[3] When she was ten, her elder brother Marius, who played football for a school team of CSA Steaua București, took her to his club's fencing hall in Ghencea.

At 13 years old, at the beginning of class VIII, she left her family and moved to Craiova to train at the Junior Olympic Centre for épée with other athletes, much of which were older than her.

She joined in 2001 one of the main Romanian sport clubs, CSA Steaua, which is run by the Ministry of National Defence of Romania, and received the grade of sergeant.

[14] In August 2015, she married Pavel Popescu, who plays water polo for CSA Steaua, and announced her intention to change her name for competition.

These achievements prompted the Romanian media to compare her to Olympic foil champion Laura Badea-Cârlescu, but she took exception to the comparison, claiming she wanted to do better than Badea.

[20] Having reached the top quickly, she lost her previous fearlessness and began to feel apprehensive before her bouts: "When you get on the piste, it looks to you like your opponent is out to steal your dreams.

[22] For her Olympic début in Athens Brânză managed to beat experienced fencer Adrienn Hormay of Hungary, but stumbled in the table of 16 against China's Zhang Li and finished 16th.

This result, along with a quarter-final place at the 2005 World Championships in Leipzig, where she lost to Estonia's Maarika Võsu, allowed her to close the season in the Top 10 for the first time in her career.

In the 2007–08 season, Brânză claimed the gold medal at the St Petersburg World Cup, the silver in Budapest and Havana, and the bronze in Luxembourg and Barcelona.

In the team event Romania overcame Poland and Hungary, then largely prevailed over Germany in the final to earn their second continental title.

She then disposed 15–11 of Japan's Megumi Harada and beat 15–13 Russia's Lyubov Shutova to reach the semi-finals, where she met experienced, 39-year-old Ildikó Mincza-Nébald of Hungary.

After a very balanced bout where no fencer managed to gain more than a two-hit advantage, Brânză struck the decisive hit to win her ticket to the final.

[31] For her silver medal, Brânză was awarded the Romanian order for sports merit (Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv"), second class.

[33] After the Olympics, Brânză began to complain of tendon pain in her weapon hand, but the competition rhythm did not allow her to attend to it.

[39] In the 2010 World Fencing Championships in Paris, Brânză was again eliminated early in the individual event, but won the first Romanian team gold in épée with Simona Gherman, Loredana Dinu and Anca Măroiu.

The victory ceremony was marred by an incident when Trei culori, the former, communist-era national anthem of Romania, was played instead of the current Deșteaptă-te, române!

"[50] After the Games three Romanian team members retired from sport, but Brânză decided to continue her career and announced her new goal was the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In the 2012–13 season, Brânză made the podium in six out of eight entries in World Cup events, including gold medals in the Challenge International de Saint-Maur and the Havana Grand Prix.

[55] In the team event she led a largely renewed Romanian side, now nicknamed "Poky Power", scoring the decisive hit in the 44–43 quarter-final against Sweden; Romania then disposed of Hungary, but failed against Estonia in the final and came away with a silver medal.

During the 2013 World Fencing Championships in Budapest, Brânză made her way comfortably to the table of eight, but she was defeated in a tight 14–15 bout by Estonia's Julia Beljajeva, who eventually won the competition.

Romania then fought France in the match for the third place; Brânză entered the last leg on a 25–25 draw and beat Joséphine Jacques-André-Coquin 8–3 to secure the bronze medal.

[57] She finished the year No.1 for a record-equalling third time and received a gold medal from the FIE during its centenary gala dinner in Paris at the Automobile Club de France on 30 November 2013.

[58] In the 2013–14 season, Brânză took part in the World Combat Games in Saint-Petersburg, but failed to earn a medal after defeats against Emese Szász and Xu Anqi.

Romania then met the United States; Brânză scored the winning hit in additional time to earn bronze.

At the European Championships in Strasbourg, Brânză could not defend her title as she was beaten 8–9 in the table of 32 by teammate Simona Gherman, who eventually won a bronze medal.

[65] The World Championships in Kazan proved very disappointing as Brânză was stopped in the table of 16 by Estonia's Irina Embrich and slid to the fifth place in FIE rankings.

Brânză entered the 2014–15 season with a silver medal at the Legnano World Cup after a 13–12 defeat in additional time against Ukraine's Anfisa Pochkalova.

In the team event, she scored the winning hit in extra time in the semi-finals against Italy, but Romania were overcome by Estonia in the final and doomed to silver.

[71] After being rested for ten days, she reached the quarter-finals in the Buenos Aires World Cup, but lost to Korea's Shin A-lam.

[74] She was rested for the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix, but Shin A-lam's average result at the competition allowed Brânză to reach the second place in world rankings.