Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine. She also won two more bronze medals on the vault and beam. Her performances in the 1996 Olympics were particularly impressive, as Gina underwent an emergency appendectomy only 5 weeks before the competition. By a bizarre and miraculous stroke of luck, she had been traveling on a train to Bucharest at the time, which was the only city where hospitals could perform the kind of non-invasive surgery that Gina needed to return to training quickly. Traditional surgery would have involved at least a six-week wait to resume light training; she would have missed the Olympics. Gogean continued to compete after the retirement of Lavinia Miloșovici. She admitted in an ABC News interview during the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland that the new Code of Points made gymnastics too difficult for her, and that she intended to retire after the competition was over; yet she led the Romanians to their third straight world team title. Gogean herself finished just off the podium in fourth. She rebounded by winning the world title on beam and her third straight title on floor. While she never won an Olympic gold, she finished her career with an impressive thirty Olympic, World, and European medals, fourteen of them gold. Retirement Gogean retired after the 1998 World Cup, where she medalled in her all three events. After completing her studies she coached in Romania and later in Scotland, and also worked as a television commentator. Since 2001 she is a regular gymnastics judge. In 2000 she was awarded the Cross of Faithful Service, 1st class by then-President of Romania Emil Constantinescu. On 1 July 2006, she married Cristian Gorza, a former classmate of hers, in a ceremony in Deva, Romania. Her former coaches, Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, served as the godparents. Teammates Andreea Răducan and Maria Olaru were among the guests. See also List of Olympic female gymnasts for Romania List of top Olympic gymnastics medalists List of top medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships References External links Gina Gogean at Gymn-Forum.net 1977 births Living people People from Vrancea County Romanian female artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts of Romania Olympic silver medalists for Romania Olympic bronze medalists for Romania Olympic medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1992 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics World champion gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships European champions in gymnastics Medalists at