Ecaterina Szabo

Ecaterina Szabo, known in Hungarian as Szabó Katalin and born on 22 January 1968, is a former Romanian artistic gymnast who won 20 Olympic, world and continental medals. An ethnic Hungarian from Transylvania, she was named Katalin, a name the Communists changed to Ecaterina to hide her Hungarian background, and her first language is Hungarian. She began gymnastics in 1973 in Oneşti, later trained with Márta and Béla Károlyi, and was the first gymnast to win two Junior European all-around titles. At the 1984 Olympics she won gold on the vault, the balance beam (tie) and the floor exercise, silver in the all-around and gold with the team, four golds and a silver, which made her the most successful athlete of those Games. In 1987 she led Romania to the world team title, defeating the USSR in the team competition for only the second time in its history. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000.