Deva traditions

Downtown Deva shows off two statues, one of king Decebal and another of Roman emperor Traian. All the locals pass by the statues without a second look, while the tourists stop by and admire them for a few seconds before turning their heads in the direction of Cetate Deva, situated on a hill nearby. This is familiar scene for National team members, who know Deva just like their own backyard.

The Deva Sports High school is located at the foot of the hill. The porter from the entrance door stops everyone who wants to go inside “If you want to see the gymnasts, go past the track and turn right”, he explains. The national senior team is across from the school building, only a few feet away from the gym. Andreea Răducan and her teammates spend their time between meets in these two buildings. The training schedule is draconian. They train 8 hours a day. Every morning they get up at 7:15 go to school for 2 hours at 8:00, then it’s back to practice.

ProSport’s team found the gymnasts in the make shift classroom located on the first floor of the dorms. It was time for math class and their teacher, Ms Groza was explaining quadratic equations. The gymnasts followed the example carefully, then answered some questions. “If these girls had more time to learn, they’d do better than kids who are in school every day,” explained the teacher nicknamed Animal X squared (Animal X is a Romanian freestyle hip hop band) After class, the girls go out in the schoolyard to take a walk. “That’s what we do every day. The only fun things we get to do are watching Tv and reading fan mail letters. We read all of them,” says Răducan. She lives on the second floor, and has her own room, full of stuffed animals. “There’s about 400 of them. They keep me company. Look, I use this pig as a pillow. It’s So soft!”, she explains with a straight face.
The entire building is spotlessly clean and everything looks great. Every apartment of the senior team members has a huge bathtub in it, which is in fact a Jacuzzi, used for rehabbing injuries.

Loredana Boboc and Andreea Isărescu live on the next floor. In their (liottle0 free time, the two of them like to listen to local band LA. Next floor is where Carmen Ionescu, Alexandra Barac and Andreea Ulmeanu live. Alexandra’s nightstand has a plastic bottle on it. “That has holy water in it. I drink that every morning on an empty stomach”, she says. Every room has at least two religious icons in it. They go to church every Sunday morning, and then it’s back to another week of training.

Every room inside the Olympic Center At Deva has a weighing scale because the girls weigh themselves every morning. Andreea Isărescu found yet another use for it. "I have about 5 kg (10 lbs) of 500 lei coins ( about 2 pennies). I keep them inside a metal box. I hope to gather twice as much as I weight during my stay here.” Then, to prove she is not exaggerating, she pours the contents of the box onto the bed, causing a coin flooding.

Sabina Cojocar & Silvia Stroescu are rooming together. Their little nightstand has different colored threads and needles that Sabina uses. “I do (detailed) embroidery. I have enough patience to do it and I like it. Usually, I prefer scenery and icons”, confesses the almost embarrassed Jr European Champion. Some of her artwork is already displayed in the school hallways

Back to Articles Page