These are some of the fist statements about the result in Rio, at the Olympic qualifier tournament, where the Romanian team placed 7th out of 8 participating teams.

Adrian Stoica, president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation: “I can not give statements now, I must clear my mind after what happened. The girls, this is how much they trained, this is what they showed. They missed. The boys, they too missed, but they fought greatly. They exceeded by 4 points the score of the 2015 World Championships, but there were other players, other countries too. After this pre-Olympic tournament we all should draw the lessons and get to work ” [source]

Octavian Bellu: “If a scapegoat is really wanted, I’m offering myself. No matter how you look at the situation, still Bellu and Bitang are guilty. The result was predictable. These girls who had to overcome their limitations went there injured, with infiltrations, old injuries and others were coming back after long breaks. Catalina Ponor helped as much as she could. I kept saying from 2000, and from Atlanta, things will start to shut down. Atlanta was the limit. In 2012, in London, if not for the return of Catalina and Sandra, things would have been as bad, “said Octavian Bellu.

[…]

“From February 17 I am retired. We will not return to the team. I’m sorry that I came back now, but it was at the request of the older gymnasts to come and help them. But I had no one because they were mostly at the hospital. Deva will take the lead and I trust them. ” Octavian Bellu ended. [source]

Mariana Bitang: “There are numerous explanations. I do not know if now is the time. As I have no official capacity at the federation or elsewhere, I am speaking for myself now.

There were a lot of problems at the outset. We noted with sadness that we were not asked in December to work (with the girls) because they were more in hospitals or (doing) recovery. I’m not the one who has to find solutions. We have been saying for more than 10-15 years that nothing comes from behind. We tried to convince the authorities, but I knocked on door closed. Now we are doing a campaign selection with a private partner.

Probably the gymnast that will be in best shape at the time will be chosen. I have an appreciation for both gymnasts, they are undeserving of the association with this moment. And a special appreciation for Catalina Ponor, who still took the highest scores now. That does not mean I opt for Catalina or Larisa”. [source]

Alin Petrache, President of Romanian Sports and Olympic Committee: “It is a disastrous result. It’s the worst time for Romanian gymnastics in 48 years. I have not missed any qualification so far. It is a moment quite hard and difficult. There are always solutions. I do not know what it would the return of Belu and Bitang mean because they have been there with the title of volunteer coaches. I do not know what the title of volunteer coaches means.

Voluntary means that you are not paid, but this means you have some obligations. This is what I read in the law of volunteering. I think the federation should have established since yesterday, when they missed the qualification, what will we do with the three athletes who will go to Rio, Drăgulescu and two ex officio. Then they must switch to a long-term project, which hasn’t happened in Romanian sports for 26 years. I am talking at the level of many federations that have problems and have gaps in training” [source]

Paul Ziert, Publisher of the International Gymnastics Magazine:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ROMANIAN WOMEN’S TEAM

I want to shout it out loud and clear that it was not solely your fault that the Romanian team did not qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. In fact, I don’t think it was your fault at all. You were simply pawns in a very ugly game of power and egos. It bothers me deeply to watch totally irresponsible adults make very poor decisions for young people in this world. Who in their right minds would have structured the qualifying of the team the way it came down? How is it even possible to make such poor decisions at the administrative level to put these lovely and talented young women in the position that they found themselves in Rio this weekend. For at least 40 years, it was always which medal would the Romanians win not whether they would even be there or not. OK, the draw for both the Glasgow Worlds and the Rio Test Event couldn’t have been worse; nevertheless, a sound strategy with input from everyone involved should have negated any unlucky draw. Instead, the Romanian hierarchy pushed the big RED button and the panic set in at all levels. I have lost so much respect for Octavian Belu, Mariana Bitang and the Romanian Olympic Committee. Socially, I like Octavian and Mariana, but how egocentric and stupid can they be to have stepped into the situation the way they did!! They are far from being miracle workers. How can this team function properly when they have been coached by 3 different sets of coaches in the past 5 months? How can Belu and Bitang take over the coaching of this team after Glasgow and not travel with them to Rio. What message does that send to this largely inexperienced team of talented young women. One does not need to be a PhD in Psychology to know that their not going would easily bred thoughts that this team was an embarrassment to them. They were inferior to the great teams they had coached to Olympic glory earlier in their careers. A team in trouble needs to know that everyone involved is accountable for the results. Had this team been shown respect and unconditional love, they would surely have performed better and thus qualified. Anyone who has been touched by the texture of the Romanian culture and people knows and feels how special these young ladies are. My thoughts and love are with each of them as they shoulder the blame of a fiasco where they had no representation in the decisions that led to this failure!!!’‘ [source]

Mariana Bitang answers Petrache and Ziert:

“Unfortunately, at the team level, there was an outstanding number of health problems. Girls were at hospital and at the doctor’s rather than in the gym. It is a system problem. If we do not turn our heads to create a school for coaches, to keep our coaches in the country, to pay them appropriately, to invest at beginner level, where nobody invests … I see that Mr Petrache has more knowledge than we know that (he claims) we have contracts with a firm, “said former coach Mariana Bitang on Realitatea TV. Alin Petrache, the president of the Romanian Olympic Commitee said that “we supported as much as we could and as much as we were asked to support this phenomenon called gymnastics, we have the national Olympic training centers for juniors, which we continue to look after.”

Mariana Bitang said that other countries like Australia and Belgium, (placing) better than Romania, have invested in gymnastics. The coach made a remark about Alin Petrache mentioning that: “Romanian sports awaits him in the grass as promised at the start of his presidency of COSR, but he didn’t really come down here, at least if we look at Romanian gymnastics.” Mariana Bitang continued: “He speaks about centers, it’s good to be focusing on the centers for juniors, but equally the national teams need support. It is unacceptable that only support from COSR were several months allowance for Catalina Ponor. So they need to be closer to the people in this sport- athletes, coaches “. Once he was alerted about the statements of Paul Ziert, Bitang said: “I spoke with Nadia this morning, only Mr. Paul Ziert is totally wrong. (…) It is absurd to accuse someone that they were not there with the team as long as we were not in the team when Glasgow happened and at this time we had a quality consultant, of support from outside, it could have been anyone, because you should not hide this that at the team there were two coaches left in the staff. They had many difficulties. “

Alin Petrache said after several observations about financing the Romanian sport, that this is now hit at its core, as he said to the moderator of the show, because ” This is the federation that has brought Romania’s most Olympic medals.”. Bitang replied to this that “Moreover, Mr Petrache if gymnastics brought most medals Olympic sport, I think it would have been normal to accept a dialogue with those inside the Romanian gymnastics. But that’s the big problem, I think the result was predictable, it had been anticipated for several years that we would end up here. Now, we must rebuild a system that can continue to produce. ” [source]

Octavian Bellu, again: “In a way, the result from Rio was predictable. The necessary continuity in preparation in order to achieve the objectives for a specific calendar year let alone the pre-Olympic one, was not there. We have tried in the past four months to give a helping hand as volunteers, but there was no one to help as the girls had serious health problems, some already chronic, (and they) were more on hospitals, on recovery, on the massages from physiotherapists than in the gym training. Then the last minute injuries appeared – Larisa Iordache, even Jurca with an ankle problem, that doctors in three countries cannot explain. The absence of these gymnasts has created a big void in the structure of a team that wants to qualify for the Olympics. Larisa brings good scores on all four apparatus, although it might not have been enough to be sure of qualifying. These things I could not solve in the short time I had available. As you know, we no longer activated lot from last year in May (he means 2014). We tried to be close to this team who remained at half capacity after the Glasgow Worlds, when there were only two coaches left”

We cannot continue forever with a group of gymnasts that are training for big competitions just on the basis of their age. () that are in the team because are of “Olympic age” as they say. They need to select in the team a larger group of kids, to have competition, but we don’t have that big group to select from. We have said after the competitions in Sydney and Athens that things will not work forever because of the individual brilliance of someone like Andreea Raducan, Simona Amanar or catalina Ponor, that were able to accumulate a lot in a brief span of time.

Regarding who should compete in Rio: “ The federation will name the athlete. Perhaps they will make a selection from this small group of gymnasts and the one that will have a great potential on each event, ie to four apparatuses for the all around, will go to Rio. I do not know if they will consider the value for one event or multiple events. That remains the prerogative of the federation. I hope you understand that you can not go to a competition of large-scale infiltrations, palliative treatments with this attitude (of trying to catch up at the last moment), “he said. [source]

Daniela Silivas: “ Sad day. Hopefully now they are willing to change something. Changes were due ten years ago”. [source]

Translations by: Bea Gheorghisor

Photo by: Nadia Boyce

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