Andreea Raducan’s future plans

Original article was published on December 12th in Adevarul

Andreea Raducan was a guest on Romanian TV show Tuca show along with her former teammates Maria Olaru and Simona Amanar. The talk show moderator, Marius Tuca tried to convince Andreea to rethink her decision to retire, just like another talk show host, Adrian Paunescu managed to convince legendary soccer player Gheorghe Hagi to make a comeback. However, Tuca didn’t have the same success rate, as Andreea explained that “I feel like I can’t do it anymore. It’s not about my will power or that I don’t want people to enjoy my success, but I know I just can’t do this anymore.”

Andreea also admitted being 9 kilograms [20 lbs] overweight compared to her weight at the Sydney Olympics, meaning she now weighs 46 kilograms, as opposed to 37 in Sydney. All of these factors made the former champion stand behind her decision to retire. In addition, both Maria Olaru and Simona Amanar defended Andreea, explaining that her decision should be respected. “We have to understand where she’s coming from, because it is very hard and she probably doesn’t want to go to competitions just to make a fool of herself,” said Maria.

Another topic Andreea tried to avoid discussing was the recent photo shoot of Lavinia Milosovici, Corina Ungureanu and Claudia Presacan, who posed nude in a Japanese magazine. Andreea refused to comment on the gymnasts’ decision, but she also turned down moderator Tucu’s hypothetical offers. He asked her if she were to pose nude for $100,000, then for $150,000. Andreea gave the same firm answer. “I won’t take my clothes off, no matter how much money you’d give me. I’m not interested.”

Andreea is about to start college, at the Sports University in Timisoara and she was scheduled to go there next week to look for an apartment. However, Andreea has been thinking about this lately and she realized that she’d like to stay in Bucharest. "I thought about this possibility for a while and there’s a good chance I’ll move to Bucharest, especially since it’s closer to home,” said Andreea adding that she’ll make her final decision this week-end. "My parents are coming to Bucharest on Saturday from Barlad and I’ll talk to them and see what advice they have to offer. I want to say in Bucharest because I would have gone to Timisoara just to stay with Maria Olaru, who is one of my close friends. But she only has one year of college left and after she’s finished, she could move to Bucharest. In any case, everyone told me Bucharest would be better for me and I tend to agree.”
As far as she’s concerned, Olaru confirmed that she plans to move to Bucharest after she finishes school “because, besides the friends I made in college, I don’t know anyone else in Timisoara. While in Bucharest I would be alongside Andreea".
Andreea plans to discuss her plans to transfer to another university in the next few days with her parents, as well as finding an apartment. Her parents have always said they would respect any decision she makes.

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