Sandra Izbasa

My heroine is Sandra Raluca Izbasa, a young Romanian girl, a member of the National Team of Romania's artistic gymnastics.

Sandra Izbasa began gymnastics in 1994 at the CSS Steaua Bucharest Club. She was a member of the Romania group of gymnasts present at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. There she helped the team to win the bronze medal, competing on 3 categories: jumping, beam and floor, and won the gold medal with her floor exercise.

In the summer of 2009 she was focused on the baccalaureate exam, and she got 9.71, a very high mark, which proved that she was also a very good student. After the Baccalaureat exam she registered for the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport at "Babes-Bolyai" University in Cluj-Napoca.

Sandra Izbasa planned to compete in the World Championships in 2009 but unfortunately in September, just before the Nationals Romania, suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury and, trying to settle her fall, and injured her hand. Many sports people considered that her sporting career was completed. But Sandra showed great courage and spirit of sacrifice and she wanted to get back in the elite of gymnastics. After being away for almost a year, she managed to come back under the leadership of Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, two famous coaches, who returned to the lot of gymnastics in June 2010. In the 2012 at the Olympic Games in London, Sandra Izbasa registered her success in a new Olympic sports biography: she won the gold medal on vault in a very tight contest.

I consider that her gesture of returning to achieve her goal after having been injured, makes her a real heroine, who achieved her dream and made her people be proud of her.