Annaliese Dragan
Dragan in 2024
Personal information
Full name	Annaliese Dragan
Country represented	Romania
Former countries represented	United States
Born	(2005-09-15) September 15, 2005 (age 19) Orange County, United States
Discipline	Rhythmic gymnastics
Level	Senior Elite
Years on national team	2020–present
Club	Sportul Studentesc Bucuresti[1]
Head coach(es)	Irina Deleanu

Annaliese Dragan (born September 15, 2005) is a Romanian-American rhythmic gymnast.^[2] Along with teammate Andreea Verdes, she was the first Romanian gymnast in 26 years to qualify for the apparatus finals at the World Championships in 2022. She competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the rhythmic individual all-around.

Dragan trains at her mother's gym in Irvine, California and has also lived and trained in Romania since she was 13.^[3][4][5] Her younger sister Christina Dragan is also a rhythmic gymnast.^[3]

Dragan was named to the USA Gymnastics National Team of 2018-2019.^[6]

In 2019, she changed nationality and began competing for the Romanian Federation.^[7] Her first international competition for Romania was the 2020 European Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine. She was 9th in the all-around and qualified for the rope, clubs and ribbon finals.^[8]

Dragan competed with clubs and ribbon at the 2021 Pesaro World Cup. She also competed at the World Challenge Cup in Cluj-Napoca, where she placed 8th in the hoop final. In June she was part of the team that competed at the European Championship in Varna, Bulgaria with teammates Andreea Verdes and Denisa Mailat.^[9] Later in the year, she was also selected for the World Championship in Kitakyushu, Japan, where she ended in 22nd place in the all-around qualification and failed to advance to the final.

In 2022, Dragan became Romania's second gymnast and inaugurated her season with the World Cup in Palaio Faliro, where she qualified for the hoop and clubs final. She then competed at the World Cup stage in Sofia. She was again selected again for the 2022 European Championship in Tel Aviv, Israel, together with Verdes for the senior team and Amalia Lică and Dragan's sister Christina for the junior team. She placed 20th in the all-around final.

In September, she competed at the 2022 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She placed 12th in the all-around qualifications and qualified to the final, where she ended in 18th place because of mistakes with clubs. Dragan qualified to three apparatus finals, placing 8th in ball, 7th in clubs and 6th in ribbon.^[10]

At the World Championships in 2023, she competed with pain in her left ankle, an issue that had been bothering her for several years. She qualified for the all-around final in 17th place. This earned Romania a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games, the first since Ana Luiza Filiorianu in 2016.^[11][12] Dragan described seeing her scores as "the best moment of my life".^[3] She later returned to the United States to receive surgery and rehabilitation for her ankle.^[13]

In 2024, Dragan competed at the World Cup stage in Sofia, where she finished in 21st in the all-around. At the 2024 European Championships, she qualified for the all-around final and came in 21st place.^[14]

In August, Dragan competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She finished in 21st place in the individual all-around qualifications, with her best performance coming on clubs, and did not advance to the final. Of her experience, she said, "It was very stressful and exhausting, but I felt good and I really enjoyed the experience very much."^[15]

In October, Dragan's father accused the president of the Romanian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, Irina Deleanu, of abusing Dragan, her sister, and several other gymnasts through verbal abuse, comments about her weight, and over-training on injuries. He also said that Dragan often competed without her coach due to a lack of support from the federation, and that when Deleanu accompanied Dragan to the 2024 European Championships as her coach, she violated competition rules.^[13][16] Deleanu denied these accusations and said that Dragan's mother had been the one to make the comments about her weight, and that Dragan had pre-existing medical and congenital issues that she had been cleared to train on by doctors.^[17]

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• Annaelise Dragan at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Annaliese Dragan on Instagram