Romania Gymnastics thread

[rlayt]

Welcome to old age.

 

[makam]

Hey, I’ve always been so impressed with how you guys remember who won floor in nineteen dickety two or that gymnast A used the first 8 bars of that floor music while gymnast b played it backward, etc.

 

[onodian]

how you guys remember who won floor in nineteen dickety two

That’s cause WE WERE THERE

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I think it could be to do with the way in which following the sport worked before widespread internet access. You just had access to a lot less. So you’d have your tapes of whatever coverage mainstream TV deigned to provide, maybe articles from mainstream press that you’d kept and some people had subscriptions to specialist magazines too. That was how to follow elite gymnastics. It was more concentrated.

So for example I was obsessed with Atlanta, and must’ve watched my BBC tapes hundreds of times. That was the only coverage I had access to. There may have been a nascent gymternet then, but I didn’t actually know what the internet was and would’ve had no way of accessing it if I did. So the way in which I consumed top level gymnastics was just… rewatching those tapes. And so it’s seared on my brain in a way that nothing from the internet era is. That lack of choice.

 

[RAFIKI]

Completely agree. I only had the floor final, the gala and a highlights programme to get me from Atlanta to Lausanne. Those tapes are battered!

I could probably tell you every score, recite any commentary or describe the IG layout on any competition from 1996-2004 (I found the gymternet in 2002, until then it was just IG’s website). After that it gets fuzzier. During our lockdown gymnastics zoom watch parties I realised how much I’ve forgotten from competitions I actually attended

 

[MaryClare]

I definitely notice when watching full competitions from a few years ago that you miss so much when watching live on television, let alone live in person.

 

[Denn]

LOL, no it’s because I just felt like (a) it was a weak final and (b) the winner was a fairly unknown athlete who is clearly far from being best in the world.

 

[Passion]

Donatella Sachi removed Catalina Ponor from podium training.

Cătălina Ponor are interzis să se apropie de lotul gimnastelor române - focuspress.ro

Un episod revoltător s-a petrecut sâmbătă la Campionatele Mondiale din Belgia: Cătălina Ponor, una dintre marile campioane ale României, nu a avut voie să se apropie de componentele lotului României. Patrick Kiens, coordonatorul reprezentantelor noastre, ar fi făcut o reclamaţie către Donatella...

focuspress.ro

 

[KristyJ]

Just as a heads up that last link gave me a virus warning (antivirus blocked the site because of it).

 

[onodian]

ok I am very lost. Can someone narrate the whole accusation? Silivas was screaming at Barbosu together with someone else? And Ponor trying to coach the girls on the side? I mean the last one could be nothing or pretty abusive, depending on the “coaching” we’re talking about I guess. If she’s just giving tips I don’t think they would have had her restrained

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

What is wrong with these people?

 

[Passion]

How I understand it is some fans/media/former athletes don’t want the Dutch coaches coaching the Romanian team. So they’ve been posting hostile things online/writing articles tearing apart the athletes from Deva (now coached by Kiens) and only support Voinea (coached by her mother in Bucharest.)

Alina Alexoi is a Romanian journalist who has been writing negative things putting down the Romanian gymnasts and insisting that Voinea is Romania’s only hope for years. Alexoi, Daniela Silivas, and Camelia Voinea are close friends. At Worlds when the Romanian team was talking to media Barbosa declined taking questions from Alexoi (because of her prior abuse.) Alexoi started screaming at Barbosa that Barbosa is trash/bitch and telling the other gymnasts to stay away from Barbosa. Since then only Kiens has been doing interviews.

Ponor is not at Worlds with the Romanian delegation, she is there as the FIG athlete representative. During podium training she walked up to the Romanian girls and started telling them something (don’t know exactly what.) She says she was just asking them questions about their training, Kiens says she was coaching them to do something else, either way Kiens complained to FIG and Sachi removed her from the floor.

Silivas comes into the drama because after quals she posted on Facebook that the Romanian team just got lucky and are only going to the Olympics to participate. Then there’s a picture of her, Alexoi, and Ponor all having lunch together.

Basically all the talk about Camelia Voinea manipulating things for Sabrina and getting lineups changed (Preda kicked off UB at Euros) …it isn’t just her. She has the “old guard” still involved with Romanian gymnastics working with her to promote Sabrina as #1. The other Romanian gymnasts get in the way of that, so they’re attacked. They didn’t want Romania to qualify a team, they wanted “the Dutch coaches” to fail and only Sabrina in Paris.

 

[MaryClare]

Yeah, you’re all team Shush now aren’t you

 

[arabiandoublefront]

…How I understand it is some fans/media/former athletes don’t want the Dutch coaches coaching the Romanian team. So they’ve been posting hostile things online/writing articles tearing apart the athletes from Deva (now coached by Kiens) and only support Voinea (coached by her mother in Bucharest.)Alina Alexoi is a Romanian journalist who has been writing negative things putting down the Romanian gymnasts and insisting that Voinea is Romania’s only hope for years. Alexoi, Daniela Silivas, and Camelia Voinea are close friends. At Worlds when the Romanian team was talking to media Barbosa declined taking questions from Alexoi (because of her prior abuse.) Alexoi started screaming at Barbosa that Barbosa is trash/bitch and telling the other gymnasts to stay away from Barbosa. Since then only Kiens has been doing interviews.Ponor is not at Worlds with the Romanian delegation, she is there as the FIG athlete representative. During podium training she walked up to the Romanian girls and started telling them something (don’t know exactly what.) She says she was just asking them questions about their training, Kiens says she was coaching them to do something else, either way Kiens complained to FIG and Sachi removed her from the floor.Silivas comes into the drama because after quals she posted on Facebook that the Romanian team just got lucky and are only going to the Olympics to participate. Then there’s a picture of her, Alexoi, and Ponor all having lunch together.Basically all the talk about Camelia Voinea manipulating things for Sabrina and getting lineups changed (Preda kicked off UB at Euros) …it isn’t just her. She has the “old guard” still involved with Romanian gymnastics working with her to promote Sabrina as #1. The other Romanian gymnasts get in the way of that, so they’re attacked. They didn’t want Romania to qualify a team, they wanted “the Dutch coaches” to fail and only Sabrina in Paris.

That’s horrible.

 

[onodian]

wow this is almost russian figure skating level drama right here

 

[Dex]

…How I understand it is some fans/media/former athletes don’t want the Dutch coaches coaching the Romanian team. So they’ve been posting hostile things online/writing articles tearing apart the athletes from Deva (now coached by Kiens) and only support Voinea (coached by her mother in Bucharest.)Alina Alexoi is a Romanian journalist who has been writing negative things putting down the Romanian gymnasts and insisting that Voinea is Romania’s only hope for years. Alexoi, Daniela Silivas, and Camelia Voinea are close friends. At Worlds when the Romanian team was talking to media Barbosa declined taking questions from Alexoi (because of her prior abuse.) Alexoi started screaming at Barbosa that Barbosa is trash/bitch and telling the other gymnasts to stay away from Barbosa. Since then only Kiens has been doing interviews.Ponor is not at Worlds with the Romanian delegation, she is there as the FIG athlete representative. During podium training she walked up to the Romanian girls and started telling them something (don’t know exactly what.) She says she was just asking them questions about their training, Kiens says she was coaching them to do something else, either way Kiens complained to FIG and Sachi removed her from the floor.Silivas comes into the drama because after quals she posted on Facebook that the Romanian team just got lucky and are only going to the Olympics to participate. Then there’s a picture of her, Alexoi, and Ponor all having lunch together.Basically all the talk about Camelia Voinea manipulating things for Sabrina and getting lineups changed (Preda kicked off UB at Euros) …it isn’t just her. She has the “old guard” still involved with Romanian gymnastics working with her to promote Sabrina as #1. The other Romanian gymnasts get in the way of that, so they’re attacked. They didn’t want Romania to qualify a team, they wanted “the Dutch coaches” to fail and only Sabrina in Paris.

Aaaand done with fwo of my fave all time gymnasts. very dissapointed in Silivas & Ponor for their extremely poor behavior. Done with Sabrina as well, I know it is not HER fault. She should divorce her mother and start working with Patrick :fu:

 

[Angelika]

Don’t get me wrong I love my Rombots but Sabrina needs to get a new coach rather than her Mother!!

 

[onodian]

I mean, ponor might have been just giving tips, so I’m not defenestrating her until something a little more substantial appears. Silivas looks really bad in this story

 

[MaryClare]

I mean, ponor might have been just giving tips, so I’m not defenestrating her until something a little more substantial appears. Silivas looks really bad in this story

She might have but it’s still completely unprofessional for an athlete rep to do so. Was she going around giving tips to everyone? Not to mention extremely undermining for the coaches

 

[onodian]

She might have but it’s still completely unprofessional for an athlete rep to do so. Was she going around giving tips to everyone? Not to mention extremely undermining for the coaches

As an athlete rep, for sure, yes. We’re kind of discussing her as a Romanian here, no? Granted i don’t really know what an athlete rep does