Aurelia Dobre

Who is Aurelia Dobre?

Aurelia Dobre is a former artistic gymnast from Romania, who was the 1987 World Champion. She was also 1st on balance beam, 3rd on vault and floor exercise in event finals and scored a total of 5 "perfect 10's" at these championships. She is held in high esteem by many gymnastics fans for her clean technique as well as balletic and artistic flair.

For years, she was thought to be the youngest artistic gymnastics World Champion ever, winning her title at the age of 14 years and 352 days, until it was found that 1981 World Champion Olga Bicherova's age had been falsified – Bicherova was only 13 when she won her World title.

Dobre's career was quite short because of two major injuries and a growth spurt. However she was a member of the silver medal winning team in the Seoul Olympic Games and the 1989 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

After her retirement, she caused controversy by posing nude for the September 1991 issue of Playboy Netherlands, and giving an interview to the magazine which was highly critical of the Romanian gymnastics setup during the communist era.

In 1991, Dobre moved to the United States. There in 1992 she married Boz Mofid and changed her last name to Mofid. They have four sons: Cyrus, Darius and twins Lucas and Marcus. Dobre is a choreographer and dance coach at her husband's gym in Maryland.