Romanian Gymnastics Upheaval: Coaches at odds, Gogean resigns in anger

[Passion]

2021 Gina Gogean interview (Gazeta Sporturilor) | Magda

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Gina Gogean, 42 years old, has been with them as a coach for several years, but also in the difficult year of 2020. She is part of the Jr. technical team selected for the program "Country, country, we want champions " together with Lucian Sandu, Cătălin Meran and Cristinel Micu.

^^ So this was the Deva team coaching the juniors, including Ana Barbosu.

 

[Denn]

See post #1 for the full story so far.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Wow thanks, Denn, that’s super comprehensive. I also read on twitter that Silvia, Ioana D, Mara, Ella, Teodora, Crina, and Erica all voted for Grigoras to be their coach. Some of the gymnasts made a joint instagram account where they bash on Patrick and aren’t happy with his history of abuse.

The documented abuse is vague but can be found here:

Turnster Thorsdottir twijfelt aan deelname Spelen: 'Het is Kiens en ik of niet'

De topturnster mag bij centrale trainingen niet met haar trainer Patrick Kiens werken en de bond heeft haar club PAX aangegeven geen samenwerking te willen als Kiens daar trainer blijft.

nos.nl

 

[Denn]

Here’s an article someone translated pretty well. There’s clearly a few errors, but they seem easy enough to figure out based on context.

Gina Gogean, multiple European and World gymnastics champion: "It's an execution, I announce my resignation" | Magda

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[Livi]

Wow, what a clusterf*, once again in Romania.
I must admit, reading Gina’s statement, I do get the feeling that she is really trying to hold on to the past, while gymnastics has evolved. The federation seems to want to make some drastic changes (which I think are necessary) and let go of the past. Furthermore, I’m not a fan of the “I won many medals, so I am a good coach and have all the necessary knowledge”-narrative. Camelia Voinea tends to believe this as well and, well, we all know how that’s going…

That being said, it looks like they have been handling this like they always do: the federation making decisions on their own, never consulting with their coaches, gymnasts and other people involved. Then the new guy comes in, expecting everyone to know that he’s the boss now and all hell breaks loose. I kind of blame him too for poorly handling things (like demanding Gina Gogean to be beam coach only and after she protests, her to be sacked), but we don’t know how this all went exactly.

I hope it’s not to late to get all people involved together and work things out. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with this Romanian team last Euros. I really think they have improved and they looked much more confident. But it’s at least as important that everything behind the scenes is peaceful as well; with the most important thing being the well being of the gymnasts.

 

[onodian]

There is no direct accusation of abuse in this article though. The accusations for Patrick are basically that he “created inequalities (unbalance?) in the team”, whatever that might mean, and that he’s not a team player and a bad communicator. All of which are annoying but not really abuse. Then the next sentence says that these accusations came forward together with a slew of other accusations for a large number of trainers in the sport, which, to be sure, those were the abuse cases, but it doesn’t sound from this article like those included Patrick.

 

[Bob]

Although creating inequality in a team could refer to mental and emotional abuse. Mind games can do hideous things to people, especially if you play one person off against another. I would label mind games as more than just annoying.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Furthermore, I’m not a fan of the “I won many medals, so I am a good coach and have all the necessary knowledge”-narrative. Camelia Voinea tends to believe this as well and, well, we all know how that’s going…

I mean, is it? Obviously Sabrina is a huge talent who hasn’t been in the hands of a sensible coach. Equally, she’s just won Romania’s only medal at Euros and is part of the first full team they’ve qualified in ages. You can imagine how someone who wants to go with the old guard argument would tell it.

 

[onodian]

It is still vague and, while we cannot rule out abuse, we certainly also can’t claim it from that article.

 

[Denn]

The irony is that if Romania focused on simpler, cleaner exercises, they would have been a much more consistent program all these years.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I remember watching that horror show of a bars rotation in 2015 worlds prelims, and someone calculated how much of the deficit they could’ve made up if a couple of them had just accepted the L and not attempted a release at all.

 

[Samxo]

 

[Livi]

I can see where they’re coming from, yes. But Sabrina has an insane amount of talent, which is why she’s been able to do what she does. But her technique, especially on bars, is awful. She’s been winning medal(s) despite of Camelia, not because of.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

She definitely has, I imagine we’re probably all agreed on that. I just think there are multiple ways that story might get narrated in a federation with that sort of cultural split going on.

 

[J175]

What do any of them think this is achieving?

Tbh I don’t understand any of it. If they have separate training groups then go off and train separately, if the federation pays all these coaches to work together they need to bang some heads together and sort it out. They hired Kiens knowing he would take a new approach, either they back him or sack him. And if he is head coach why is he not working at the Olympic Centre? Is the head coach also the personal coach of some team members?

It sounds to me like they don’t know what sort of structure they have.

 

[onodian]

actual acro series on beam to win medals?

Our 2016 bronce medalist aa says hold her drink

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Gina was so ahead of her time.

 

[irichluck21]

 

[gymfan]

Gogean is now back in Deva.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

She looks like she’s explaining how she’s going to wring someone’s neck in that second photo.