Laura Badea-Cârlescu

Badea was born in Bucharest in 1970, the youngest of four children.[4] 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.[5] 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.[4] 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.[4] 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.

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.[5] 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.[1]