Tribute courtesy of Ioana
Jadic.
For a listing of Pauca's competitive
results,
please visit Gymn Forum's
Simon Pauca Biography.
Despite her short-lived career,
Simona Pauca managed to leave her mark on the sport of gymnastics through a
combination of difficult routines, and a winning personality. Known for her
smile, she was offered (and accepted) an invitation to appear in a commercial
for a Romanian candy company.
Simona was born on September 19, 1969 in
Azuga, Romania. Soon after her family moved to Bucharest, where Simona started gymnastics in first grade after Dinamo coach
Iulia Rotarescu spotted her in a pre-selection organized at her school. Coached by Dinamo's
respected duo of Florin Stefanescu and Emilia Lita, Simona quickly rose through
the ranks, and eventually joined the National team at Deva along with club
mate and close friend, Laura Cutina. National team coaches Adrian Goreac and
Maria Cosma also recognized Simona's potential and sent her to numerous
international competitions before the 1984 Olympics.
Simona's great results at the
Olympic Games came as a shock to the general public, but gymnastics insiders
already knew the 15-year old had the makings of a great champion. She had
already competed in 12 international meets in 1983, coming back with one or two
medals from each. She ended 1983 with a bang, taking the Senior Balkan Games by
storm. Simona won a total of four gold medals at this competition, including the
all-around crown and three event finals. She continued her winning streak in
1984, taking first place in the all-around at the Arthur Gander Memorial, and
winning gold on balance beam and bronze in the AA at the prestigious Cottbus
International.
Simona headed into the Los Angeles
Olympic Games feeling confident, but hardly anyone gave her more than an outside
shot at an individual medal. The Romanian team consisted of Cristina Grigoras,
Mihaela Stanulet, Kati Szabo, Lavinia
Agache, and Laura Cutina. The latter three were the most well-known
internationally and were expected to go on to the AA competition; Simona wasn't
expected to be more than a team player. Simona rose to the occasion though,
helping the Romanian win its first ever Olympic gold medal, scoring a 10.0 for
her optional beam routine in team optionals. Due to a sluggish performance by
teammate Lavinia Agache in team optionals, Simona jumped ahead of Agache to earn
Romania's third bearth in the all-around.
Simona would perform even better in
the women's all around finals to take the bronze medal. Her chance to shine came
in the beam final, and she took full advantage of it, tying teammate Ecaterina
Szabo for the gold medal. Some of the skills she performed on beam included her
original tumbling pass of ff, layout step-out, back pike, and a full (double?)
twisting back layout.
Ironically, the event that
would eventually become her signature piece, beam, wasn't always her favorite.
Simona's father built her a beam in the backyard to help ease her fear of the
event. In fact, Simona's father was very involved in his daughter's gymnastics
career, attending every (afternoon) practice session and quoted as saying he "would
walk to the North Pole, if that would help [Simona]" (Pro
Patria).
Despite having her parents' full
support, and being dubbed the next Nadia - "The future is hers to
take" proclaimed an article in Pro Patria after the
Olympics - Simona disappeared from the world of competitive gymnastics. Just one
year after the Olympics, Simona was forced to return to her home club of Dinamo
Bucharest. "My father got into a fight with the coaches at Deva. I
have no idea what he was thinking, but I do know they didn't pay as much
attention to me as before, so I was forced to leave. I kept training until the
summer of 1986 and then I had to give up gymnastics for good. It was a sad
moment, but I was already 17, and time seems to go by even faster for
gymnasts," adds Simona. She finished high school in Bucharest and
later on got her coaching degree. Simona worked at CSS 7 Bucharest between
1990-1992, and Satu Mare from 1997-1889.
In 1993, Simona married Gheorghe Rus,
chairman of the board for Castrum Corporation, one of Romania's most successful
business firms. Even though there is a 20 year age difference between the two,
Simona says that "I couldn't have found a better man, who could
understand me and make me feel like I have a real family. " A year
later her daughter Ana was born, and she has already started gymnastics. "She
really likes it, but I thinks she's still afraid to do certain skills. I hope to
bring in other girls alongside hers and start the actual training," said
Simona, who has been visiting local schools and kindergartens looking for
prospective future gymnasts. "They have to be small, tiny and
flexible. The rest is my job, and I can hardly wait to prove I can be a good
coach," she explains.
At the end of 2000, Simona and her
family moved from Satu Mare to Cluj, where they re-established the gymnastics
program of CSM Cluj with help from the local Youth And Sports Program. Simona
smiles as she thinks about her future plans. "My dream would be to
build a national training center here in a few years, one that would rival the
ones at Deva and Onesti, and to have one of the gymnasts I coach make the senior
national team," she adds emotionally.
At 31 years old, Simona says that if
she had a choice she'd do everything all over again. "The joy you
feel when you win an Olympic gold medal, or the sadness that comes when you're
not chosen to represent your country in a major event cannot be replaced by
anything else. Gymnastics is my life," she concludes. Petite and
almost unchanged since she won her Olympics gold, Simona looks like one of her
students. Her 6 year old daughter does whatever it take to get back up on the
beam. She's just working on walking on beam, but she smiles towards her coach. "I'm
gonna win too, right mommy?"
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