Sabrina Voinea

Sabrina Maneca-Voinea (born 4 June 2007) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is the 2024 European balance beam and floor exercise silver medalist and the 2023 European floor exercise bronze medalist. She represented Romania at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Voinea was born in Constanța in 2007. Her mother, Camelia Voinea and won a silver medal with the Romanian team. When Sabrina was young, Camelia brought her to the gym where she worked as a coach, and Sabrina became interested in gymnastics herself. Sabrina is coached by her mother.

Junior career

Voinea started competing for the Romanian national team in 2017. In April 2022, she competed at the Junior City of Jesolo Trophy. She helped Romania finish fourth in the team competition. She also won the bronze medal on vault and finished seventh on floor. In July, Voinea competed at the European Youth Summer Olympic Festival. She helped Romania win the gold medal. In the individual events, she finished 12th in the all-around, fourth on vault, and fifth on floor. In August, Voinea competed at the Junior European Championships. She helped Romania win the bronze medal in the team competition. She also finished fourth in the all-around, won the gold medal on vault, and won the bronze medal on floor.

Senior career

2023

Voinea became age-eligible for senior-level competition in 2023. In March she competed at the Doha World Cup where she won gold on balance beam and floor exercise. The following month she competed at the 2023 European Championships. She helped Romania finish fifth in the team competition. She also finished fourth on vault and won the bronze medal on floor exercise.

In October Voinea competed at the 2023 World Championships alongside Ana Bărbosu, Lilia Cosman, Amalia Ghigoarță, and Andreea Preda. During qualifications they finished tenth. Although they did not qualify for the team final, they qualified a team to the 2024 Olympic Games, a feat last achieved in 2012. Individually Voinea qualified to the floor exercise final where she finished fourth.

2024

Voinea competed at the 2024 European Championships where she helped Romania finish fourth. Individually she won silver medals on balance beam and floor exercise, behind Manila Esposito on both.

2024 Olympics

At the 2024 Olympic Games Voinea helped Romania finish seventh in the team competition. Individually she qualified to the balance beam and floor exercise event finals. During the balance beam final she fell off the apparatus twice and finished eighth. During the floor exercise final Voinea scored a 13.700 and initially finished in fourth place after losing an execution score tie-breaker with compatriot Ana Bărbosu. However, American Jordan Chiles submitted an inquiry on her score, initially a 13.666, which was accepted and raised her score by a tenth to 13.766. As a result Chiles was initially awarded the bronze medal, with Bărbosu in fourth, and Voinea in fifth.

=2024 Olympics controversy

=

During the NBC primetime replay of the event final, it showed that Voinea did not go out of bounds despite receiving a neutral deduction of 0.1 for going out of bounds. If the deduction was not taken, Voinea would have scored 13.800, which would have put her in the bronze medal position even after Chiles's score was increased. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed this deduction simultaneously while appealing that Chiles' inquiry was submitted after the 1 minute deadline to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Voinea's appeal was rejected as her coach did not submit an inquiry about the neutral deduction during the event final.

Bărbosu's appeal, however, was accepted as the CAS found that Chiles' inquiry was submitted four seconds past the one minute deadline. Therefore the FIG reinstated the original standings, which led to Bărbosu placing third, Voinea placing fourth, and Chiles placing fifth. The International Olympic Committee upheld the findings from the CAS.

Competitive history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voinea, Sabrina
2007 births
Living people
Romanian female artistic gymnasts
Gymnasts from Constanța
21st-century Romanian sportswomen
Gymnasts at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Olympic gymnasts for Romania