\nThe Romanian Gymnastics Federation
\nmade an unprecedented announcement last weekend. It said it no
\nlonger affords to finance the participation of Romanian gymnasts in
\nthe European and world championships taking place this year, two
\ncompetitions that are very important to the qualification for the
\nnext Olympic Games to be hosted by Paris in 2014. In a message posted
\non its official Facebook page, the Federation blames the situation on
\nthe fact that funding from the ministry for sports is 35% lower this
\nyear compared with last year. In this context, the Federation is
\ncalling on national and international donations.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carmencita
\nConstantin, the president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, told
\nAgerpres news agency that the situation is truly serious: The
\nreturn to the ranks of the world gymnastics elite is not possible if
\nathletes cannot take part in the competitions held by the
\nInternational Gymnastics Federation. And at the moment Romania’s
\ngymnastics teams are unable to go ahead with their competition
\nschedule because of a lack of funds.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In
\nrecent years, Romanian gymnastics has, in fact, seen its poorest
\nresults in history. Romanian gymnastics teams did not even qualify
\nfor the last two editions of the Olympic Games, and athletes have not
\nwon a single medal in individual competitions. With the allocation of
\nfunds by the ministry for sports for 2022 taking into account the
\nresults obtained in international competitions, gymnastics therefore
\nsaw its budget cut compared with previous years.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nminister for sports Eduard Novak explained on Facebook that a budget
\nadjustment will be made in June, and the Gymnastics Federation will
\nreceive some additional funding. As for long-term solutions aimed at
\nrestoring Romanian gymnastics anything resembling its former glory,
\nthe minister mentioned the National Strategy for Sports, which is in
\nthe process of being drafted. He says the strategy will seek to
\ndevelop and consolidate a network of regional centres that will
\nimprove performance standards in this sport, based on studies, human
\nresources and experience rather than luck and a handful of
\nexceptional talent.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nimmediate problem of gymnasts’ participation in this year’s
\ncompetitions still remains, however. Even if the federation somehow
\nmanaged to fund their trips, there is little hope that they would do
\nwell in these competitions. In the absence of top specialists, who
\nprefer to work abroad, Romanian gymnastics is in free fall. The
\ncurrent management of the Federation, who were appointed based on
\nambitious promises to consolidate the technical team, have not done
\nmuch to stop this demise and asking for donations won’t make up for
\na lack of strategy for marketing and attracting sponsors. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gymnastics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":122453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[29455],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-109622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-gymnastics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n