Two months before the World Championships in Ghent, the Romanian national gymnastics team is facing another crisis. For the past two days, assistant coach Mariana Bitang has received house calls from doctors in Deva, and the gymnasts who are a few pounds overweight are looking for excuses to get out of training. The team coached by Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang is the defending Olympic champion. Romania hasn’t lost the world team title since 1994.
PS: Mrs. Bitang, what is happening at Deva?
MB: What could be happening? For now, I’m bed ridden. The doctor left just a
few minutes ago.
PS: Are you sick?
MB: Yes! My nerves are frayed! I’m just too tired and stressed out. I’m
almost at the end of my rope. I’ve been getting piracetam, calcium, magnesium
and other shots. I have to take medication through shots lately because taking
it orally doesn’t have much of an effect anymore. My doctor told me I have to
leave this place as soon as possible.
PS: Why are you so upset?
MB: The World Championships are only a few weeks away and these girls don’t
know what planet they’re on. They went to Bucharest for their physicals, missed
two days of training, and came back weighing 6 lbs more.
PS: And they can’t be brought back to ideal weight
before Worlds?
MB: It is possible, but in order to do that, they need to work.
PS: And they don’t work?
MB: I think we’re witnessing a new phenomenon in gymnastics. When you tell
gymnasts to work, they refuse to do it. After the recent death [of Alexandra
Huci] at CSS Deva, there have been strange things going on. Today, two of
the girls have headaches. I tell them to go to the dorms and rest. The day’s
already gone. The next day, it’s the same story. I send them to their room. The
third day, it’s stomach pains. There’s nothing I can do about it, so I leave
them alone. And before you know it, we’re only working 2 days the whole week,
and waste the other 5.
PS: Maybe they are sick
MB: Look here, you can’t call one of them fat anymore without having her
burst into tears. However, the risk of injury is greater when they are
overweight. Their backs are under a lot more stress then. These are sacrifices
thousands of girls have made until now, but they think they only have rights.
Now they’re billionaires and they have cars. That’s just not fair. There’s a lot
of money invested in them.
PS: They’re still kids
MB: Billionaire kids. I gave up many years of my life to coach. I stayed
with them and treated them like my children. This cannot go on.
PS: Is there anything to worry about before Worlds?
MB: I’ll wait for Octavian Belu to come back. He’s in Australia with
Cojocar and Ulmeanu right now. We’ll see what needs to be done. If
they [the gymnasts] don’t wake up soon, this could be serious. They think
putting on the Romanian team leotard is enough to make them world champions.