Aurelia Dobre

She relocated to the US in 1991 and married Boz Mofid, an Iranian gymnastics coach, the following year. The couple have four sons Cyrus (born 1993), Darius (born 1995), and twins Lucas and Marcus (born 1999).

Boz runs a gym named ‘Dobre Gymnastics Academy,’ in Maryland, where Aurelia works as a dance coach and choreographer.

Dobre was born on November 16, 1972, in Bucharest, Romania. Not much is known about her family, her early life, or her education.

Aurelia trained in gymnastics at the ‘Deva National Training Center.’ Her head coach was Adrian Goreac.

Aurelia became the 1987 world all-around champion at the 24th ‘World Artistic Gymnastics Championships,’ held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her brilliant performance led her to score five “perfect 10s” at the competition.

Apart from fetching the gold medal as the world all-around champion in 1987, she also garnered a gold medal as the world champion in the balance beam round. Her other notable feats at the 24th ‘World Artistic Gymnastics Championships’ that year included earning a bronze medal each in floor exercise and vault, as also remaining part of the gold-winning Romanian team.

Aurelia was believed to be the youngest gymnast to become the world all-around champion, having competed at the event at the age of 14 years and 352 days. However, it was later discovered that Soviet gymnast Olga Bicherova, whose age was falsified at the 1981 ‘World Championships,’ was actually the youngest winner of the title, having won it at age 13.

Aurelia then eyed the 1988 Seoul ‘Summer Olympics,’ but she had to undergo a knee surgery before the event. The artistic gymnastics events of the ‘Summer Olympics’ that year were held from September 18 to September 25, at Seoul’s ‘Olympic Gymnastics Hall.’ Although Aurelia did not win any individual medal, she put up an impressive performance and remained part of the silver-winning Romanian team.

Moving forward, she won the silver medal as part of the Romanian team at the 25th ‘World Artistic Gymnastics Championships,’ held in Stuttgart, West Germany, from October 14, 1989, to October 22, 1989.