|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| MEDIA HEADLINES 25/08/08 |
| (2008-08-25) |
| Last updated: 2008-08-26 15:22 EET |
The 29th edition of the Summer Olympic Games ended on Sunday in Beijing with Romania getting the poorest results of the past 56 years: 4 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze. The sports papers bitterly write about the counter-performance of Romanian athletes who, back in 1984, at the Los Angeles Olympics, ranked 2nd in the nations classification after having won 53 medals. The journalists of the daily Evenimentul Zilei believe that Beijing hosted the “Olympiad of helplessness and decline of Romanian sports”. What are the causes of this decline? The degradation and even total decommissioning of sports facilities, the lack of professionals and funds, the lack of interest shown by the authorities and the neglect of physical education in schools.
Former Olympic champion in the 3000 meters event, Romanian athlete Maricica Puica, told the aforementioned daily that performance can only be achieved if athletes train as part of a centralised system. “The Olympics of hopelessness”, “The Grey Olympics”, “The Olympic recession”, “Disaster for Romania” are some of the headlines carried by Monday’s papers that are adamant about the failure of Romania’s star athletes. Very criticised were Romania’s women’s handball team, world vice-champion, gymnast Marian Dragulescu, multiple world champion, and discus thrower Nicoleta Grasu whose performance in Beijing was very disappointing.
The daily “Jurnalul National” however looks at the bright side of things and writes about the exceptional results obtained by some Romanian women athletes: gold won by Alina Dumitru in the judo competition, by Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu in the rowing event, Constantina Dita, in the marathon event and Sandra Izbasa in the gymnastics competition. At the “moment of truth” the president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, Octavian Morariu, told the daily “Cotidianul” that Romania’s participation in Beijing was quite honourable. “We didn’t make a fool of ourselves” said the Romanian official who, before the Olympic Games, gave assurances that Romania’s delegation would get no less than a 2-digit number of medals in Beijing.
“We used to have a system, Morariu added. We no longer have it and we haven’t replaced it with anything though”. Most states that were once under the Soviet sphere of influence are experiencing the same crisis in the sports system, and newspapers draw attention to possibly poorer results of the Romanian delegation at the next Olympic Games to be hosted by London. A former glory of Romanian athletics, Iolanda Balas warns, in the daily Evenimentul Zilei, that “If sports do not become a priority for Romanian authorities, in 2012, in London, Romania might get an embarrassing 40th position in the nations classification.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
| |
© 1999 - 2011 Copyright Radio Romania International |
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again