Corina Ungureanu Interview

Original article was published on Dec. 20th in Evenimentul Zilei

EZ: How will you spend the end of the year?
CU: I don’t have any big plans. For Christmas, I’ll stay with my family. I haven’t decided where I’ll spend New Year’s yet. I hope I’ll stop by an orphanage in Ploiesti, to hand out gifts to children.
EZ: After the scandal you were involved in, did anything change in your relationships with others?
CU: I couldn’t say there’ve been a lot of changes. My life is almost the same as before. I still go downtown with my friends, just like before. I don’t have anything to be ashamed of or to hide. It’s true that more people recognize me on the street now. Some of them are polite and if they ask me something, I’ll answer them. I don’t pay attention to the people who say bad things about me. I broke off any contact with a lot of old friends from high school, after I found out they’ve made different comments directed at me. I don’t want to have any ‘friends’ like that. Actually, I don’t really have any [friends] in Ploiesti. The people who care about me are still close to me, even though we rarely see each other. After the scandal broke out, one of my friends who now works in Dubai as a coach called me. Tennis player Catalina Cristea also told me she’ll stand by my side.
EZ: What was your parents’ reaction?
CU: My mother and father agreed to let me pose nude. They also saw the movie. They didn’t find anything worth reprimanding. If I were to ask for someone’s permission, that would have been my boyfriend, but he didn’t object. Just like my friends, he doesn’t think I did something scandalous.

EZ: It’s been said you were conned by the Japanese, who didn’t pay you as much as they promised.
CU: That’s not true. The Japanese people respected everything in the contract. In my opinion, it turned out to be a horrible movie, but everything was done according to their taste. Pornography is banned in Japan, that’s why all their magazines and movies are full of nudes. There’s a real nude mania going on. But the pictures are done in a different style than the one you see here; they’re more artistic, less explicit. We were surprised in the beginning. We were amused by the way they fussed around us, during filming and photo shoots. We didn’t understand what they wanted from us.
EZ: Were you surprised by the reaction of the people back home?
CU: I didn’t expect the pictures to be such a big deal. Of course, we figured the pictures and movie will be shown in Romania, although according to the contract, they are not sold outside Japan. We live in the Internet age. We were planning to hold a press conference when we got back to Romania. We would have shown the magazine and DVD to reporters, so they would know what we’re talking about. But, things took a different turn. People were shocked, but I don’t understand why. I don’t understand why everyone was in a rush to give their opinion. We had retired from competitions for a quite a while.
EZ: Did the scandal change your plans for the future?
CU: I’ve been through this before, after I posed for a Romanian magazine. I’m not disappointed, but I can’t be indifferent, either. I would never dare address a bad word towards a coach or an athlete. I hope that 5 years from now, they won’t be angry with us anymore. Fortunately, they didn’t take away our right to go inside a gym, and that’s why I’ll keep working with kids. I don’t want to go abroad because I don’t want to be far from home. I’m sure I could find a contract if I were to look. But I’m not tempted by those options.

EZ: When you were accused of bringing shame on gymnastics, did you regret sacrificing your childhood for the sake of greatness?
CU: No, not at all. For me, gymnastics was always child’s play, but then it turned serious. I liked competitions. I believe people exaggerate when they talk about the strict regime at the Deva school. As an athlete, you have to respect certain rules. You have to work until you drop. You’re not allowed to eat anything or how much you want. Right now, I don’t think I could survive if I were to eat like I did when I was a gymnast. But I made those sacrifices because I knew they were necessary and I couldn’t reach the top otherwise. I remember those days fondly. I can’t imagine life without gymnastics and I would like to mold new champions on my own, as a coach.

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