Corina Ungureanu

Corina Georgiana Ungureanu (born August 29. 1980 in Ploieşti) is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed internationally between 1993 and 1999. She was a member of two gold medal-winning World Championships teams and was the 1998 European Champion on the floor exercise.

Corina Ungureanu
Full nameCorina Georgiana Ungureanu
Country represented Romania
Born (1980-08-29) 29 August 1980
Ploieşti, Romania
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
Medal record
World Championships
1997 LausanneTeam
1999 TianjinTeam
Goodwill Games
1998 New YorkFloor Exercise
European Championships
1998 St PetersburgTeam
1998 St PetersburgFloor exercise

Ungureanu began gymnastics at the Petrolul Ploieşti club in her hometown of Ploieşti, but spent the major part of her career training in Bucharest under Leana Sima. In the national training center in Deva, she was coached by Octavian Belu. Ungureanu's first international assignment was a junior dual meet between Romania and Germany, where she placed first with her team and eighth in the all-around. She resurfaced on the international scene again in 1996, when she won the all-around title at the EcoAir Cup. She did not compete in the 1996 Olympics, but was a member of the gold medal-winning Romanian teams at the 1997 and 1999 World Gymnastics Championships. She was forced to retire in 1999 due to a spinal cord injury.

After retiring from gymnastics, she sparked some controversy by posing nude for the January 2000 edition of Playboy Romania. These pictures were reprinted in Playboy Japan in May 2000 and led to her producing a nude photobook, Corina Ungureanu Photograph Collection (コリーナ・ウングレアーヌ 写真集) ISBN 4-7976-7021-5, in Japan later that year. In 2002, along with former teammates Lavinia Miloșovici and Claudia Presăcan, Ungureanu appeared in two Japanese DVDs, Gold Bird and Euro Angels, which included scenes of the three gymnasts performing gymnastics routines topless. A second nude photobook, LCC Gold ISBN 4-87279-118-5, appeared at the same time. 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 filming had already begun . In the wake of the controversy, Ungureanu and her former teammates were banned from coaching or competing in Romania from 2002 to 2007. To compensate, Ungureanu spent some time coaching in Italy.

In 2004, her authorized biography, Corina Ungureanu: Beginning and End, written by Laurian Stãnchescu was published. Ungureanu is now also a spokesmodel for Bucovina SA, a bottled water company in Romania. She currently manages a coffee shop called New Haven in Ploieşti with her boyfriend. In early 2007 she took up a coaching position in England, alongside former colleague Claudia Presăcan.

Ungureanu posed for Playboy Romania again in March 2008.

Major awards
  • 1996 EcoAir Cup: 1st AA
  • 1997 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships: 1st team
  • 1997 International Team Championships: 1st team
  • 1997 International Championship of Romania: 2nd AA
  • 1997 Romanian Nationals: 2nd BB; 4th AA
  • 1997 Germany-Romania dual meet: 1st team
  • 1997 Romania-Italy-Ukraine tri-meet: 1st team; 4th AA
  • 1998 Goodwill Games: 3rd BB; 3rd FX
  • 1998 European Championships: 1st team, FX; 4th UB
  • 1998 International Team Championships: 2nd team
  • 1999 World Gymnastics Championships: 1st team

Key: AA: all-around; BB: balance beam; FX: floor exercise; UB: uneven bars; VT: vault

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