Nadia's confidant

"Pack your bags right now! You're going to Deva! Bela Karoly and his wife are in America. The National team doesn't have any coaches right now", ordered general Marin Dragnea, then head of the National Council for Physical Education and Sports. "The new coaches will be Belu from Petrolul Ploiesti & Sica Albu," he added. Corina cannot say not. At 27 years old, she will be the new choreographer of the National team.
Now, 19 years later, Corina Marc works at the dance high school in Cluj-Napoca. She first became acquainted with gymnastics in 1974. After only 3 months spent with the Brasov Opera ballet, she was forced to quit after she contracted hepatitis. She returned to Cluj, her home town, and started working as a choreographer at the Cluj Sport club. She had a lot of imagination, and she was serious about her work, so in just a few years, she was working as choreographer of the National Junior team in Bucharest. She met Nadia and her other teammates in 1980. "Bela Karoly had already left Romania. I think they must have had a fairly big fight, and Nadia didn't want to work with him anymore. It was a weird situation because we had two teams, the National team at Deva, and another one in Bucharest made up of Nadia, Cristina Itu and Adina Fãrcut. They were coached by Gogu Gorgoi. I worked with the juniors in the afternoon, and the seniors in the morning. They chose me because Nadia's former choreographer, Geza Pozsar, finished high school in Cluj, too, and we had a similar style of teaching," explains Corina.

Early in 1981, the gymnasts left to compete in the American Cup. Nadia's floor routine, set to a Romanian folk song, Ciocîrlia (translates to skylark) was choreographed by Corina. "It took me hours to find the best song, and mix it," she said. Despite all the hard work she put in, she wasn't named as a member of the Romanian team who left. "That's how it was meant to be. I think I would have stayed behind in the US, just like the Karolys and Geza Pozsar did."
Immediately following this, Corina was sent to Deva. Back then, the National team consisted of Emilia Eberle, Melita Ruhn, Marilena Vlãdãrãu, Rodica Dunca, Dumitrita Turner, Dorina Ungureanu, Lavinia Agache, Ecaterina Szabo and Cristina Grigoras. "Nadia enjoyed special privileges. She only went to Deva to get her routines choreographed. "

At Deva, Corina got to know the gymnasts personally. "I was their friend, as well as their choreographer, because we were fairly close in age. They were more restrained towards Tavi Belu because he was a man, and Mrs. Anastasia Albu, the assistant coach, was extremely strict. So I was the only one left." Corina roomed with Nadia at Deva. "People say gymnasts are stupid. That's not true. Problem is they have no time to read. Nadia was brilliantly intelligent and she had a very good memory. She started reading, and took in all the information she could get her hands on. You didn't have to repeat things for her. I would make up her floor routine during one training session, and she could do it very well the same day." Corina explained, being almost emotional, she taught Nadia how to put on make-up, and what clothes to wear and she wasn't in the gym.
Corina wasn't just a good listener, but she also allowed them to have fun, something that was almost unheard of in the Draconian training regime at Deva. In their free time, she played canasta with the gymnasts on the carpet, something that came to be known as "the green grass playhouse" because the carpet inside the dorms was green at the time.

The strictness of the Olympic Training Center at Deva is what made Corina quit after only a few moths on the job. "Every time, I went out on the town, I was being followed. We were under surveillance 24/7. I couldn't be as mean (stern?) as they wanted me to be."
Corina's only regret is that she didn't go to any international competitions with the team. Her maiden name of Corina Tudor was not mentioned in any articles at the time, but Nadia's Ciocîrlia floor routine will remain in the annals of gymnastics history.

Gymnasts at Deva had to follow a strict diet, based only on low fat meets, fruits and vegetables. "I was forced to search their rooms, to make sure they didn't have any food their parents brought them, or any sweets. One day, I found a dried rose inside a vase. I was getting ready to throw it away, and candy started pouring out of the vase. I also found a list in which the girls wrote down what they would like to eat once they went home to their parents' house. It started off with pancakes and fruit jam, and ended with "lots & lots" of fries." "Once Nadia wanted to eat strawberries. We took her car to a village next to Deva where they had a lot of farms. The women who worked there wanted to get their picture taken with her, and afterwards they gave us a few small cases of strawberries. In the evening, I found Nadia sitting crossed-legged on her bed, with one of the cases in her arms. "I ate them all", she told me. "After she was done eating, she ran to the bathroom, and made herself throw up. This was fairly common practice among the girls, especially when they ate too much," concluded Corina.

Back to Articles Page