The most dominant vaulter and tumbler of this decade has made a comeback from his most recent retirement.
In Beijing expect to see him in Vault finals for sure, and likely Floor finals as well.
Recall his superb first vault from the controversial Olympic Final 2004 in Athens. About.com Gymnastics called it one of the “10 Best Sticks in the Last 10 Years”. See the video.
Dragulescu has won multiple world and Olympic medals on his specialties, floor and vault, and twice has made the event finals on high bar at worlds as well.
In 2007, Romania slipped to 8th place as a team in Dragulescu’s absence. In fact their team score dropped four and a half points without their star specialist, and many wondered whether he planned on returning to competition for his third Olympic Games. That question was answered this past weekend when Dragulescu reappeared on his three specialties at the Romanian National Championships …
With Dragulescu’s return to the Romanian team, there’s no doubt they will at least be in the hunt for a silver or bronze medal with teams like the United States, Japan, Germany, Russian, and Korea. Although the Romanians are already strong on vault without Dragulescu, his efforts on floor and high bar (where they have always been weak) will help their team tremendously, and his presence will likely help lift the morale of this team in Beijing as well. …
see Gymnast.com for his scores and videos from Romanian Nationals
As much as I am happy to see this superb athlete back, it worries me that the Romanian team will once again be over-scored in Beijing, the judges trying to keep FIG Technical Chairman Stoica, from Romania, happy. That’s what went wrong in Athens 4-years-ago.
Related article: Romanian Nationals Begin – IG
I’ve been following the in-gym training camps selection progress on Kyle Shewfelt’s blog:
Gymnastics Coaching.com 