2007, Drǎgulescu participated in the European Championships which turned to be an unfortunate event for him. On floor exercise, he did not manage to complete his routine. After a hard landing to the back of his head on a layout Thomas salto, he twice attempted to run into his final tumbling pass. Instead of tumbling, he stopped and walked off the podium. That afternoon Drǎgulescu competed in the vault final, but missed his second vault (round-off, half-on, 2-1/2 twisting front), landing improperly and injuring his back. Romanian doctors then advised Drǎgulescu to immediately stop training and undergo a detailed investigation in the United States to assess the seriousness of his injury. Hence, he missed the 2007 world championships and resumed training only several months prior to the 2008 Olympic Games. Although Drǎgulescu made the vault finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, history repeated itself and, as in Athens 2004, he fell on his second vault after an almost faultless first vault (which scored a 16.800), losing his chance to win his first Olympic Gold Medal. However, unlike in Athens, Drǎgulescu did not medal on any event, placing fourth on vault with seventh on team and floor. Post Beijing Drǎgulescu was very disappointed when he failed to medal at the Beijing Olympics, saying "my soul broke" after he fell on the landing of his second vault attempt. He announced his retirement and his intention to become a gymnastic coach. However, he reconsidered retirement and went to compete in Germany for Fabian Hambüchen's club, KTV Straubenhardt. In the club's first three competitions, Drǎgulescu competed on floor and vault, obtaining the league's top scores on the latter event: 16.500 in the first two competitions, and 16.300 in the third one. The club won the second place in December 2008. After competing in the German league Dragulescu formally announced his retirement. He went to coach gymnastics alongside his former team colleagues Marius Urzică and Dan Potra at Dinamo Club Bucharest. He declared that his goal is to create a gymnast better than himself. 2009 In 2009, Drǎgulescu once again reconsidered his retirement from gymnastics. He had a very successful comeback winning the floor and the vault titles at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. 2010–2011 In 2010, Drǎgulescu skipped the European Championships and Romanian Nationals but was a member of the Romanian team at the World Championships. There, he only competed on vault,