Alexandra Bărac --Retired by 16

Alexandra Bărac was forced to leave the national team at Deva just a few weeks before the World Championships due to a hernia.

"We're sorry, but we cannot give her a permission slip allowing her to continue competitive gymnastics. She can keep competing, even at the highest level, but only if her parents sign a waiver, which would say they assume full responsibility for any injuries she may suffer." Those were the words that effectively ended Bărac's gymnastics career, when a doctor form the Sports Medicine Institute in Bucharest coolly explained the situation. She was one of the most promising gymnasts on the current national team.

Originally from Sibiu, Alexandra Bărac is 16 years old and has been at Deva for 3 years. Before Octavian Belu asked her to join the senior national team, she trained with the juniors in Onesti. She was one of the most talented up-and-coming juniors and the team coaches had high hopes for her. Her short career was always marred by bad luck. When she was preparing to leave for the European Junior Championships in 1999 [I assume they mean 2000], Ale, as her teammates call her, suffered a crisis of appendicitis, and had to have emergency surgery, thus missing the competition. She recovered, and trained for 2 more years alongside Andreea Răducan and all the other gymnasts on the national team, hoping to represent Romania at the WC in Ghent. This wasn't meant to be, since a medical check-up in Bucharest revealed a herniated disc. Up until the diagnosis, the only major international competition Alexandra appeared in was the Hawaii ITC. Following that competition, American fans already put up almost 10 Internet sites for her.

The only way Alexandra could continue her gymnastics career was for her parents to sign a waiver, assuming full responsibility for anything that happened to her in the event of an injury. Neither her parents, nor Alexandra herself would agree to this and the youngster packed her bags two weeks ago, leaving behind her teammates at Deva and her dream to become a great gymnast. "Our decision was perfectly normal. I didn't want to continue under these conditions. I couldn't risk everything, even though there have been gymnasts who did just that and became great champions, without anything ever happening to them, " said Alexandra. The beautiful 16-year old thinks the doctors did the right thing, even though doctors are often-times pressured into clearing athletes, in order to keep promising gymnasts on the team. "Maybe things would have been different if I were to start doing tests when I first noticed something was wrong. But coaches don't always believe you if you tell them you don't feel well," she added. Her first problems emerged at a summer meet against Great Britain, when she fell during a routine. She was in pain, but kept training, aggravating the injury. The days went by, and with them Alexandra’s chances of making her first World Championship team got smaller and smaller.

Alexandra is back in Sibiu now, where she lives with her parents. Alexandra’s sister used to live home, but she left for Bucharest , where she will be attending college. "She left, now I'm back," Alexandra added with a laugh. In fact, Alexandra is a strong willed girl and she doesn't seem overly-affected by the unexpected setback. At least, she's not showing it. She appears relaxed when she speaks, regrets being unable to train at Deva, but she never questions her ability to find something else to do with her life. "I don't know exactly what I’ll do, but I have to find a solution. If gymnastics wasn’t meant to be, something else will be," said Ale. When she transferred to a local high school from Deva, Alexandra wanted to go attend a sports high school. After failing to receive her medical clearance, the local sports HS did not accept her, and she ended up in a fine arts high school. Her sister joked that "you might get to be a painter now."

The only regret Alexandra has is that she sometimes feel forgotten by her former teammates. "Maria (Olaru) called me a couple of times, but besides her, no one really asked about me, even though I've had some serious health problems." Alexandra just got back from a 10-session acupuncture treatment in Bucharest. She's feeling better and hopes that her back pain will disappear once she stops exerting any physical effort. Once the back pain is gone, so should the painful memories of the two competitions she missed in her short-lived career, a career that ended before it ever had time to begin.

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