| 19. Sabina Cojocar, former Romanian National Team Member (1999 - 2003), gymnastics. There are three articles presented. a. Originally published on February 18, 2003 in ‘Monitorul de Sibiu’. The dream of every athlete is to take part at the Olympics. It was Sabina Cojocar's dream too. She trained for 14 years, she got into the top of Romanian gymnastics, but she left Deva through the back door. She was sent away unjustly, before the Olympics in Athens. Besides, for two years, the Sports Medicine Institute and the coaches of the team forced her, to take medicine she shouldn't have been taking. In the autumn of 2000, Sabina went to a routine medical check-up at the Sports Medicine Centre in Bucharest, where she was diagnosed with Hypercholesterolemia. She was prescribed the medicine Zocor, which she had to take every day. Well after a year of taking the medicine, Sabina discovered that children shouldn’t use the medicine. "I felt weaker and weaker. I couldn't train like the others. I thought that it was because of the medicine and I read the instructions out of curiosity. That's when I saw I shouldn't be taking it. When I told the trainers, they didn't say a thing. They only warned me that I should keep on taking it. I skipped a day sometimes but they forced me to take it every day. Besides, it's a very strong medicine and when you don't take it for a day and then take one the next day, you can't do a thing," said Sabina. As written in the instructions of the medicine, Zocor has negative side effects. Sabina complained more and more about muscle pain and moreover, in the instructions it stated that it was forbidden to administer it to children, it's a medicine for adults. "My muscles and ligaments hurt so badly. I couldn't train in a normal way. I was in a permanent state of being dead tired. When I told them that I wanted to stop taking this medicine, because I felt worse taking it, they told me not to whine, that the medicine was really expensive. They told me to take it for a little while longer and after that, I would start feeling better," confesses Sabina. The coaches were happy that Sabina was forced to leave Deva at the beginning of the year. "They constantly repeated that the success had gone to my head. That I didn't want to train normally. I really couldn't do it anymore. They didn't want to understand me. When I saw that they continued to have a go at me, I decided to quit. They could hardly wait until I told them I didn't want to continue anymore. They made me phone the Federation to tell them that I had retired. They were happy that they didn't have to send me out but that I had retired myself. That way they could wash their hands off me," said Sabina sad. Not even 12 hours after she told she wanted to retire, Sabina was kicked out of Deva. "Mrs. Eta, the nurse, came to me in the morning and asked for my equipment. She told me to pack my bags as soon as possible and leave. I didn't have the chance to do anything. I wanted to leave in the best of terms but they didn't let me. I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye to everyone. They even mocked about with me until the last second," she confesses. Sabina reveals that she got hit when she trained with the national team. Other gymnasts too. However, she considers herself lucky as she got of more lightly than some of her teammates. "I was a little lucky. I got beaten up but not terribly. I got slapped. Once, after I got hit more seriously, my father came. He told Belu that if he would hit me again, he would take me home. He needed me back then so he didn't slap me that hard anymore. Anyway, other girls suffered terrible beatings. It's a hard life there," confesses the gymnast who was, at a certain point, the future star of Romanian gymnastics. Escaped from the ordeal of the national team, Sabina isn't afraid anymore to talk about the training in Deva. She says that during her entire career, she came second. Andreea Raducan was always first. "Andreea was favoured. Indifferent to what she did, she was embraced. They took her into account, with me they didn't. When there was a competition where you could earn money, I couldn't go. Andreea had to go. I have nothing against her. I'm angry that the coaches didn't treat everybody the same way, said Sabina. The same case as with other gymnasts, the leaders of the Federation wanted to change her age so that she could enter the big competitions quicker. "I know that they wanted to change my age so that I could compete at an important competition. I heard the news and I told them that I didn't agree with it. Because the person in question couldn't do anything, everything stayed in a phase of discussion," concludes Sabina. Not only Sabina took the medicine Zocor. Oana Ban was in the same situation but she gave up taking the pills long ago. "Oana needed to take Zocor too. After some time, they told her that she didn't have to take them any longer and that everything was ok," said Sabina. All Sabina wants at the moment is to get some peace. She doesn't want to hear about scandals and problems. She wants to start a new life, a more peaceful life than the one that she had until the age of 17. b. This article appeared in ‘Ziarul de Iasi’ on February 19, 2003. The coaches of the national team were accused of taking money from the gymnasts. Three former gymnasts, Alexandra Marinescu, Sabina Cojocar and Simona Amanar, have declared that the coaches of the national team requested 30% of their prize money from competitions where they received money. Cojocar had declared that, after the Goodwill Games in 2001, she gave the coaches $4000 from the money she received there. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation knows that the coaches receive a part of the money that the gymnasts get, specifying that this isn't valid for the Olympics, Worlds and Europeans. In Prosport, Mr. Vieru said that the Federation doesn't interfere in this so the subject doesn't interest him. Coach Octavian Belu declared that there's an agreement with the gymnast’s parents that the coaches get a part of the money that the gymnasts win at certain competitions. Belu specifies that he has proposed to make this understanding legalized: "For the last 3 years, this has been discussed at the level of the Federation, Ministry for Youth and Sports and at the Olympic Committee. It's only valid at competitions where they offer awards in prize money." Belu also added that the statements of the three former gymnasts were made "in context of the allegations of a gymnast who had problems with her cholesterol." Cojocar declared that she had problems with her cholesterol but that the treatment that she was prescribed for the last 2 years had negative side effects and deteriorated her physical condition. "Because I had problems with my cholesterol, they prescribed the medicine Zocor, that I took for a year. That was replaced by another medicine, however with similar properties, Lipobay, that I took for almost a year too. I started to feel an increased tiredness, a weakness of the muscles, so much that I didn't have the strength for enthusiasm or to get onto an apparatus," said the gymnast. She declared that the treatment was only stopped because of her parents. "I told them in Deva about the side effects and how I felt, but they didn't want to understand it and they asked me to continue the treatment that was however stopped by the request of my parents." As far as Sabina's statement is concerned, Belu declared that he wasn't surprised: "Every time when a gymnast retires, I expect anything. I wait until she comes out with revelations, most of all when the retirement is forced and doesn't take place in conditions that the gymnast would wish for. I can take articles in which declarations of other gymnasts have appeared and you can see that there's a similar childishness. I think that the fact that gymnastics had very good results, has disturbed some and they do anything to destroy this phenomenon." Late yesterday evening, Mariana Bitang announced that she will resign because of the endless scandals that dominate Romanian gymnastics. "I can't handle the endless line of gymnasts, who, after they retire, sling mud at us," said Bitang for television channel 'Antena 1'. It's very likely that coach Octavian Belu will follow her example. c. This article was originally published on February 25, 2003 in ‘Prosport’. The medicine Lipobay, that Sabina Cojocar was prescribed, has been taken of the market in August 2001 as 58 deaths have been connected to the medicine and the number of deaths has increased to over 100. One of the most important side effects of Lipobay is the destruction of muscle tissue, incompatible with the high activity of a gymnast. Other side effects are sickness and feeling full just after eating, which could help gymnasts to maintain a low weight. Sabina Cojocar said that she misses gymnastics in Deva. "It's normal to feel this way. Gymnastics is in my blood, it's part of my life," confessed Sabina. A couple of days ago she started doing physical training in Sibiu and says that she doesn't exclude this alternative of returning back to Deva. Sabina: "Who knows? Even I am thinking about it but it could only be possible if Mr. Vieru will take back his words. He said that I didn't want to be with the team," confessed the gymnast, who added that she didn't want to cause a scandal through her late declarations. "I don't know how the coaches will treat me if I would return, however, I only wanted a little understanding from their part." |