Marian Dragulescu: "I Have Time to Get to the Stage Where I'll Coach the National Junior Team and the National Senior Team"

Quite a few Romanian sites are posting stories about Marian Drăgulescu's new career as a coach. First there was the ProSport story we quickly referred to in our news roundup, whose headline ran, "Kindergarten Cop" (a reference to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of that name). Then Adevărul interviewed Drăgulescu about his new career, and finally Confidenţial asked him some questions about life in general. We have translated the Adevărul article for you, as well as a few questions from the Confidenţial interview. Enjoy!


(Photo: ProSport)

"I want to take it to a higher level step by step"

Marian Drăgulescu is working alongside his former teammates, Marius Urzică and Dan Potra. Less than a week after he announced his retirement from competitive gymnastics, the former champion is back in the gym.

Adevărul: How was your first day at work, Marian?

Marian Drăgulescu: It's tiring, because there are a lot of kids and you constantly have to keep your eyes on them, just in case, God forbid, something happens. As you've seen for yourself, there are kids of many different ages, and that's what kids are like. They run, they jump... Other than that, I had a good feeling about it. This is my environment, with the sole exception that I'm not training anymore myself. Yes, I'm still moving around a bit, because you can't just suddenly quit like that, and afterward you have to explain things to them...

Q: Can you remember what it was like when you were their age?

A: I started doing gymnastics when I was seven. I've been an athlete for 21 years... I started at Triumf, as it was called at the time, and I also trained at Lia Manoliu. I was selected at school. That's what we will do too if we don't get enough children. They probably noticed I was energetic and liked getting around, so they took me. As I remember it, it was all a game at first. We did rolls, we jumped, we hang from all the apparatus, we climbed onto the horse, but after a while it became a "systematic game", and we got some compulsory elements, and we played truant...

Q: What was the crucial moment in your career?

A: My happiest moment was when I was selected for the junior team at age 14. Until then I'd been transferred from one group to another, because many groups were being abolished because so many boys were leaving the sport. In 1995 I was selected for the junior team and I felt quite proud, because apparently I was a good gymnast. I don't remember exactly when I won my first medal at a national championship, but I won my first European medal in 1998. [Gold on pommel horse, silver on floor and bronze on floor at the Junior European Championships.]

Q: What did your parents say when you joined a gymnastics club?

A: My Mom was happy, as she had done gymnastics herself. I hail from a sports-loving family. My Dad used to practice several sports: boxing, body-building and wrestling. And that's not all; he was also a musician... My two brothers also practiced sports - gymnastics and soccer - and they were quite talented, but they didn't stick with it. So basically everyone around me supported me when I was young, taking into consideration that I went into an systematic program to practice my sport and had a strict schedule. I didn't spend time anywhere else.

Q: Why did you quit in order to coach children?

A: I didn't quit. Actually, this is just the first stage. If I had gone straight to Mr. Pascu [the new head coach of the national men's team] to help him out with the national team, it would be as if I'd skip a few stages. This is where kids take their first steps. This is where we give them their basics, and we need to do that on a step-by-step basis. Mr. Pascu, too, used to coach much younger boys. I'm starting at the bottom, only to arrive at the top. I've only just begun. I have time to get to the stage where I'll coach the national junior team and the national senior team.

Q: What are your objectives with these kids?

A: I want them to win domestic competitions and medals at international competitions, but what I'd really like and what I'm hoping very much is that they will make the national junior team and then the national team.

Q: What will you miss most?

A: If I had changed my environment, I would have said gymnastics, but this way I'll stay in the gym just like before - just in a different position. We will be able to recreate the atmosphere we had on the national team in this gym, because I'm working alongside Marius Urzică and Dan Potra, who have also been hired to work here. As for competition nerves, I will still have those, but definitely in a different way and probably more intensely than before, because things won't depend on me anymore, but on those I've coached. My work will be seen in their routines.

Together with the rest of the Dinamo team, Marian Drăgulescu will coach 22 boys, aged between 6 and 14. "For the moment we have enough kids to coach. If, at any point, we won't have enough kids, we will start visiting schools. And on top of that there are groups of girls," says the multiple champion.

On his first day on the job (Thursday, January 15), he worked for a good five hours, from 1 to 6pm. "That will be my schedule, more or less, but we'll take it in turns, which means I'll also work on the mornings sometimes."

He would like to be remembered by the world in years to come for his five medals at World Championships and his three Olympic medals. "I hope people will remember I was a gymnastics champion," says the current coach.


(Photo: Adina Blaj/Adevărul)

In addition to the Adevărul interview, Romanian magazine Confidenţial recently published an interview with Marian Drăgulescu. Sadly, we don't have access to the whole interview, but Gazeta Sporturilor kindly reprinted a few questions from it:

- If you could swap lives with anyone, whom would you pick?
I like my life and I wouldn't swap with anyone or anyone in the world.

- What would you like to invent?
I'd like an invention which would help all children to be born healthy.

- What's the heaviest blow you have received?
My daughter's health problems.

- What do you have that you wish you didn't have?
I'm content with everything I've achieved and with everything I have.

We're glad to hear Marian is content...

Meanwhile, in Non-AYOF News...

--- ProSport reports that Marian Drăgulescu just taught his first class as a coach at Dinamo Bucharest (Aurelia Dobre's old club), where his former teammates Marius Urzică and Dan Potra are coaching as well. According to ProSport, Drăgulescu's goal is to create a gymnast who will be better than himself. Good luck with that, Marian!

--- Adevărul reports that Sandra Izbaşa and Răzvan Şelariu were voted the Romanian Gymnastics Federation's Athletes of the Year 2008. Şelariu was second on floor at the 2008 Europeans; Izbaşa is the Olympic champion on the same event.

--- A few days ago we reported that Diego Hypolito had lost his sponsors. Now Dutch newspapers are reporting that the same fate has befallen Suzanne Harmes, whose sponsorship contract with the Dutch Olympic Committee has not been renewed due to a lack of noteworthy achievements in 2008 (Harmes won the national title and qualified to the Olympics, but achieved little else). This means a substantial loss of income for Harmes, which is all the more worrying because her new training arrangements (she recently switched to a club in the north of the country while continuing to live in the south) call for frequent traveling and overnight stays at hotels, and because she has a child to look after (she is a single mom).


Suzanne Harmes with her son Lugano
(photo: Merlin Daleman/NRC)

--- Finally, just in case you were wondering what Dutch, Belgian, and German gymnastics fans get up to at the end of each season, here's your answer: they attend gymnastics galas. A while ago we posted a video with highlights of a Dutch gala. Now the Flemish Gymnastics Federation has posted a video with highlights of the gala which was held in Ghent in late December. There are some quick (very quick!) glimpses of Sandra Izbaşa, Daria Zgoba, Aagje Vanwalleghem, and Benoit Caranobe, as well as an acrotumbler hitting a triple back, a rather unique pair ribbon routine, and some impressive-looking acrobatic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. We've been told the Ghent gala was better than the Dutch galas, but we don't think the Belgians were treated to the Chinese men's four which performed at the Dutch galas and wowed audiences with their human rope-skipping.

It's Official: Marian Drăgulescu Has Retired

ProSport reports that Marian Drăgulescu has officially retired from competitive gymnastics. The six-time world champion on floor and vault, who just a few months ago seemed to have found a new love for the sport, announced his retirement today because of ongoing back issues. He will become a coach at Dinamo Bucharest.

Here's the ProSport story.


(photo: Amy Sancetta/AP Photo)

"The Moroccan" Says Goodbye!

"I don't want to risk anything. I have to be grateful for everything I've achieved so far. It's a sad moment, like all moments which involve the end of a road. It's hard, but you have to know when to quit," confesses Marian Drăgulescu, age 28.

Once more Romanian gymnastics has lost a champion after the Beijing Olympics. First Steliana Nistor retired, and now "the Moroccan" is ending his career, also because of health problems. "It's too risky to go on. Therefore I have chosen to become a coach. This month I'll start working with the children's group at Dinamo, alongside Marius Urzică. I'm not at all apprehensive. I've worked with children before, in America," says one of Romania's most decorated athletes.

After a hectic 2008 during which he failed to win a medal at the Olympics but made headlines because of his trouble at home, Drăgulescu is ending his sporting life. The main reason for his retirement is his problems with his spine; he has been diagnosed with serious cervical discopathy.

"I don't want to act as a figurant in competitions, but I don't want to spend my life in a wheelchair either. It hurts [to say it], but that's the truth," he continues.

Drăgulescu will remain close to the national team, whose new head coach is Nicuşor Pascu, the godfather to his daughter Beatrice. "I'll go and give Nicu a helping hand."

"My goal is to produce a national champion in the age category I'll be coaching" - Marian Drăgulescu, former gymnast



Drum bun, Marian, şi multă baftă!

Meanwhile, in Romanian Men's Gymnastics...

As of this week, the Romanian men's team has a new head coach. Hugely experienced coach Dan Grecu resigned at the end of last year after guiding the Romanian team for 24 years, which must be some kind of record. His successor is a familiar face: Nicuşor Pascu, who was a member of the Romanian team in the late 1980s. From 1998 until quite recently, Pascu coached the Swiss men, but his contract was not renewed at the end of 2008. So now he has returned to Romania, to take on a team which has been very successful over the last few years but seems in need of a boost now.

The following story was posted by Adevărul (The Truth) on January 5.


Nicuşor Pascu (photo: ProSport)

Nicuşor Pascu: "I Want to Form a Team"

Any day now Nicuşor Pascu will sign the contract which will make him the new coach of the national men's gymnastics team. His dream is to get the boys on the podium as many times as possible. After spending the better part of a decade in the country of the cantons, where he led the Swiss national gymnastics team, Nicuşor Pascu is coming home, to helm our own national team.

At age 29, Nicuşor Pascu went to Switzerland, to lead the national gymnastics team of that country. Ten years later, Romania needs him, in the very same position, and he has responded affirmatively to the calls, even though he received much more lucrative offers from other countries.

He is aware that he will earn less money, but that does not bother him. He has lived abroad and has reached that maturity which comes with a realization that there is more to life than being well off. He has a happy family, but home, to him, means Romania.

"Even though I was far away, I've always remained close to my country, to the athletes, and I know what's going on in Romanian gymnastics," Pascu says.

Official head coach from this week onward

For the time being he is only theoretically the new coach of the national senior men's team. He is currently waiting for the Romanian Gymnastics Federation to sign his contract.

"On January 4 I'll be in Bucharest, and on January 5 I'll meet with the Federation and the boys. I hope we can finish all the paper work then," says Nicuşor Pascu, who spent Christmas and New Year in Romania, at his parents' place in Braşov, with his wife and three daughters.

In the old days, he would pack his bags after such a vacation and return to Switzerland, but now the new coach will leave the rest of his family to do that.

"My wife and the girls will stay in Switzerland for a while, while I sort out some things here. This week I'll have to find us a place to live in Bucharest and talk to the French School, where I'd like my girls to continue their education," Pascu explained.

Pascu's wife is a gymnastics coach herself, originally from Oneşti. Unfortunately they can't work together, because the Romanian Gymnastics Federation has axed the position of choreographer. [Figures. We wouldn't want our gymnasts to look artistic, would we?]

A team in the true sense of the word

Nicuşor Pascu has his work cut out for him, but he is not afraid. Just a little nervous. He is the successor to an excellent male gymnast and coach, Dan Grecu, who managed to raise Romania's male gymnasts to the level where they could win medals at international competitions.


Pascu's former coach, Dan Grecu (photo: ProSport)

Pascu himself passed through the hands of the legendary coach, but as a former pupil, he wants nothing more than to outshine his mentor and bring Romania as many medals as possible.

But his first step, before any medals can be won, will be to form a team out of the fifteen gymnasts he has at his disposal, by which he means getting "understanding, friendship and mutual help" from all the members of the team. Naturally, his pupils will also be required to observe discipline.

"Over the last two years, Romanian men's gymnastics has regressed. I think that what the boys were lacking during that time was the motivation of doing gymnastics for results, for the country," said Pascu, who competed for Romania himself twenty years ago.

Awaiting Marian Drăgulescu's decision

European vice-champion [on high bar] in 1989, Nicuşor Pascu became a coach at the tender age of 21. He regrets that he retired from gymnastics so early, but is now trying to find what he left unexploited in himself in his pupils. This is also how he discovered Marian Drăgulescu, whom he coached as a junior, between 1994 and 1996.


Marian Drăgulescu (photo: AFP/Getty)

He would like to meet Drăgulescu once more in the same situation (him being the coach and Marian being the gymnast) a decade onward, but the decision does not belong to him. "I'm in touch with Marian. I'm leaving it up to him to say what he wishes to do now, how he's feeling. I'm awaiting his final decision, any day now."

Nicuşor Pascu and Marian Drăgulescu are friends outside the gym as well. Marian's daughter is the goddaughter of the coach's family.

Note: Other sites have reported that Pascu's contract has by now been signed and that he has started working with the team. There is no news yet on whether Marian Drăgulescu will stay on the team. After Beijing, Drăgulescu said he would retire at the end of 2008, but a few months ago, having experienced some success in the German Bundesliga, he said he might reconsider that decision. Stay tuned...

International News Roundup

We have a whole lot of news for you, plus a minor scandal which we'll post in a separate entry. Amazingly, hardly any of this week's news is injury-related!

--- The Belgian Gymnastics Federation has finally released the results of the Top Gym Event Finals. Click here to see them.

--- Much to our surprise, Sandra Izbasa didn't win Romania's Athlete of the Year Award. The honor was bestowed instead on Alina Dumitru, a judoka who won Romania's first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics. You can watch Dumitru accept the award (in a horrible ensemble featuring blue tights) here. Sandra doesn't appear in the video.


Isabelle Severino (photo: L'Equipe)

--- We can't find the press release anymore, but it's been confirmed that 2005 European floor champion Isabelle Severino, who was forced to retire from competitive gymnastics half a year ago after tearing her Achilles tendon, has been elected to the Directorate of the French Gymnastics Federation. We're not sure what Severino is going to do at the FFG, but it's great to see she'll stay involved in the sport. It sounds like she'll have her work cut out for her. The FFG has announced that it aims to win 3 to 5 gymnastics medals at the London Olympics, which will take some doing, we think.

--- International Gymnast reports that Oleg Ostapenko has accepted a job offer from the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, after also having received offers from the Russian and Brazilian federations. From January onward he'll be Ukraine's head coach. It is hoped that Ostapenko, who coached Lilia Podkopayeva to the 1996 Olympic all-around title and spent the last 7 years working with the Brazilian national team, will give the Ukrainian women's program a much-needed boost. Meanwhile, Ostapenko's Ukrainian co-worker at Curitiba, Irina Ilyashenko, will go on coaching the Brazilian girls.


Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge, where Yuri van Gelder will perform a routine

--- Two years from now, Dutch ring specialist Yuri van Gelder will be seen doing something quite spectacular: Performing his ring routine while suspended from Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge, so as to promote the 2010 World Championships, which will be held in Rotterdam (also site of the 1987 Worlds), October 17-24. The stunt was announced yesterday at a press conference given by the championships' organizing committee. Reportedly, Rotterdam Alderman Lucas Bolsius, who seems keen to promote the championships in an unusual way, said to Van Gelder at the press conference, "Let's make a deal here, right now. Around the time of the 2010 Worlds, you'll be hanging from the Erasmus Bridge. We'll make sure there's a set of rings suspended from the bridge. This great footage will be shown the world over, both on TV and on YouTube. That's my dream. I'm going to make all the necessary arrangements with the Assistant Secretary." Van Gelder was up for it: "I'll definitely give it a shot. It would be a unique situation for me." It was later revealed that the two meant it and had in fact agreed on the stunt before the press conference.

Meanwhile, in China...


Xiao Qin (photo: Sohu)

--- Remember we told you a while ago that the Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, where Cheng Fei and Yang Wei learned the tricks of the trade, had received such an influx of new students after the Olympics that the club didn't have enough coaches to go around and had even asked Cheng Fei's father to become a coach? Well, it seems not all Chinese clubs are doing that well. Last week Sina posted an article about Xiao Qin's former club, the Zhongshan East Road Sports Academy in Nanjing, which back in the early '90s received 1,500 prospective students a year but saw its popularity plummet in the late '90s, among other things because of the Sang Lan accident. Since then, while sports like basketball, tennis, and table tennis have become or remained popular, the club's gymnastics program has dwindled, and apparently not even Xiao Qin's achievements have been able to restore it to its former glory. The Head of the gymnastics club recently told Sina that the club had distributed 400 recruitment leaflets to local kindergartens after the Beijing Olympics, only for 3 (yes, three) parents to show up with their children for the club's selection day. We're guessing Xiao Qin is a less appealing role model than Yang Wei and Cheng Fei then. Could it be because nobody really understands pommel horse?


Li Shanshan in Beijing (photo: Getty Images)

--- Meanwhile, the Guangdong Institute of Physical Education, which gave us Yang Yilin and Li Shanshan, has been commended by the local authorities. Sina reports that the Zhongshan National Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (how's that for a mouthful?) has donated 800,000 yuan ($116,300) to the Institute to help it to produce more champions. We look forward to seeing what else will come out of that program.

And then there's some German news...

--- Financial Times Deutschland, which takes a surprising interest in gymnastics, has confirmed that vault specialist Matthias Fahrig will be the only German competitor at the World Cup Final. Fahrig was ranked 12th after the World Cup circuit but will be allowed to compete because Leszek Blanik and Anton Golotsutskov have retired. We're confused now - didn't the FIG just say Golotsutskov had confirmed his presence in Madrid?


Matthias Fahrig, who has since thankfully stopped bleaching his hair (photo: Peter de Jong/AP Photo)

--- The Schwaebische Zeitung has published Fabian Hambüchen's response to his world-record-breaking performance on the high bar at last weekend's Straubenhardt match. "I wasn't planning on doing it," Hambüchen said, referring to his new Pineda, a G-rated part which will carry a 0.8 value under the 2009 code. "Before the one-touch warmup my father asked me if I felt like doing the Pineda at the start of my routine. I was feeling good, so I thought to myself: 'Come, this is a good place to give it a try.'" Hambüchen missed the skill in warmup, but hit it beautifully when it counted. "Totally cool. It was fantastic to do the thing right at the start. I felt so happy [when I got it right], and you're just really proud afterward. At the end, when things get tough, it's just a matter of trying to get through your routine." But the fact that he had hit that routine didn't mean he was fit enough to go to Madrid: "I couldn't tell you now if I could do that routine the same way again tomorrow. But I can help Straubenhardt even if I do a slightly less difficult routine."

--- As to Marian Dragulescu, according to the same article in the Schwaebische Zeitung, he's giving the World Cup Final a miss because "the Bundesliga is simply more fun." Wow!

The Moroccan Won't Give Up...

You'd think Marian Dragulescu would be a bit depressed after all the bad press he's had over the last few weeks (see here and here). You'd be wrong, though. The Moroccan, as Dragulescu is known in Romania, is feeling great. So great, in fact, that he may well reconsider his decision to retire from competitive gymnastics.

ProSport reports that Dragulescu is doing extremely well in the German Bundesliga, where he represents KTV Straubenhardt, Fabian Hambüchen's club. In the club's first three competitions, Dragulescu competed on floor and vault, obtaining the league's top scores on the latter event: 16.500 in the first two competitions, and 16.300 in the third one. "I feel incredible," Dragulescu told ProSport. "The last two competitions were attended by 1,500 spectators. This Saturday I'll also compete on my third apparatus, high bar. I want to help the team win the national title, because they believed in me and asked me to come and join their team."

Dragulescu is doing so well in the Bundesliga that he'd like to continue his career on the Romanian team, despite his earlier announcement that he would retire. "I've discussed it with the Federation people, and they've told me they're awaiting my decision. In December, after the last Bundesliga competition, I'll know for sure." He went on to say, "I'm having trouble retiring. I live for this sport. If it were up to me, I'd stick around for a few more years, but we'll see how it goes. Right now I'm feeling great, so I've told myself I can go on for a bit longer."

According to ProSport, Dragulescu is not actually living in Germany at the moment. He continues to train twice a day with his former teammates at the Lia Manoliu gym in Bucharest, and flies to Germany every weekend to compete for KTV Straubenhardt.

More on the Dragulescu Case

The Dragulescu domestic violence scandal appears to be big news in Romania. According to ProSport, both Marian and Larisa have hit the talkshow circuit to tell their versions of the story. Meanwhile, others are weighing in on the scandal. ProSport quotes an anonymous teammate of the former world champion's, who claims trouble in the Dragulescu household had been brewing ever since the beginning of 2007: "At the beginning of 2007, [Marian] changed. He had great trouble concentrating on the elements he had to do, and then there was the accident at the Europeans. After that it seemed like something broke inside of him. He told us he wasn't sure he could handle the situation anymore, that things were getting worse and worse at home, and that he couldn't deal with the arguments with Larisa anymore. He was actually afraid he might do something stupid."


Photo: ProSport

The teammate made it sound like the violence at the Dragulescus' home got quite bad at times, with both parties taking blows: "He often came to the gym covered in scratches and bruises. He was sad and didn't want to talk to us. We all told him to stay single for a while, to get his act together and then to see what to do next, but he told us that his children were the most important thing to him and that he didn't want to do anything to hurt them."


Photo: ProSport

Meanwhile, Newsreport claims money (or rather a lack thereof) was indeed at the heart of the scandal. According to the Romanian website, Dragulescu borrowed heavily from his friends and coaches prior to the Olympics to be able to afford his deaf daughter's €40,000 ($51,000) operation in Vienna, just before the Games. He was confident he would be able to pay his creditors back soon, as the reward for an Olympic gold medal was about €100,000 ($128,000) . Sadly, he then failed to medal in Beijing, thus plunging himself into debt. Seeing his former wife use money raised by well-wishers for his daughter's operation for her own ends, he lost his temper and lashed out.

Dragulescu will soon get the opportunity to forget about the scandal and focus on gymnastics instead. He is about to depart for Germany, where he will take part in a few Bundesliga competitions for KTV Straubenhardt, Fabian Hambüchen's club. Here's hoping his results in Germany will go some way toward restoring his reputation.

Marian Dragulescu: The Scandal That Is Rocking Romania

We weren't sure whether to report this story at first, as we greatly respect Marian Dragulescu the athlete and didn't want to impair his reputation any more than we had to. However, since the story is big news in Romania, we decided to go ahead and publish it. Parts of it, anyway.

It appears that Dragulescu's estranged wife Larisa, with whom the vault specialist continued to live together for the love of their children (Beatrice Maria, aged 3, and Richard Alexandru, aged 1) despite having obtained a divorce in March, checked into a hospital a few nights ago with a black eye, claiming that her husband had beaten her up, and not for the first time. The incident resulted in massive headlines in Romania: "Dragulescu, accused of brutally assaulting his wife!" (ProSport), "A champion's blows: Marian Dragulescu beats his wife in front of the children" (Ziua), "Marian Dragulescu assaults his wife" (Mediafax), etc.

Details of the case are now forthcoming. Among other accusations we won't repeat here, Larisa is quoted in ProSport as saying, "He had beaten me before, even when I was pregnant, but this time he kicked me with his foot. After beating me, he said he didn't want me anymore and was going to kick me out of the house with the children. This time I won't forgive him anymore; things have already gone very far. So far I've always forgiven him because I loved him."


The Dragulescus in happier times (photo: ProSport).

According to Mediafax, Marian Dragulescu has admitted to lashing out at his ex-wife after discovering that the latter had spent over half of the money donated by third parties for the treatment of the couple's deaf daughter Beatrice Maria on clothes and shoes. "We had about 75 million lei ($25 million) in our account. Then she went and bought herself shoes, dresses, and boots. I spoke to her about it on Saturday, after which I went to a wedding. When I came back on Sunday, I was very tired and planning to go to bed, but she came to me and started to argue. She really had it in for me, probably because I had gone to the wedding without her. From 9PM to 2:30AM she kept yelling at me. In the end I lost my patience and couldn't bear it anymore. I'm not a violent man and I'm very sorry about what I've done. I was afraid because the children were there, and that's another reason why I'm very sorry," Dragulescu told Mediafax.

According to Mediafax, Dragulescu denies ever having beaten his wife before last week's incident.

For its part, ProSport had another Dragulescu quote: "I regret that it has come to this. It was an out-of-character thing for me to do. I couldn't bear the situation anymore. Every day there were rows and arguments. I acknowledge this mistake - that I gave her a blow with my fist. Aside from that, absolutely none of the things Larisa has said on TV are true. She just wanted to drag my name through the mud, to make me look like the worst man on earth. We couldn't go on anymore, we were at loggerheads all the time."

ProSport also quoted Adrian Stoica, the President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, who said, "I'm shocked. I'm speechless. It's a difficult moment for the Dragulescus and I hope they have the maturity to deal with it in a dignified manner."

To be continued, we expect.