Romania's Dragulescu vaults over the decades

Veteran Romanian gymnast Marian Dragulescu rattles off the times he has gone into retirement, only to pop up and appear at the Olympics again.

"I retired many times - 2005, 2008 and 2012," said Dragulescu, a winner of eight world championship gold medals during a stellar career.

So, at 35 and after narrowly missing out on a medal at the Rio Games on Monday, can he contemplate making it to a fifth Olympics in 2020?

"Never say never," he chirped, moments after he lost the men's individual vault bronze medal in a tiebreaker.

"I don't know. I hope to be healthy and motivated. My biggest motivation was a gold medal at the Olympic Games and I didn't get it so it is still on my wish list."

The last time Dragulescu won an Olympic medal was at the 2004 Athens Games, when he took home a silver and two bronze. Rio is his first Games since Beijing 2008.

Introduced to the crowd in Rio as the "King of the Vault", the Romanian will live on in gymnastics whether he is in the arena or not.

That is because one of the most popular vaults in men's gymnastics is named 'the Dragulescu', a handspring double front somersault vault with a half twist.

He busted out his own move in his first vault on Monday, but ruined it slightly with a fluffed landing.

Dragulescu said he had actually planned something new for the Olympics, but succumbed to the flu two weeks before he traveled to Rio and did not have time to prepare.

So he went back to what he knew best.

In a testament to his impact on his specialty, two other finalists also performed the Dragulescu, Nikita Nagornyy of Russia and all-around silver medalist Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine.

On his second vault, Dragulescu took a small hop forward. With fellow Romanian and former Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci in the VIP seats to cheer him on, he earned a score of 15.449.

He tied with Kenzo Shirai of Japan, who ending up winning the bronze because of a higher execution score. When Dragulescu invented his signature move in 1999, Shirai was around 3 years old.

Instead of suffering heartbreak for a near-miss in what might be the end of his career, Dragulescu smiled and chatted as if nothing was amiss.

"There are people who are in front of me," he said. "They deserve it. The final was so difficult with seven gymnasts doing very well their vaults, that doesn't happen so often."

Asked if he could contemplate competing at 39 years of age, the smiling Dragulescu offered a blunt "Yes, why not?"

(China Daily 08/17/2016 page5)