Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu is garnering attention and not because she is a hard-working athlete who is one of the world’s best. In new interviews, Moceanu says she discovered the “big lie” her father hid — that she has another sister, a secret sister given up for adoption at birth.
Moceanu writes in her new memoir, Off Balance, about getting a letter and pictures in December 2007 from a woman aged 20 who looked very similar to her.
“It was the biggest bombshell of my life,” Moceanu told ABC’s 20/20 in a new television interview late last week. “I had this sister who was given up for adoption, and I never knew it.”
AP has more about the revelations:
Moceanu said she confronted her parents, Dumitru and Camelia, who told her the girl had been born with serious medical problems that would require expensive treatment. The Romanian immigrants had little money, and doctors recommended she be given up for adoption. The young woman has no legs, Moceanu said. Five years later, Moceanu and the woman have met many times.
“The tones in our voices, our handwriting, the way we laugh and chuckle. It’s mind-blowing,” Moceanu said.
The woman was not identified on the ABC website, and advance copies of Moceanu’s book were not available. Moceanu was 14 when she and the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” won the gold medal in Atlanta. They remain the only U.S. women’s team to win the Olympic title.
