Career
She is known for scoring a perfect 10 for the vault optional in the team competition of the 1987 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and for being the first gymnast to compete two consecutive layout stepout jumps. She liked all the events equally, though she excelled in vaulting and floor. Eugenia Golea began training at School Club North 2 in Bucharest under the coaching of Lucia Marcu and Mihai Demetrescu.
Later she joined the national team at Deva where she trained with Adrian Gorean, Adrian Stan and Maria Cosma.
Her debut as a senior in an international event was in 1984. Although she had an excellent showing at the 1984 Balkan Championships where she placed first with the team and third all-around she was left off the 1984 Olympic team
During the vault optional in the team finals both Aurelia Dobre and Golea scored perfect tens from the judges, Golea being one of three women (along with Elena Shushunova and Svetlana Baitova) to debut the double twisting yurchenko at the World Championships that year. She added two more individual medals at the 1987 European Championships in Moscow, a silver on beam and a bronze on vault.
After winning silver with the team at the 1988 Summer Olympics, Golea retired.
In 1991 Golea moved to Puerto Rico. There, she worked for a circus and helped coach the Puerto Rican gymnastics team Golea eventually immigrated to the United States to work as a gymnastic coach and choreographer.
She coached at American Gymnastics in Bedford Hills, New York and Young Women’s Christian Association in White Plains, New New York