| 25. Oana Petrovschi. Romanian National team member, 2001-2003. Article originally published in 'Gazeta Sporturilor' January 31, 2004. |
| Oana gets hold of her medical file The huge medical file from the National Sport Medicine Institute that everybody was fighting over is now in the hands of Oana Petrovschi. All the diagnoses about her are written in chronological order. It states that Oana was diagnosed with a lumbar pain syndrome and was advised to have treatment and rest and to come back for a check up in 3 weeks. "Why didn't they send me back for the check up?", wonders Oana. Then the file mentions her ankle injury and that she has to be in a plaster cast for 3 weeks with a break from training. This diagnose was sent to the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, to the Romanian Olympic Committee and to the club Cetate Deva. That was the period in which Oana had to do giants on bars with a cast and sacks of sand on her other leg. In the same medical file there's a paragraph which says that she resumed complete training on the 12th of May but that on the 15th of May, the back pain reappeared. However, Oana competed at the competition in Holland on the 3rd and 4th of May. Oana: "I don't know who told the doctors at the National Sport Medicine Institute that I only had just started to reassume complete training on the 12th of May. It's probably a mistake." The file also states that Oana has a normal structured personality. Yesterday Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, the gymnasts and the parents had a meeting at the National Sport Agency with the Federation. Octavian Belu: "We want to hurry resolving some things in a document that clearly stipulates the coach-gymnast relation with all aspects, the advantages and risks that the gymnasts run. All the members of the team and their parents have to sign the contract and those who don't, has to meet with the Federation to find another way of training. "We have to modernise and to find other methods too: training at the club, working with personal trainers," suggested Belu. Octavian Belu: "Oana Petrovschi was really difficult to work with because of her behaviour problems. At the National Sport Medicine Institute are files of every gymnast who was part of the team. In her file they mention a personality disorder. It disturbs me that she's hit the woman who has helped her the most. Back then when she refused to train, Mariana Bitang encouraged her to continue." "Her story is hilarious. Everyone who knows a little bit about gymnastics, knows that sacks of sand are being used during training. Nadia Comaneci said that she didn't train with sacks of half a kilo but with ski boots. Moreover, what Petrovschi says, that she was forced to do complicated routines on bars with her leg in a cast is a lie. It's not possible from a physical point of view because you can't rotate (execute rotations) in the air with a weight like that on your leg. Oana only did a couple of giants and after that she landed in the foam pit." He also explains that the gymnasts aren't allowed to eat sweets in their room because if they get sick, they have to know what they ate on that respective day. He also adds that Petrovschi doesn't have any reason to complain about the tension in Deva because performance means stress. Belu: "They whine about stress after being in the team for 2, 3 years but how should I be after so many years of activity? I'm not stressed?" |