Daniela Silvas!

Today's (encore) tribute goes to 1987 European champion Daniela Silivas from Romania! This talented gymnast burst onto the scene in 1984, placing 4th AA, 2nd UB, 1st BB and 3rd FX at the Jr European championships. At this time, she already had some of the most difficult routines out there (Tkactev and cross-change Jaeger on bars, ff-layout-layout, RO-ff-double tuck, and a cool 4 ffs last one landing on arabesque on beam, and full-in, triple twist, and double tuck on floor).

In 1985, she burst onto the senior scene (even though she may not have been of age - her real age remains a mystery...), taking bronze on floor at Europeans (she competed in the last flight in AA finals which meant the Romanians had high hopes for her - Szabo competed in the middle group). At worlds later that year, she took her first of *nine* apparatus gold medals at world or Olympic competition by winning the balance beam.

By 1986, she was improving all the time and she had some of the most difficult routines out there. She was now ending floor with a piked full-in (since 1985 Europeans) and was throwing a great triple twist middle pass. She took 2nd at the world cup in the AA and won individual medals on bars and beam - no golds this time, although she did beat the reigning world AA co champ Omeliantchik in the AA.

In 1987, she stunned the gymnastics world by beating the defending European champion Shushunova for the AA title - in Moscow of all places! She added back to back tumbling on floor (double twist punch front through to double twist punch front) and she showed a new found maturity in her presentation. A favourite for worlds, she saw Dobre sntach the title after two glaring and uncharacteristic errors from Silivas on beam (she fell on a leap) and bars. She did take the bronze in the AA but helped her team to the team gold none the less and she won the events (bars and beam) that she qualified for come the event finals.

In Seoul 1988, she came a close second to Shushunova in the team competition. Bitterly disppointed, she came back apparently undaunted in the event finals, taking first in bars, beam, and floor and bronze on vault (even though I'm sure Stoyanova deserved it - but that's another matter...).

In 1989, she came a close 2nd to Bogi at Europeans (I vehemently disagreed with this result!) but she pushed on to the worlds where she hoped to get the AA title that had always eluded her. After some dubious scoring for Bogi (10s on floor and vault) it was mathematically impossible for Silivas to win the AA going into her last event, so she unceremoniously fell off the balance beam to finish 12th. She came back to win three more event finals (bars, beam, and floor) in the event finals, brining her total of apparatus gold medals to 9 - tying the old record (which I think may have been overtaken by Scherbo, but she held it for a while).

She vowed to continue on to Barcelona but an injured knee held her back and she retired in 1990. A real shame, I was hoping she'd continue.

She now lives in Atlanta and one of the biggest thrills in my life was to get to meet her during the Olympics last year.

Dana, we will never forget you!