Catalina Ponor: Her Events

  With Romania's Catalina Ponor being retired, I thought it would be a nice treat if I did a Her Events segment on this Romanian Great.


Vault: This was never Cata's best event, but what she does, she does cleanly, as we saw in 2012, Catalina did the 1 1/2 twist, not the hardest vault, but that vault among others gave them an edge over China, giving them the team bronze, and allowing them to medal in team finals 10 years in a row.

Bars: Catalina hasn't competed on this event since 2004, she does not do amazingly on this event, Romania never relies on her for this event, instead, she is more of a beam-worker or a floor exercise specialist


Beam: Catalina truly shines on this event, having tremendous difficulty on this event. She won the 2004 gold, beating the All-Around champion Carly Patterson. She was amazing. She stuck every trick, and stuck her dismount, which meant that she was Olympic Champion. Unfortunately, Catalina did not get to defend her title in 2008, making a comeback, or in 2012, having issues on beam, tying for third, with USA's Alexandra Raisman, but on behalf of tie breaking, Aly clenched the bronze, leaving Catalina with nothing


Floor: Once again, Catalina is dominant on this event. Once again, winning gold in 2004, but then, in 2012, Aly Raisman beat her on floor, with dynamic routine.

Ponor's Last Olympic Games: Devastating

    Catalina Ponor..... She has a glorious 2004 Olympics, pushing her team to the gold medal, winning the floor and beam gold in 2004. She was dominant, but she retired for a little bit, missing out in 2008. But she did come  back for 2012. But, she had some problems in qualifying, including a ton of balance checks on balance beam, bailing out a tumbling pass on floor. She also had a HUGE beyond HUGE balance check on beam on the finals, losing the bronze to Aly, who had a much better performance. Getting the bronze on D value above Cat. And on floor, it was obvious that Aly had the better routine, sticking every landing, and getting a massive (for floor at least) 15.600. Catalina followed that with a 15.200 floor routine. Giving Aly a 5/10 lead. So, Catalina lost everything.

1. She lost the team final gold medal to the Americans
2. She lost any hope of a beam medal to Aly Raisman
3. She lost her floor gold medal to Aly Raisman.



       I wish Catalina was still in the sport, she could have redeemed herself in Rio.

Catalina Ponor: Retired.

Catalina Ponor, an amazing Romanian gymnast, is now retired. We said goodbye to Cata as a gymnast when she left the North Greenich Arena. Catalina kinda ended her gymnastics career on a disappointing note: Losing her floor and beam titles to Aly. Well, Aly did not win the beam final, but she did knock Cata out of the medals. But, Catalina had one more chance to keep her title: Catalina had won the gold medal in floor in Athens, but then, Aly delivered a dynamic floor routine with a 15.600 floor routine, Catalina tried to snatch the title from Aly, but only got a 15.200, Romanian fans everywhere devastated. So, Cata didn't retire on the best note, leaving with no beam medals, and a floor silver. But the one thing she would remember: Winning the team bronze, and medaling as a Romanian team for the 10th time in a row. And even though Cata did not have the best Olympics, she didn't defend her titles, didn't win team gold, we will still be proud of her and remember her forever. Congrats Cata! We will always remember you! Congrats on wrapping up a brilliant career as a gymnast.

Catalina Ponor: From Athenian Star, to London's rock

So, in 2004, Catalina Ponor was dominant, she was a huge part of Romania's gold medal win in Athens, and won two individual gold medals, on floor and beam. She walked home with three gold medals around her neck, no silver, no bronze, and left as the most decorated Romanian gymnast on both the women's and the men's side. But, she didn't make the Beijing team, but she did return to regain Olympic glory in 2012, but that did not go as well. She was in the balance beam final with Alexandra Rasiman, they had the exact same score, in contention for bronze, but Raisman got it on behalf of D Score. And for a split second, Catalina thought she had it, but then she got it crudely snatched from her. Also, in the floor final, It was Raisman vs. Ponor again, and when Aly delivered an absolutely stellar routine, Ponor had to follow that, and did not get the gold, so Catalina has lost both of her titles, to no other than Alexandra Raisman