Elena Leuşteanu

Elena Leușteanu
Personal information
Full name	Elena Leușteanu
Country represented	Romania
Born	(1935-07-04)4 July 1935 Cernăuți, Kingdom of Romania (present day Cernivtsi, Ukraine)
Died	16 August 2008(2008-08-16) (aged 73) Bucharest, Romania
Height	162 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	58 kg (128 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Medal record Representing  Romania Olympic Games 1956 Melbourne Team 1956 Melbourne Floor exercise 1960 Rome Team World Championships 1958 Moscow Team European Championships 1957 Bucharest All-around 1957 Bucharest Uneven bars 1957 Bucharest Floor exercise 1959 Krakow All-around 1959 Krakow Uneven bars

Elena Leușteanu-Popescu (later Teodorescu, 4 July 1935 – 16 August 2008) was a Romanian artistic gymnast who competed at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics. During her career she won three Olympic bronze medals, one world bronze medal and five continental silver medals. She was the first Romanian artistic gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal (in 1956).

As a teenager Leușteanu showed talents in handball, athletics, cross-country skiing and gymnastics. In 1949 she won a junior national title in athletics triathlon. In 1953, when she was a member of the national athletics team, she had her best results at 5.14 m in the long jump and 1.43 m in the high jump. In 1951 she also became a member of the national gymnastics team.

Leușteanu made her debut at the 1954 World Championships in Rome, Italy, where she placed 4th with her team, 5th in the individual combined standings, and was a vault finalist.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Leușteanu led her Romanian team the bronze medal at these games, a first for Romania at any World Championships or Olympics. In the individual combined standings, she tied Olga Tass of Hungary for 4th place, just .100 behind bronze medal position. She qualified for three of the four event finals: vault, where she placed 6th; balance beam, where she placed 6th; and floor exercise, where she became the first Romanian woman to win an individual Olympic gymnastics medal – a bronze.

The first ever European Artistic Gymnastics Championships for women, held in 1957 in Bucharest in her native country of Romania, saw Leușteanu win the silver in the individual all-around competition behind Soviet Larisa Latynina. In the event finals, she collected two more medals in both the uneven bars and floor exercises.

In Moscow at the 1958 World Championships, competing as Elena Teodorescu, she helped her team to the bronze medal and placed 17th in the individual combined exercises and was, again, a vault finalist.

...
Wikipedia