Amelia Racea

Elena Amelia Racea (born 29 August 1994 in Tîrgu Jiu, Romania) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is a European champion on balance beam and a European all around and team bronze medalist.

Early gymnastics career
Racea started gymnastics at the age of 6 and won her first all around national title in her age category in 2007. In 2008, she joined the junior national team in Deva. She had a successful junior career, medaling at various international competitions. She won silver on beam and bronze on floor and placed fourth all around and with the team at the 2008 Junior European Championships. In 2009, she placed fifth all around at the prestigious American Cup ahead of more experienced gymnasts such as Koko Tsurumi and Kristina Goryunova. If not for a fall from uneven bars she might have placed higher. Later that year she won the all around junior title at both the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy and the Lugano Trophy in Switzerland. The 10th European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere was a very successful meet for Racea. Here she won a total of six medals, two gold (vault and beam) and four silver (floor, uneven bars, all around and with the team).

2010
Racea's senior debut at a major international competition was at the 2010 European Championships. Here she qualified for the vault and floor finals and contributed to the team bronze medal. In the beam final she replaced the top qualifier Ana Porgras who withdrew due to an ankle injury. She won the gold medal on beam and placed fifth on floor and seventh on vault. Due to injuries Racea was a reserve of the team for the 2010 World Championships and she did not compete at this event.

2011
Her first 2011 competition was the European Championships in Berlin. Here she had a weak performance in the qualification day with mistakes on floor, beam and uneven bars. Consequently, she failed to qualify on beam and barely qualified in the all around final (22nd place). However, in the all around final Racea managed to have clean routines and edged teammate Diana Chelaru for the bronze medal. She also placed seventh in the vault final. A week later she participated at the 2011 Glasgow World Cup, where she won the all around title ahead of Jessica López and teammate Raluca Haidu. In August–September 2011, she had good performances at the Romanian National Championships (second all around) and at two friendly meets in Germany and Great Britain. After these competitions she went with the Romanian team to compete at the 2011 World Championships. Here, she helped her team place fourth by competing on uneven bars and on beam in the team final. Individually, she placed fifth in the beam final.