| 10. Silvia Stroescu, former Romanian National Team Member (1998 - 2002), gymnastics. Original article a. appeared in ‘Gazeta Sporturilor’ on March 13, 2002, followed by article b. that was originally published in ‘Prosport’ on March 20, 2002. a. Almost 4 days ago, Silvia Stroescu, had to move out of the boarding house in Deva. The decision came from the team psychologist, who decided that Silvia couldn't stay together with the other girls because she's injured and could influence their preparation for the European championships negatively. The room where she has been moved to is 30 metres from her old room and Silvia has been forced to stay in her room all by herself. Taking her away from the team has affected her very much. Silvia's mother, Adriana Stroescu, explained the situation precisely: "I discussed this with Silvia on the phone and she told me that she feels rather lonely. She can only meet the girls in the evening, after they finish training." After a medical exam in Germany, doctors recommended Silvia to take a break for 6 months, and to follow a recuperation program. Interesting is that Silvia, specified by Mrs. Stroescu, does this program every afternoon but without being supervised by any medical staff. The instructions are written down on a piece of paper, from Germany, and Silvia is doing her best to follow it exactly but it's all written down in English. The first signs that Silvia had health problems, appeared last year, when she experienced the first pain in her back. With clenched teeth she competed at the World Championships, winning a gold medal with the team. Mrs. Stroescu: "In December, when 'Gazeta Sporturilor' reported that Marius Urzica and Sabina Cojocar were leaving for Germany to be examined, I phoned Mariana Bitang and asked why Silvia couldn't go to Germany too, because she had the same medical problems as Marius. She phoned the Federation and that's how Silvia went to Germany." It would have been a more normal procedure if the Federation would have realized this by themselves and not after Silvia's parents asked the question. "When Marius was sent away for recuperation, to Baile Felix, nobody told us anything. I think that Silvia could have benefited from a period of recuperation at a health spa too," adds Adriana Stroescu. However, Adriana Stroescu says that the representatives of the club Steaua haven't been at all interested in Silvia, even though she was nominated as the best gymnast of the club in 2001. "After the articles appeared in the papers about her health problems, it would have been normal that they would at least have given us a phone call to ask how Silvia was feeling," adds Adriana Stroescu. On his turn, the vice-president of the club, George Boroi, mentioned: "We didn't receive any request from Silvia to help her in a medical plan. If Silvia or somebody from her family would have told us that she needed a thorough medical examination, we would have given her the support without any discussion. For example, we have helped Loredana Boboc immediately when she came to us and asked for support. We tried to get the opinion of Nicolae Vieru, head of the Federation, about his situation. He was in Deva yesterday and said: "I can't talk right now, I'm in a meeting. Call me back later." Later, however, his mobile phone was shut off all the time. b. "The Federation needs to realize that the girls who have been sent home, will have to integrate into their families again. It's another way of life. What's going to happen about school? It doesn't work this way, especially because of the years spent in Deva, the girls have been brainwashed. Shall I'll tell you something about the hardness of the trainers? My daughter told me how Silvia Stroescu was hit by Belu in the face. She was doing her exercise on beam and he said something to her. She got emotional and she made the mistake again. At that moment he hit her. The next moment, Silvia who has personality, went out of the gym crying and she called her parents. They came to Deva immediately and wanted to take her away from there. It was a complete scandal, but well hidden. Even then, the Stroescu's proposed to the trainer to bring in a psychologist for the team but they didn't accept it, said one of the gymnast's mother. At the moment, Belu is left in Deva with a junior team. The new 'troops' have entered a strict preparation program made by the trainer and some simple rules were already taken. "Not one of you have permission to watch television until after the Europeans. The mobile phones will stay in the trainer's room," Belu ordered. The girls that remain in Deva, however, have serious medical problems too, a lot of them were operated on. Florica Leonida, Oana Petrovschi and Elena Velicu are wearing knee braces and Alexandra Eremia has pain in the area of her pelvis and pain on her right knee. It seems that sending home the team has started a new scandal in Romanian gymnastics. The first to rebel are the parents of the girls that have been sent home. One of them said, preferring to remain anonymous, that "everything that is happening now is just a revenge of the trainers. It's strange. Before these decisions, we were called to Deva for a meeting about the Europeans and they didn't mention anything about not going. Then all of a sudden they are sent home. I think that all this talk about not being disciplined is just a pretext. The trainers are blaming everything on the gymnasts, as they have done all the time, because they want to leave. The ones that are still there in Deva have health problems too," declared one of the mothers. The parents say that the strangest decision of Octavian Belu was to film the way the girls were notified about being sent home. "He filmed the moment that the girls were notified about the new rules. Painful! After all that they had been through, was this masquerade necessary? The meetings of Mr. Belu were endless monologues. I wonder what will be on the video cassette now. I repeat, the two trainers want to leave so they blame everything on the girls. It's a disgrace. If he would hand in his resignation, he would have problems with the Romanian Olympic Committee and I'll tell you why. Because he would have to give them some of the money back, the Olympic bonus about which they made such a scandal," said the woman. |