Muntean joined the junior national team when he was 13 years old in 2006.[3] He made his international debut at the 2006 Junior European Championships where he helped the Romanian team place fifth.[4] At the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival, he won a silver medal on the floor exercise behind Russia's David Belyavskiy and a bronze medal with the Romanian team.[5]
Muntean competed at the 2010 Junior European Championships, placing seventh in the all-around final and fourth in the rings final. Then in the parallel bars final, he won the title by 0.050 over Swiss gymnast Oliver Hegi.[6] He then represented Romania at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. His first event was the all-around final, where he finished in fourth place, only 0.050 behind the bronze medalist. He also qualified for the pommel horse final where and eighth.[7] In the rings final, he had the highest difficulty score of the event and won the gold medal. This was the first time Romania won a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games.[3][8] He also won a silver medal in the parallel bars final behind Ukraine's Oleg Stepko.[7]
Senior career
Muntean became age-eligible for senior international competition in 2011, but he missed most of the year due to an injury.[3]
At the 2014 European Championships, Muntean contributed on five of the six apparatus towards Romania's seventh-place finish. Individually, he qualified for the parallel bars final and placed sixth.[11] He finished 33rd in the all-around during the qualification round of the 2014 World Championships, making him the third reserve for the all-around final.[12]
2015–2016
Muntean won bronze medals on both the still rings and parallel bars at the 2015 Doha World Challenge Cup, and he placed fourth on the vault.[13] He then finished fifth in the parallel bars event final at the 2015 European Championships.[14] Then at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, he helped Romania qualify for the 2016 Olympic Test Event with a 14th-place finish.[15][16] Individually, he placed 11th on the vault, making him the third reserve for the event final.[17] At the Test Event, the Romanian team placed fifth.[18] Although they did not qualify as a team, Romania earned a non-nominative individual berth to the 2016 Olympics.[19] Muntean was selected to compete by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.[1]
Before the Olympic Games, Muntean competed at the 2016 European Championships and finished fifth in the parallel bars final.[20] Three weeks before the 2016 Olympic Games, he injured his right shoulder. He chose to still compete, but he reduced the difficulty of his routines.[3] At the Olympics, Muntean finished 36th in the all-around during the qualification round, and he qualified for the parallel bars final.[21] In the parallel bars final, he tied for the highest execution score in the final, but he finished sixth overall due to his lower difficulty score.[22] He had surgery on his shoulder in November 2016.[3]
Muntean won the silver medal on parallel bars at the 2018 Koper World Challenge Cup behind Đinh Phương Thành.[27] Then at the Guimarães World Challenge Cup, he won silver medals on the rings and on the parallel bars, both behind Manrique Larduet.[28] At the Mersin World Challenge Cup, he won the parallel bars title and won the silver medal on rings behind İbrahim Çolak.[29] He won the overall World Challenge Cup parallel bars titles for having the best results across the series, and he was second on the still rings behind Çolak.[30] He qualified for the all-around final at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, finishing 22nd.[31]
2019–2021
Muntean only competed on the floor exercise at the 2019 European Championships, but he did not qualify for the event final.[32] He then competed at the 2019 World Championships, finishing 56th in the all-around during the qualification round.[33] He finished ninth with the Romanian team in the qualification round of the 2020 European Championships.[34]
Muntean was the first reserve for the parallel bars final at the 2021 European Championships.[35] He took a break from competition for the rest of 2021, but he returned to competition at the 2022 Koper World Challenge Cup in June.[3] There, he won the silver medal on the parallel bars behind Ukraine's Petro Pakhnyuk, and he placed fifth on rings.[36] In August, he competed with the Romanian team that placed 10th at the 2022 European Championships.[37] Then at the Mersin World Challenge Cup, he won a bronze medal on parallel bars and placed fourth on rings and sixth on floor exercise.[38] He competed at the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool, helping the Romanian team finish 19th in the qualification round.[39]
2023–2024
Muntean finished fourth in the parallel bars final at the 2023 European Championships.[40] Then at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Muntean finished 30th in the all-around during the qualification round, making him the fourth reserve for the final. As the eighth highest-ranked gymnast from a country that did not qualify a full team, he received an individual quota for the 2024 Olympic Games.[41]
^"27th European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team Championships Volos (GRE) 4–7 May 2006 Results Book" (PDF). European Gymnastics. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Argint la sol pentru Muntean" [Silver on the floor for Muntean]. ProSport (in Romanian). 24 July 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"29th European Artistic Gymnastics Team Championships Juniors and Seniors Birmingham (GBR) April 21st-April 25th 2010 Results Book" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 25 April 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
^ a b"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Finals Results" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. Singapore 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Gimnastul Andrei Muntean, primul campion olimpic de tineret din România" [Gymnast Andrei Muntean, the first youth Olympic champion from Romania]. Agerpres (in Romanian). 21 August 2010. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Romania Rules Final Day at Doha Challenge Cup". International Gymnast Magazine Online. 29 March 2013. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
^"31st European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team Championships Juniors & Seniors Results Book" (PDF). European Gymnastics. pp. 188, 204. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"6th European Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics Individual Championships Men's Apparatus Finals" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 19 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Aquece Rio Final Gymnastics Qualifier Rio de Janeiro (BRA) (Test Event) 16 – 24 April 2016 Mens' Artistic Gymnastics Eligible Gymnasts / NOC to participate in the Test Event" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. International Gymnastics Federation. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
^"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Team Final Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"List of the Men's Artistic Gymnastics Tokyo 2016 Olympic Qualifiers" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. International Gymnastics Federation. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
^"32nd European Championships in Men's Artistic Gymnastics Seniors and Juniors Senior Apparatus Finals" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Qualification Results" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. Rio 2016. 6 August 2016. pp. 3, 16. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Parallel Bars Final" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. Rio 2016. 16 August 2016. p. 5. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^Pavitt, Michael (23 August 2017). "Ten gymnasts claim gold medals as artistic competition concludes at Taipei 2017". Inside the Games. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
^"47th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2017 Montréal (CAN) Men's Individual Qualification" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. International Gymnastics Federation. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Rings Final" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 12 August 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"FIG World Challenge Cup Koper (SLO) 2018 May 31 – June 3". Gymnastics Results. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Gymnasts from 7 nations win 2018 World Challenge Cup Series titles". International Gymnastics Federation. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha (QAT), 25 October – 3 November 2018 Men's All-Around Final" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. International Gymnastics Federation. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"8th European Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics Individual Championships Men Artistic Gymnastics Qualification" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 10 April 2019. p. 3. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Stuttgart (GER), 4 October – 13 October 2019 Men's All-Around Qualification" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. International Gymnastics Federation. 6 October 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"34th European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships Men Artistic Gymnastics Teams Qualification" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"9th European Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics Individual Championships Men Artistic Gymnastics Qualification" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 22 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"2022 Koper World Challenge Cup Final Results" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. 18 June 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Artistic Gymnastics Men's Qualification Team Results" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 18 August 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup 2022 October 07-09, 2022 / Mersin – TUR MAG Senior Final" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. 9 October 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Liverpool (GBR), 29 October – 6 November 2022 Men's Team Qualification" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. International Gymnastics Federation. 31 October 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"10th European Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics Individual Championships Men Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus Final" (PDF). European Gymnastics. 16 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
^"Final nine Men's Artistic Gymnastics teams solidify Olympic team qualification in Paris". International Gymnastics Federation. 1 October 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Barbosa, de Jesus dos Santos, Asil make golden impressions as World Challenge Cup season begins". International Gymnastics Federation. 1 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Technical Committees name original Gymnastics elements for their inventors". International Gymnastics Federation. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2024.