Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi

The Olympics are coming up soon, and I recently viewed the 1984 TV movie "Nadia" on DVD, a Nadia Comaneci bio which also explores her friendship with Romanian gymnastics teammate-best friend-best rival Teodora Ungureanu. The scene where they meet and become best friends is wonderfully scripted and choreographed, which evolves into a story within the main story of Nadia's Olympics gymnastics career. Both have since moved to the United States, and both today coach young gymnasts, with one school in Oklahoma and the other in New York. Since Nadia is better known, I'd like to cover Teodora's story today.

Let's set the scene. It's in Resita, Romania on a quiet Sunday in 1960. It's November 13th, and a baby girl is born in the Ungureanu family. She is named Teodora and later nicknamed Dorina. A healthy athletic girl, she joins the local Resita Sport School to begin gymnastics in 1969, and is coached by Andrei Karekes.

In 1971, her family moves to Onesti, where Teodora joins Gymnastics School Onesti, with her new coaches, Marta and Bela Karolyi. There, according to the "Nadia" TV movie, Teodora, who had been trained in advanced gymnastics, bonds with a less advanced, two years younger Nadia, who is entranced by Ungureanu's floor routine and yearns to be as good as Teodora and to become a champion. So they become best friends and best rivals, supporting each other as part of the Romanian women's gymnastics team that goes all the way to the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

There Teodora wins the Olympic team silver medal alongside Nadia's gold. Teodora also wins the silver medal on the uneven bars beside Nadia's historic perfect ten, and caps it off with a bronze medal on the balance beam. After the Olympics, Nadia and Teodora, as the two best gymnasts of their team, appear on television shows together. But although Nadia is the media darling, Teodora holds her own on these shows. And in gymnastics competition. In YouTube clips, although Nadia deserves all the credit she gets for her unforgettable performances, Teodora delivers incredible performances.

It's 1978. The Romanian government, against their coaches' wishes and without their foreknowledge, transfers Bela's and Marta's entire 1976 Olympic team from the Karolyi's gym in Onesti to the government's own gymnasium, Dinamo Club Bucharest, replacing Bela and Marta Karolyi with government coaches Lita and Florea Stefanesco. There, in the Romanian capital, while Nadia is struggling with fame and training without her beloved coach Bela, Teodora, spared the unwanted attention and stress her best friend is going through, quietly trains, stays in shape, and begins attending the Bucharest Institute in Physical Education and Sport, where she majors in gymnastics. Teodora graduates in 1979, and retires from active competition the same year. Her last competition is the 1979 World University Games, once again with Nadia Comaneci on her team. Teodora wins the gold medal in the all around, then retires to join the Romanian Circus with beau Sorin Cepoi, a former gymnast himself, whom she marries in 1980.

By 1984 Teodora and Sorin are traveling all over Romania, and as far away as Finland as part of Romania's traveling circus, the Troupe Comea. They return to Dinamo Club Bucharest to coach gymnastics, then later move to Grenoble, France to coach gymnastics at La Grenobloises. They do well as the head coaches there. Their gymnasium wins second place in the team division at the French Nationals several times, and one of their students, Chloe Maigre, represents France at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

On the strength of these accomplishments, Teodora and Sorin Cepoi are in demand in America, and offered coaching positions there. In 1993, they make their move to the States, settling in Ardsley, New York to coach at Gymcats. By 2001, Teodora and Sorin become directors at Dynamics Gymnastics Club in Bedford, New York with star students like Brooke Hamilton, who is competing in the Junior Olympics Nationals during that time. In June of that year,2001, Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi is inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Commenting on that honor, Teodora tells International Gymnastics Magazine:"I never dreamed that America would become my home, or that I would be also be deeply honored by fellow competitors in the sport that I love."

Currently, Teodora and Sorin are coaching at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, New York, have a website there, and are training Olympic hopeful Sabrina Vega, who also has a website. The Summer Games  are soon. So Teodora may yet be interviewed at the Olympics this year, albeit in a different role than she  was in 1976.