“I’m Dealing With That Aftermath”: Gymnastics Icon Dominique Moceanu Reveals Emotional Impact of Long Lost Sister Being Put Up for Adoption

Dominique Moceanu is a force to be reckoned with. She won two medals in the 1995 World Championship in a scintillating manner, but her story is one of woe and is also rife with struggles, under the veneer of the victorious gymnastics mats. In 96, the world witnessed her become the youngest gymnast in America’s first-ever gold-winning gymnastics team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Like the rest of the world, Jennifer Bricker, an Illinois native and her long-estranged sister, idolized the gymnastics star Dominique.

Born without legs, Jen was left at the hospital by her biological parents. Inspired by Moceanu, Jen entered the 1998 AAU Junior Olympics and placed fourth before going on to become a well-known aerialist and motivational speaker. However, Jen was unaware that she and Dominique had been long-lost sisters. Their heartbreaking past is now immortalized into a documentary celluloid film packed with a million emotions shedding light on Dominique Moceanu’s search for Jenn and more.

Dominique Moceanu gets candid and cathartic about a familial trauma

Moceanu, 42, confessed to a side much opposite to a delicate dance of reconciliation highlighting her mother Camelia, 62, still feels guilty about giving her sister Bricker, 36, up for adoption. The sisters are currently in an “evolving“ relationship as they mustered the courage after all these years to record their experience in their new documentary, “She Looks Like Me,” directed by Torquil Jones. According to Moceanu, Bricker and she are “a lot more open than my family was,” which made the sisters cautious about how they related their experience. Moceanu told PEOPLE, “I’m dealing with that aftermath behind the scenes all the time, and that is very difficult for me to be in that position constantly.”

In 1987, Moceanu’s parents, Camelia and Dumitru, abandoned Bricker at the hospital as a baby in Chicago, Illinois. Bricker was born without legs because a uterine band had severed the blood flow to her lower limbs while she was still with her mother. After that, Bricker was adopted by a family in Illinois, where she watched as Moceanu’s career as an Olympic gymnast took off. Bricker focused on her achievements as an acrobat and aerialist, performing as a featured act on Britney Spears’ World Tour and being inducted into the Gallery of Legends Hall of Fame by the World Acrobatic Society.

Jen Bricker recalls “hearing my mom talk about my biological mom, and then the adoption scene, or the scene when I was born and they left me at the hospital…It hit me in a way I just was not expecting.” While Moceanu notes that her mother is having a “tough time dealing with this in a public manner.” Meanwhile, director Torquil Jones quips that – “feels important as they’ve faced emotional, physical, and mental challenges of an extreme nature, but have decided to pursue the truth, no matter what the cost.” Thus making it a telling revelation and a story that needs to be told. There’s also a memoir to their name as well.

Gymnast’s truth uncovering memoir brought to the fore as well

A multitude of emotions are evoked by the story of Dominique Moceanu and her secret sister. Moceanu’s memoir “Off Balance” published on June 5, 2012, presented a bleak and dismal image of both her personal life and elite gymnastics. Her parents, Romanian immigrants Camelia and Dumitru, set the whole thing in motion. She disclosed how her father controlled both their home and her gymnastics career. She also accused her former coaches, Marta Karolyi and Bela, of mistreating her when she was in practice. And lastly, fostering a bond with Jen Bricker, among other things.

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The tiny 14-year-old gymnast who was a member of the “Magnificent Seven,” the first American team to win gold in the women’s team competition at the 1996 Olympics, captured the attention of many. Their reunion is a remarkable example of how broken ties find their way back, resulting in a heartwarming reunion.

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