This week we had the honor of talking with ex-2000 Olympic all-around champion Andreea Raducan. Raducan’s gold medal was taken away from her after she tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine. The drug was in the cold medication she was given by the team doctor the night before all-around finals. Her book, The Other SIde of The Medal is now available in English. She talks about her start in gymnastics, life at Deva, that infamous night and what she’s up to now. She also busted some long standing urban-gymnastics-myths! We also talk about what we are thankful for this week in NCAA. Remember to check back here on Thursday and Saturday for quick hits from Winter Cup in Las Vegas.
Buy her book in English on her Official Website.
Check out her interview with The Couch Gymnast.
Ryan in Lexington, Kentucky answered our GymNerd Challenge of the Month! We asked you to take someone’s gymnastics meet virginity this month. Here is Ryan with his friends from adult gymnastics at their very first gymnastics meet! Keep the photos coming!
University of Minnesota beat Michigan and was ranked in the top 10 until this week when they fell to 13.
Iowa’s Anton Gryshayev Rings- 15.80 1st place
Kentucky’s Alexis Gross does a double front half out.
Wonderful interview and insights to the Raducan situation.
I just wanted to bring up one thing about Khorkina (because this is what we gymnastics fans do!).
In the team finals she NAILED her vaults, and then went to the bars and fell on her Ricna (which was a new skill for her.)
So, IMO, I don’t think we can say that it was her devastation from the vault that caused her to fall off the bar…especially since she was able to deliver a wonderful beam routine.
We’ll never know…I wish for Khorkina’s sake that we did know, and if she fell then she can blame only herself…
Anyhow, I just wanted to bring that up, since it’s what I usually post on the gymternet about this situation.
And for the record, I am a Khorkina fan 🙂
An important note sir. Thank you for that!
For a footnote, Raducan spoke of her early life at Deva. There is a multi-part, subtitled documentary on Youtube, ‘Secrets of Deva,’ which shows a bit of life there and features a very young Haidu among others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDxmeQd5-9w
Love that documentary! We will mention it this week. Thanks!