Laura Badea-Cârlescu

Laura Badea-Cârlescu
Born	(1970-03-28) 28 March 1970 Bucharest, Romania
Weapon(s)	foil
Hand	left-handed
Height
Weight	56 kg (123 lb; 8.8 st)
Club	CSA Steaua București
Medal record Women's fencing Representing Romania Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta Foil Individual 1996 Atlanta Foil Team 1992 Barcelona Foil Team World Championships 1995 The Hague Foil 1994 Athens Team foil 2004 New York Team foil 1998 La Chaux-de-Fonds Team foil 1997 Cape Town Team foil 1995 The Hague Team foil 1993 Essen Team foil 2003 Havana Team foil 2002 Lisbon Team foil

Laura Gabriela Badea-Cârlescu (née Badea; born 28 March 1970 in Bucharest) is a Romanian foil fencer, world champion in 1995 and Olympic champion in 1996. After her retirement she became a coach, then a sport administrator. She is now vice-president of the Romanian Fencing Federation and a member of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee.

Personal life

Badea was born in Bucharest in 1970, the youngest of four children. She first played handball and track and field before turning to fencing at age 13 under Rodica Popescu, a coach at CSS 1 Bucharest, then Maria Vicol and Ana Pascu. A fan of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, she immediately took to the sport. She later joined CSA Steaua București, of which she is still a member.

She graduated from the National Academy of Physical Education and Sport in 1995. She obtained in 2003 a master in communication and human resources management from the University of Bucharest and in 2007 a master in sport management and marketing from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași. She also holds a Ph.D in sport science on the subject of “Contributions to clarifying the relationship between motor intelligence and capacity for effort in high-level fencing” (“Contribuții la clarificarea raportului dintre inteligența motrică și capacitatea de efort în scrima de performanță”).

Badea married sabre fencer Adrian Cârlescu in 1999. The couple have a daughter.

Career

Badea took part in her first Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, where she took the team bronze medal along with Reka Szabo, Elisabeta Tufan, Claudia Grigorescu, and Ozana Dumitrescu. Romania went to earn the silver medal in the 1993 World Championships in Essen, then the gold medal in the 1994 World Championships in Athens. A year later, Badea won her first major individual title with a gold medal in the World Championships in The Hague; she also won a silver medal in the team event. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta Badea won the gold medal after defeating Valentina Vezzali of Italy and became the first and only Romanian woman Olympic champion. In the team event, Romania was defeated by Italy in the final and took the silver medal.

Badea retired from competition in 2004. In 2013, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Fencing Federation.