Adriana Giurca's Biography

In 1993, 13 year old Adriana Giurca was one of the very promising
gymnasts from the Dinamo Club in Bucharest. Tragically, this all
changed that November. According to the What Ever happened to...?
website, this is what happened. Adriana's coach, Florin Gheorghe,
who was known to have a temper, was already in a bad mood when
Adriana was working on beam. He insisted that she perform a dismount
that she had seldom completed correctly & when she stumbled, he
slapped her & hit her head against the beam. When she managed to
get back on her feet, he ordered her to go to the floor, where again
she stumbled. Again, she was punched, kicked & then he beat her
with a bat. She was rushed to the hospital where later, poor Adriana
died. Florin was not arrested right away since other coaches & gymnasts
were afraid of speaking out. Finally, one gymnast did & he was arrested.
Despite vivid testimony & photos, Florin's sentence consisted of only
a fine of $5,600 in US money, & to serve 8 years in prison. He appealed
& the Romanian court accepted. He got away with only paying the fine
& no jail time. As of 1995, the Giurca family appealing this ruling.
What makes this tragedy even sadder is that Adriana would often come
home with bad bruises & when her parents would question her, she
would say they were just from falling. Her parents didn't believe her
however & they had arranged for Adriana to change gyms. The
change was due to happen 2 weeks after she died.


                                    last updated: March 23, 2000