Corina Georgiana Ungureanu (born 29 August 1980 in Ploiești) is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed internationally between 1993 and 1999. She was a member of two gold medal-winning World Championships teams and was the 1998 European Champion on the floor exercise.
Career
Ungureanu began gymnastics at the Petrolul Ploieşti club in her hometown of Ploieşti, but spent the major part of her career training in Bucharest under Leana Sima. In the national training center in Deva, she was coached by Octavian Belu. Ungureanu's first international assignment was a junior dual meet between Romania and Germany, where she placed first with her team and eighth in the all-around. She resurfaced on the international scene again in 1996, when she won the all-around title at the EcoAir Cup. She did not compete in the 1996 Olympics, but was a member of the gold medal-winning Romanian teams at the 1997 and 1999 World Gymnastics Championships. She was forced to retire in 1999 due to a spinal cord injury.
Nude posing
After retiring from gymnastics, she sparked some controversy by posing nude for the January 2000 edition of Playboy Romania. These pictures were reprinted in Playboy Japan in May 2000 and led to her producing a nude photobook in Japan later that year. Former teammates Lavinia Miloșovici and Claudia Presăcan, and Ungureanu earned world titles while on the Romanian team. Milosovici won two golds, one silver, and three bronze medals at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. Presecan won an Olympic team gold medal in 2000. The three women
appeared in two Japanese DVDs, Gold Bird and Euro Angels, performing gymnastics routines nude and topless.
The DVDs proved controversial as some of the scenes and publicity material featured the gymnasts in their official Romanian team leotards. It later emerged that they had not been aware of the contractual obligation to wear their official leotards until filming had already begun. It was reported they were paid USD$40,000.