Written & Photographed By Coleen Lou

Daniela Silivas
10 time Olympic & World Champion Gold Medalist-
“Leaps” Into The Hearts of Gymnasts in Georgia
And Has A Big Announcement!

Daniela Silivas is known the world over, to many gymnastics professionals and enthusiasts, as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Yet there are also many gymnastics fans, especially in the United States, who do not even know of her. Allow me the privilege of the introduction. It was my great honor and pleasure to sit down with and interview Mrs. Daniela Silivas-Harper, as she likes to be known since her marriage almost 7 months ago to husband, Scott Harper. I interviewed her for Our Little Net and for Inside Gymnastics Magazine , who plans to run the detailed interview with lots of brand-new, never heard before information about her past professional and personal life, in the March/April or May/June issue of the magazine. I will let you all know when it comes out, as soon as I do. For our purposes here at Our Little Net , I would like to tell you a little about her professional accomplishments, but then I will focus on the more recent side of her life, that part which is now spent as the manager and a coach, of a small and intimate recreational and competitive gymnastics program, at Hammond Park Gymnasium. The Hammond Park Gymnasium is located in beautiful Sandy Springs, Georgia on Hammond Drive near Glenridge Dr., and is part of the Fulton County Parks and Recreation System .

“Daniela was a groundbreaking gymnast in that she incorporated into her routines extremely original moves. Her mixture of expression and athleticism propelled her to the champion that she is,” says nationally ranked and NAWGJ judge with almost 30 years of experience, Brock White. Pardon me Judge White, but was that ground breaking or neck breaking? You see, tiny little Daniela was just “playing around in the gym,” when she mounted the beam in the following fashion. You jump up and turn so you end up on the beam upside-down on your neck and shoulders, with your arms wrapped around the beam. Ouch! She later competed the move internationally and it was forever named “the Silivas,” after her . Many others would later do this move, including Olympic greats like Dominique Moceanu, who later went on to compete the "Silivas" mount in the 1996 Olympics, held in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the ultimate flattery for Daniela. She began her gymnastics career in Deva, Romania, and was trained for 6 months with the famous and internationally known, Bela Karolyi , who of course prior to his defection in 1981 to the United States, had trained another legendary gymnast, Nadia Comaneci . Later in the U.S., he also trained MaryLou Retton, Kim Zmeskal, Kerri Strug and Dominique Moceanu. While Daniela trained in the same gym as world-renowned Olympian, Nadia Comaneci, she did not know her very well at the time, as Comaneci was 11 years her senior. They have stayed in touch over the years however, and in 2002 Nadia, along with husband Bart Conner presented her with the award that inducted Daniela into the International Gymnast Hall of Fame.

After Karolyi’s departure from the Romania, the new National Team Head Coach, Adrian Goreac coached Daniela. The soon to be Olympic great, “jumped” into the gymnastics scene as a senior in 1985 and by the time she retired in 1990, just 5 years later, she had a record 10 gold Olympic and World Championship Medals. Nine of those golden beauties were individual event medals and one was a very treasured Romanian team gold. Daniela is one of the most decorated gymnasts in history, and as far a she knows no female gymnast has beaten her individual Olympic & World Champion gold medal total. In 1985 at the very young age of 13, she received her first perfect 10.0 on beam at the World Championships in Montreal. But she will never be forgotten for the time she defeated the mighty Russians, on their own soil in Moscow, at the 1987 European Championships, taking the all-around title, as well as the gold on bars, beam and floor. She also walked away with silver honors on the vault. While she was always known for being strong on all 4 events, she admits vault is her least favored event and beam is her absolute favorite. These successes were followed by followed by many more, including 7 perfect 10’s at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games (3 in the team competition, 2 in the individual and all-around competition and 2 in event finals). At Seoul she won 3 individual gold medals on bars, beam, and floor, 2 silvers one in the all-around and the other for the Romanian Team. She also received a bronze medal on vault.

Alright, you get the idea…. the woman is incredibly accomplished and very well decorated! Strangely, despite her incredible accomplishments, she is not as well known here in the US, but is very well-known in Asia and Europe. Yet despite her amazing success, many people seem to only remember that she lost the Olympic all-around title by .025 to the Soviet gymnast, Elena Shushunova, in one of the closest all-around battles of all time. If that competition took place today, with the “ New Life Rule ” in place, she actually would win the title, as Shushunova would not have carried over the .05 that she was allowed to from the previous days events. Ms. Silivas however, doesn’t look back with regret for what was not to be, but only with pride of her accomplishments. This is obvious when you see her with her utility vehicle with a specialty license plate that reads GOLD88. In addition to being incredible talented, she is sweet, wonderful to talk to, humble and a little shy.

Nevertheless, she still made a BIG announcement exclusively to me for all of her fans...

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