procedure shape since six start surgery
I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since 2000. Six months after this new procedure was used -- less invasive surgery -- I was able to start doing everything again.
earning living money realized
I realized I was the one doing all the training, earning the money, and my parents were living off of me.
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.
fearless kinda
I was always kinda fearless in everything I did.
autograph honor quite smile until
It's really quite an honor for me to still be able to do this, 10 years later. If my autograph can make someone smile or make their day, I'll do it until the day I die.