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Octavian
Belu interview at TVRM
 Monday
evening, Octavian
Belu was the special guest in a live
program at TVRM, a Romanian TV station owned by the largest
private University in Romania (Spiru Haret).
The TVRM program was called
"The Performance Fascination"- "Fascinatia
Performantei", the producers were Mugur Popovici and
Bianca Vacariu.
Just few points from
Octavian Belu's interview:
- in Romania, doing exercise or fitness is more about social
life than about sport. People like to say "I was at gym"
or "we met at the gym hall".
-about Nadia: she will remain a reference name in the history
of gymnastics.
-we have very few girls to do top gymnastics, we can't afford
to loose any of them
 During
the live interview, people could ask their questions through
a special phone number (the one you may see listed on screen
in our screen captions).
Mr. Valentin Zarnescu
(from Galati city) asked by phone when our girls will have
huge earnings, like in soccer, as Mutu have (famous Romanian
soccer player, now having his final days at London Chelsea).
Octavian
Belu: Girls in gymnastics will make
good earnings only when they will have the possibility to
sign and have professional contracts (is not allowed now).
Gymnastics is not enough interesting for many people, we still
can't make people came and attend smaller contests or shows.
There are only few countries, like Japan, where people love
to come at any gymnastics event. Soccer is a social event,
big money involved. They are not interested to be part of
Olympics, because of low earning they can get from.
Octavian
Belu: we are special guests in West
gymnastics demonstrations, because they use our girls as top
stars on their shows advertisements, this is how you can attract
people come to any gymnastics event.
Octavian
Belu: in soccer, they have longer careers,
a player doing this sport for many years, in gymnastics their
careers are short.
 Reporter(the
blonde lady) : ...and Silvia
Stroescu, for example, told me that girls from gymnastics,
like she, would not like very much to have their life exposed
in media all time, like soccer players have.
A big surprise come during the program.
A famous Romanian coach, Mr.Benone Pereteanu, former coach
of Alexandra
Marinescu, make a live phone call. He asked for help,
because since next day, girls from Bucharest "Triumf"
Gymnastics Club does not have nay more a place to train.
Despite that hall (and the whole complex, including
hotel, restaurant, pool) was build for sport and owned by
the Sport Authority, somebody have succeeded to transfer the
ownership or having a strange contract for management to a
private company. They have asked the "Triumf" Gym
club to pay like 300 000 Lei / hour and taxes (like $10) to
keep training there and they don't have such kind of money.
( Few years ago, the former athletes restaurants , near
the gym hall, was transferred in same way, maybe because of
corrupted high sport officials and their idiot's bosses, to
a company which have transformed into one of the most expensive
Bucharest restaurants. Problem is, that whole building was
made from people taxes to help sport development, but the
corruption is widely spread into Romania).
 Octavian
Belu said that the National Agency for
Sport and Federation should be asked about this and to help.
He said that there are only few quality gymnastics halls,
large capacity, Olympic-alike, to remain in Romania, like
those from Deva city, Onesti, Baia Mare (but where half of
it is used for other sports, not for gym exclusively any more).
One of the girls parents from Triumf Club,
Mr. Dan Zidaru from Bucharest, make his own phone call to
the TVRM and said the girls were asked to come next days with
their training suits instead of gym costumes, because they
will make outdoor exercises and jogging-since they don't have
an indoor facility any more for the moment.
Octavian
Belu: despite some heavy critics, especially
from media side, the old centralized training system have
proved to be the most successful. They try to use it worldwide.
They have full time training camp in Spain, they have regional
centers in France, they do regular, monthly, one week training
sessions in USA at the national training center in Texas.
Octavian
Belu: gymnastics is a good business
in Romania. Girls get paid top money, they went out with 200
000 Euro (like $250,000) , with cars and apartements.There
are some benefits which the State give you as gifts.The little
gymnast have become, after a successful career, a very important
person in society.She end up having a status.
Another guest made a phone call, Mr.Mihai Neagu from Bucharest.
He said he was angry reading those stories about flees at
Deva those children were not from the Olympic team but from
the local gymnastics Club and the journalists have crossed
the line writing about this like it was connected with the
team.
[Our note: it was a little bit "overscored",
but the basic idea was true somehow, because the girls use
to eat in same club restaurant, they may do come close to
each others at outside playground for outdoor running or any
other outdoor sessions]
About gymnastics being hard to reach the
top level, Octavian
Belu said that "is a voluntary
sport, nobody force anybody to do it. You could saw back at
Athens Olympics that Oana
Ban did not compete in finals at her own decision."
"Keep in mind there are no top results
or Olympic medals without sacrifices. You have to give up
your social life, almost to everything else, if you want to
succeed."
"Romanian Gymnastics top results were
a mix of events and hard work of mostly forgotten coaches
like Bela
Karolyi, Cosma, Goreac and many others..."
Romanian Gymnastics News Archive.
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