Romanian gymnastics became a “powder keg” immediately after the delegation’s return from the World Championships in Jakarta. On October 27, two days after the end of the event in Indonesia, gymnast Denisa Golgotã, a double European medalist in 2018, publicly revealed that she had filed a complaint of physical and psychological harassment by a coach of the women’s national gymnastics team, a complaint which, she assured, was ignored by the Romanian Federation (FRG). “The people I train with in the gym harassed me and tried to make me give in psychologically. Unfortunately the Federation ignored it,” said the athlete.
Golgotã accused of having suffered discrimination within the team, as well as serious threats: “The girls came several times and told me what they had heard about me: that someone would punch me in the face until I was disfigured and that I would need cosmetic surgery.” Although she did not mention any names, the insinuations point, according to the sports media, to Camelia Voinea, a member of the federation’s technical team and mother of Sabrina, Denisa’s partner. Two other Romanian gymnasts, Mara Ceplinschi and Anamaria Mihãescu, also reported the same situation to the federation.
Romania, still living in the shadow of Nadia Comaneci, the “Montreal fairy” who blew up the electronic scoreboard by getting the first perfect ten at the 1976 Olympics, finished the Jakarta World Cup without medals, a record it maintained for a decade. “We also don’t hide that perhaps we made a mistake, it’s true. But I think the mistake would be much bigger if we had interrupted the preparation program before a race”, explained Ioan Suciu, president of the RFG, to the newspaper as.ro.
A few days after the revelation, on November 5, two former gymnasts trained by Voinea, 55, also came to the fore, but on condition of anonymity. Both live abroad. “Even now I’m afraid of Camelia Voinea. I’m 28 years old, I went abroad and maybe people will laugh, but I’m still afraid of her. I was traumatized,” explained one of them, whose desire to become a gymnast began at the age of 4 and a half. “After 8 years of ordeal, at the age of 12, I no longer wanted to continue with gymnastics. What was the reason? Camelia Voinea,” she added. And he went deeper: “I got a whip, I don’t know where. It was made of rubber or some similar material. If you didn’t do something right, bam! He would hit you with the whip on the legs or hands. He would hit us like we were animals… We were 8, 9, 10 years old and I still remember it like it was yesterday.” “I had bruises especially on my legs. I told my mother that I washed myself, that I succeeded, just so that she wouldn’t see the signs. I immediately put on some tights and that was it. If I noticed anything, I lied by saying that I had fallen from the bar,” the gymnast, who said she has suffered from depression and anxiety for many years, confessed to Romanian media Golazo.ro. “I had eating disorders, even periods with suicidal thoughts; the traumas she left me with will haunt me for my whole life, not just during those eight years with her,” he said.
After these statements were disclosed, on the same day as their meeting, Voinea indicated in a message that the charges against her had expired, denied having used “whips and barbaric methods” in training, and accused the gymnasts of trying to denigrate her. “There’s no such thing in gymnastics, with whips and stuff! Now we end up with some prescribed cases and accuse X, Y. So anyone can talk about anyone,” the coach said. “Believe me, I didn’t get a slap from my coaches and I lived in the era of communism,” he added.
But on Tuesday another scandal hit gymnastics. The media Golazo.ro published some old videos in which you can see how Camelia verbally abuses her daughter. According to the records, Sabrina Voinea, now 18, was doing the exercise with parallel bars, under the supervision of her mother, when she made a mistake and fell. At that moment, Camelia approached her in a threatening way and, as if she was afraid of being hit, Sabrina quickly walked away crying and covering her face; although he later resumed practice. Sabrina was 8 years old when those images were recorded.
In another video, the girl makes another mistake and is told that she can no longer train. “Mom, I can’t take it anymore! I want someone to come to my side. I can’t take it anymore! I’m hitting myself!” Sabrina says between sobs. After Camelia urges her to repeat the exercise on the parallel bars until she gets it right, Sabrina tries to convince her mother: “I can’t do it anymore, my ribs hurt!” “Go to hell! Let’s go!” his mother replies. Frightened, Sabrina tries to change the exercise again, to which Camelia replies: “What can I do if you’re stupid? Come on, repeat it without stopping!” The daughter falls again from the parallel bars and without stopping crying she hears: “Mom, I can’t do it anymore! I’m completely beaten!”
After the videos were released, Camelia claimed that it was a coordinated campaign against her and that the federation had been aware of the images for two years. “I’m sorry that sometimes I raise my tone, that I can have moments of anger, nervousness or severity. But which coach doesn’t do that? That’s the profession, and to get to the top there are also difficult and tense moments. I don’t think there is a great champion who says that his career has only been rosy,” he said. “But it’s a long road from there to absurd accusations such as the beatings or abuse of my athletes,” he continued before underlining that he will defend himself against these “slanders” in court.
Shortly after, Sabrina posted a message on Meta’s social network, surrounded by trophies and medals and in which she reads a text. “I am very sad when I see that false things about me and my mother appear in the world of gymnastics, and that the press publishes them without asking us anything or asking our opinion first. No one forced me to do anything. I have never been forced or abused,” she began. “Behind me are the trophies obtained with the ‘go back and another repetition’, results of which I am very proud and which I could not have achieved without sacrifices, injured hands, tears, but I accepted them”, she continued before defending her mother: “She is the only one who knows the way, has the preparation and knowledge necessary to keep me at the top of the best gymnasts on the planet”.
Gymnast Camelia Voinea earned a perfect ten on floor in 1987 during the team competition at the World Championships, won a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and retired that same year.
