Is Romanian Gymnastics Dying?
Following the decision of RGF’s Executive Committee, 8 national team members were sent home -all of them crying. The gymnasts will have to get used to living at home, going to school and a brand new schedule for a period of time whose duration will be both self-determined, but also influenced by the RGF and national team coaches. The Deva coaching staff only has 7 junior gymnasts and 2 seniors to work with. One of the seniors is three-time world champion Andreea Rãducan, who is yet to decide whether she’ll keep competing or not. She was given a two-week grace period to get back to her ideal competitive weight.
GS: Mr. Belu, do you think these girls will make the national team again? GS: Do you welcome this [RGF] decision? GS: You avoided making any comments about the future of Romanian gymnastics thus far... GS: Deva has great conditions and it would be a shame not to take full advantage of them. How come you still don't have a team doctor? GS: On Sunday, you taped the gymnasts as you told them about the decision of the RGF. Why was that?
(Mariana Bintang enters the room, bringing a copy of Romanian newspaper Adevarul. Octavian Belu starts reading an editorial about Romanian gymnastics written by editor-in-chief Cristian Tudor Popescu. Suddenly, the head coach’s good mood is all but gone [The editorial basically said sending the gymnasts home was too harsh, and they were too young not to be given a second chance.])
This article convinced me that it’s pointless to try and differentiate competitive sports from recreational activities and I guess winning World and Olympic medals is the goal of other countries, who look at competitive spots as the highest human ideal, and they cannot be accused of using diabolical [training] programs, based on human suffering and with political undertones, or [programs] formed as a result of old communist ideals. I think any further discussion would be pointless.
OB: Some of them will. The ones who will find -somewhere deep inside- the strength of character to admit they were wrong will be back. Obviously, they need moral support to start again, to follow the established training program. I’m not a cynic, but I need soldiers that can go into battle. I don’t want athletes who think they can be World or Olympic champions, just by wearing a Romanian team warm-up suit. You can’t reach a high performance level by going straight from counting on your fingers to doing integrals and logarithms.
OB: Most definitely! In fact, it should have been made sooner. If we threw away the first rotten apple, we wouldn’t have had to send 8 of them home. We should have followed the rules literally, starting with the first rule that was broken. If this measure would bring about an improvement in [the gymnasts’] mentality of at least 70% -not to say 100%, because that’s almost impossible– then it will reach its intended purpose. The girls’ families will also play an important role in their future.
OB: I can’t be the judge of that. All of the major players have to meet, starting with the RGF, and evaluate the current potential of Romanian gymnastics. Our main goal is still the 2004 Olympiad, and that’s exactly why we need to figure out who are the gymnasts we can count on. Deva could become a selection center, where we could bring all the juniors. I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but [the junior team in] Onesti follows a very different training regime...
OB: Nobody wants to come, and the people sent by the Institute of Sport medicine had no experience. They can’t do their residency while working with the national team. We finally opted for bringing in a therapist specialized in acupuncture because the girls are sent to specialists in Bucharest anyway, whenever they have a major health problem. Besides, we also have a general practitioner who takes care of our daily problems now.
OB: We’re starting to protect ourselves, in order to make sure we won’t be accused later of telling them something that was inappropriate. Or that we told them something we shouldn’t have. We’re starting to be overly-cautious because we are being accused of a whole bunch of things by the media. I would like everyone to understand this is a voluntary activity, that we don’t force anyone to stay on the team and that we don’t make anyone do something they don’t want to. However, we have an obligation towards the people who helped us enjoy these training conditions –which are among the best in the world- to field a competitive team. That’s it. Whoever wants to stay, stays, those who don’t want to stay, quit.
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