Presacan's Path
Claudia Maria Presacan, nicknamed Claudita and Piti, was born December 28, 1979 in Sibiu, Romania. Her family includes her father Adrian, who is a vet technician, her mother Eugina, and her three siblings, brothers Claudiu and Cristian, and sister Alina.
Claudita's path began when she was four and half years old, and she began gymnastics at her hometown club of C.S.S. Sibiu. Claudia was hyper around the house; she says, "I wasn't a quiet, diligent child." She began with greatness, picking an appropriate idol in Nadia Comaneci. Appropiate to her idol, Claudia liked beam the best.
She moved to the Steaua club in 1992, when she was advised to by Anca Grigoras. Many coaches had left Claudita's Sibiu club, and Eliza Stoica says "she may not have reached this level of gymnastics if she had stayed there." She trained at Steaua until 1993, when she joined the Junior National Team.
After seven years of hard work, Claudita's first major international competition was the 1994 Junior Europeans. She also competed at the 1994 Team World Championships.
In 1995, our Claudita competed in the 1995 Hapoel Games. She also did well at the 1995 World Championships.
At this point in Claudia's life, she packed up and left Bucharest, and her coaches Eliza Stoica and Lia Ceampelea, and moved to Deva, Romania. Claudia says she will never forget them.
In 1996, a dream-shattering injury occured. Claudia, whose ankle was already slightly sprained, fell on the stairs at her dorm in Deva. The ankle was then so bad that she couldn't walk, preventing her from competing in the Olympics after she had been named to the team. Later in 1996, everyone was saying the same thing about her: retirement.
But she didn't retire. 1997 was definitely Claudia's best year to date, winning title after title! She won the team title at the International Team Championships, the World Championships, Romania-Germany, Romania vs. Italy vs. Russia, and the Trophee Masilia. She won the all-around at the Romanian National Championships, and the Romanian International. She also won bars at the Romanian Nationals, and beam at the Romanian International. Also, much to her delight, Claudia qualified for three finals at Worlds, finishing eigth all-around, fifth on bars, and sixth on floor. An interesting fact about Worlds is that Claudia actually offered to give Simona Amanar her spot in the all-around, but the coaches chose to pull Alexandra Marinescu instead.
Romania wins gold at 1997 Worlds
1998 was a good year for Claudia. She began the year at the Women's Artistic Championships, helping an Italian team to second place. In March, she helped her team to a second place finish at the International Team Championships. In April, she posted an AA score that would have placed her fifth at the Romanian International, but her scores didn't count for placement. To acheive this, Claudita scored an incredible 9.8 on floor exercise.She did, however, place 4th on bars and 2nd on floor.
At the European Championships, Claudita proved that she was one of the best. She helped her Romanian team to gold by over three points! She also secured individual medals with a bronze in the all-around, and another bronze in the uneven bars final. Claudia also won the Romanian National title on beam, and then closed the year with a second place finish at the Arthur Gander, and strong showing at the Copa Gimnastica.
1999 started out as an incredible year for Claudita. She helped her team win gold at the 1999 International Team Championships, then won one gold, three silvers, and one bronze at the Romanian International. She won two bronzes and one gold at the National Championships, even with a shoulder injury. It was that injury that caused her to retire in September 1999. After retiring, friend and Romanian National Team member Simona Amanar began calling Claudia and begging her to return to Deva. Consequently, shortly after Worlds, Claudia went back to Deva to give it another try. She was apprehensive of returning to Deva at first, but she says that Octavian Belu was very helpful and supportive.
It was a bitter-sweet Olympics for Romania, but Claudia helped with the sweet. She will go down in history as a member of the first Romanian Olympic Team to win gold in a non-boycotted Olympics. And in an Olympics where the Romanians left absolutely demoralized, Claudita showed why the Romanians are the world's best with a fourth-place finish on beam. An extraordinary story came out after the Olympics. Apparently, before the Olympics Claudia was told that she had anemia, but not to worry about it. After coming home she found out that she had such a low hemoglobin count that a blood transfusion was recommended. This superhuman effort at the Olympics gives us even more respect for this tiny little girl. Amazingly, she said that her anemia did not affect her performance. "I have always had a problem with anemia, but I am cured now," she says.
After a brief stint as a rower on the National Team, Claudia is now in Timisoara at the Sports University experiencing a normal student life.
Claudia is closest to Simona Amanar. Octavian Belu says that, "[Claudia and Simona] are like sisters with the same tastes and approach to the world." Claudita and Sima roomed together at Deva. Claudia has also grown close to fellow Olympic team member Maria Olaru.
Claudita is a normal, yet extraordinary girl. She likes to read and listen to music, and enjoys action and detective movies. She also likes to ski. The favorite city she's visited is Sabae, Japan. Her favorite meal is pasta. She says her best moment was "definitely" competing in Sydney and her worst was missing the 1999 World Championships.
She's beautiful, talented, consistent, and stylish. Her name? Claudia Maria Presacan.
Her results
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