Andreea Răducan

Andreea Răducan
— Gymnast —

Răducan in 2006
Personal information
Full name Andreea Mădălina Răducan
Country represented  Romania
Born (1983-09-30) 30 September 1983
Bârlad, Romania
Hometown Bucharest, Romania
Height 149 cm (4 ft 11 in)
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Level Senior International
Club Club Sportiv Cetate Deva, Farul Constanta
Gym Deva National Training Center
Head coach(es) Octavian Belu
Assistant coach(es) Mariana Bitang, Lucian Sandu
Music 1998-2001: Las Carretas Del Rocio
2000: Reel Around The Sun
2001: Eclipse
2002: Meet Her At The Love Parade and Right In The Night
Retired December 2002
Medal record
Olympic Games
2000 Sydney Team
2000 Sydney Vault
Disqualified 2000 Sydney All Around[note 1]
World Championships
1999 Tianjin Team
1999 Tianjin Floor
2001 Ghent Team
2001 Ghent Balance beam
2001 Ghent Floor
1999 Tianjin Balance beam
2001 Ghent All-Around
2001 Ghent Vault
European Championships
Saint Petersburg 1998 (jr.) Team
Saint Petersburg 1998 (jr.) Balance Beam
Paris 2000 Floor
Saint Petersburg 1998 (jr.) Floor
Paris 2000 Team
World Cup
Nagoya 1998 (jr.) Balance Beam
Glasgow 1999 Balance Beam
Marseille 1999 Team
Marseille 1999 Floor
Monaco 2000 Floor
Montreux 2000 Balance Beam
Montreux 2000 Floor
Nagoya 2000 Floor
Glasgow 2000 Balance Beam
Glasgow 2000 Floor
Marseille 2000 Team
Marseille 2000 Vault
Nagoya 2001 Vault
Marseille 2001 Team
Marseille 2001 All-Around
Marseille 2001 Balance Beam
Marseille 2001 Vault
Paris 2002 Balance Beam
Glasgow 2002 Balance Beam
Marseille 2002 Team
Marseille 2002 Balance Beam
Pusan 1999 Floor
Zurich 1999 Vault
Zurich 1999 Floor
Glasgow 1999 Floor
Marseille 1999 All-Around
Marseille 1999 Balance Beam
Cottbus 2000 Balance Beam
Nagoya 2000 Balance Beam
Nagoya 2000 All-Around
Marseille 2000 All-Around
Marseille 2000 Floor
Nagoya 2001 Balance Beam
Marseille 2001 Floor
Glasgow 2002 Floor
Nagoya 1998 (jr.) Floor
Pusan 1999 Vault
Zurich 1999 Uneven Bars
Zurich 1999 Balance Beam
Morges 1999 All-Around
Glasgow 2000 Uneven Bars
Paris 2002 Floor
International Team Competition
1999 Richmond Team
1998 Knoxville (jr.) Balance Beam
1998 Knoxville (jr.) Floor
1998 Knoxville (jr.) All-Around
1999 Richmond Floor
1997 Cincinnati (jr.) Team
1998 Knoxville (jr.) Team

Andreea Mădălina Răducan (born 30 September 1983) is a retired gymnast from Bârlad, Romania.

Răducan began competing in gymnastics at a young age and was training at the Romanian junior national facility by the age of 12½. As one of the outstanding gymnasts of the Romanian team in the late 1990s, Răducan was known both for her difficult repertoire of skills and her dance and presentation. Over her four-year senior career, she won Olympic or World Championships medals on every event except the uneven bars and earned three individual World Championships titles, on the floor exercise in 1999 and 2001 and the balance beam in 2001.

Răducan competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she contributed strongly to the Romanian team's gold medal and won an individual silver medal on the vault. She was also the original winner of the all-round title, but was disqualified and stripped of her gold medal shortly after the competition concluded, when it was revealed that she had failed doping controls, testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance. She and her coaches maintained that she had been given the substance in two cold medicine pills by a Romanian team physician, and that they had not affected her performance in any way.

The case generated a significant amount of media attention, and Răducan was supported by members of the gymnastics community and the Romanian public. Her case was brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in fall 2000. Răducan herself was exonerated of any personal wrongdoing by the CAS, the Romanian Olympic Committee and the International Gymnastics Federation, and was not subject to any disciplinary measures. However, her medal was not reinstated, and the team doctor who administered the medicine was banned for two Olympic cycles.

Răducan returned the year after the Olympics to win five additional World Championships medals, but retired from gymnastics in 2002. As an adult, she has worked as a sports announcer and media personality, and has pursued university level studies in journalism.

Early career

Răducan was one of the "new generation gymnasts" groomed to take over the torch of Romanian gymnastics excellence after the retirements of the Olympic medalists Lavinia Miloşovici and Gina Gogean. She began gymnastics at the age of four and a half[1] in her hometown of Bârlad. In 1996, after winning over twenty medals in local and regional competitions, she was invited to train at the Romanian junior team facility in Oneşti. Two years later, she was promoted to the national training center in Deva.

Răducan's first major international event was the 1998 Junior European Championships, where she won a silver medal on the balance beam, tied for bronze on the floor exercise[2] and took fourth place in the all-round. The next year, she rose to the senior ranks and made an impact at the World Championships in Tianjin, China, winning the FX final and being placed fifth in the all-round.[1]

While Răducan's work on the uneven bars was considered weak, her skills on beam, vault and floor exercise were applauded. She was also admired because, unlike other members of the Romanian team, she showed a great deal of expression in her choreography and a wide variety of complex skills in her routines.

Sydney Olympics

Răducan competed well at the Sydney Olympics, helping the Romanian women to win their first Olympic team gold medal since 1984. She qualified for the floor and vault event finals, and, along with her teammates Simona Amânar and Maria Olaru, the all-round finals. In the preliminary round of competition, she had the second highest all-round score of all competitors in the competition, trailing behind Russia's Svetlana Khorkina by 0.288.[3]

The all-round was mired in controversy. The vault was set 5 centimeters too low, creating a dangerous situation that completely altered the gymnasts' pre- and post-flights. As a result of the incorrectly set vault, many gymnasts suffered serious crashes and injuries during both the warm-ups and the competition, including Khorkina.[4] The British gymnast Annika Reeder was hurt badly enough to withdraw from the remainder of the competition.[5] Even those who escaped injury found themselves shaken by their experiences on the vault. When the error was discovered in the third rotation, International Federation of Gymnastics officials reset the vault height and allowed the competition to continue. They did permit the gymnasts who had vaulted in the first two rotations to take another turn on vault and to be rescored; not every athlete accepted this offer.[6]

Răducan was one of the gymnasts who had vaulted on the incorrectly set apparatus but did not suffer a fall on the event and performed without serious error. She continued through the competition, turning in strong performances on beam and floor, and ended up with the all-round gold medal. On the podium with her were her Romanian teammates; Amânar with silver and Olaru with bronze. Răducan was the first Romanian gymnast to win the Olympic all-round title since Nadia Comăneci in 1976; it was also the first time since 1960 that gymnasts from a single country swept the WAG all-round podium at the Olympics.[6][7] It was also the last time it was possible for three gymnasts from the same country to sweep the all around, as the "two per country rule" was introduced in the next Olympic cycle. [8]

Doping charge

Several days after the competition concluded, the IOC announced that Răducan had tested positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance. Amânar had also tested positive, but as she was taller and heavier than Răducan, the substance did not register as being over the allowed amount as it had with her younger teammate.[7]

Răducan and her coaches maintained that she was innocent. As a minor, they argued, she had only followed the treatment plan recommended by Ioachim Oana, the team physician. In the book she published in 2010, Răducan states that a few hours before the competition she had been given Nurofen Cold & Flu, a common over-the-counter medication containing pseudoephedrine, to help treat a fever and cough. She also said that the pills had made her feel dizzy instead of helping her in any way.[7][9][10]

Despite strenuous appeals from Răducan, her coaches, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and certain members of the gymnastics community, she was stripped of her gold medal. The gold was re-awarded to Amânar, Olaru was promoted to silver, and former fourth-place finisher Liu Xuan from China was given the bronze medal.[7] Răducan's test samples from the team and vault event finals were clean; she was therefore allowed to keep the medals she won in these competitions.[9][11] The Romanian team doctor who gave Răducan the drug in two cold medicine pills was expelled from the Games and suspended through the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.[10]

Both Amânar and Olaru expressed their belief that Răducan was the deserving all-round gold medalist, as did Liu Xuan, who noted, "I think the all-around champ (Răducan) is very good. I feel very sad and sorry for her that this problem occurred. I can't make sense of it. ...In gymnastics, we rely on technique to complete our moves. It's not possible to rely on drugs or strength, you have to rely on skill."[12] All three declined a formal ceremony when the medals were re-awarded.[13] Following the announcement that Răducan would be stripped of her medal, Olaru and Amânar initially decided to refuse their new medals. However, they changed their minds in order to bring the medals back to Romania.[10] Amânar said of the gold medal, "I didn't win it. It was won by Andreea and belongs to Andreea."[14] It was thought that Amânar had given Răducan the gold medal back once the team returned to Romania, but Răducan herself is quoted as saying, in an interview with gymnastics podcast Gymcastic:

“ The medal belongs to her. She says that she doesn't want this medal, that it belongs to me. But she has to accept no matter, however, for Romania. We are just fine. We don't have a problem. So she has the gold medal.[15][16] ”

Aftermath

Răducan's case was brought before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in late September 2000. While the arbitration panel did concede that Răducan had not gained any advantage by taking the pseudoephedrine, and that she was an underage athlete who had followed her team physician's instructions, they also upheld the IOC's decision. The basis for their decision was the belief that the Anti-Doping Code of the Olympics had to be enforced "without compromise", regardless of the intentions or age of the athlete.[9][10][17]

Răducan was exonerated of any personal wrongdoing by the Romanian Olympic Committee, and therefore was not subjected to the sporting ban usually imposed on athletes involved in doping cases. However, Ion Ţiriac, the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee (ROC), resigned over the scandal.[18] The Executive Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) also unanimously decided not to impose any suspension or punishment on Răducan, taking the stance that losing her medal "was punishment enough for an athlete who was innocent in this situation".[7][19] The FIG, IOC and ROC all agreed with the punishment and suspension of Dr. Oana, viewing him as the guilty party for administering the banned substance to Răducan and her teammate. Oana was permitted to keep his medical license and was cleared of malpractice by the Deva Physicians' Association, who stated that he had not committed any offense "from a medical perspective".[18]

Despite the controversy, Răducan was still seen as a positive and even sympathetic figure. She received a significant amount of support in Romania,[14] and members of the gymnastics community, including Nadia Comăneci, publicly expressed their support.[9] On returning to Romania with her teammates, she was personally greeted and presented with flowers by Romanian President Emil Constantinescu.[14] Răducan was given a replacement medal in pure gold by a Romanian jeweler; she also received several endorsements and sponsorships. At one point, a Răducan doll was even rumored to be in the works.[11] In addition, the prize money she would have been awarded from the Romanian Olympic Committee for her all-round gold was replaced, and doubled, by a group of Romanian businessmen.[20] She, along with Amanar, was awarded a diplomatic passport by the Romanian government for being a "good ambassador for Romania".[21] Even though her medal was not reinstated, many gymnastics fans still regard Răducan as the rightful all-around winner.

After Sydney

Răducan continued to train in Deva after the Olympics. With the retirement of her Sydney teammates Amanar, Olaru and Presacan, she found herself one of the senior gymnasts at Deva.[22] At the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, Belgium, she was part of the gold-medal winning Romanian team and picked up four individual medals: gold on floor and beam and bronze in the all-round and vault. Injuries and other concerns marred her training in 2002, and after a poor showing at the Worlds in Hungary, she quietly retired.

After retiring, Răducan became a sports announcer in Romania. Her assignments for EuroSport have included the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She also has her own television show and does modelling and promotional work. Răducan also has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Bucharest.[23]

Skills

Floor music

Competitive History

Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX
1998Junior European Championships 4th 2nd 3rd
Chunichi Cup 7th
Junior International Team Championships3rd 2nd
1999Arthur Gander Memorial 3rd
Massilia Gym Cup 2nd
International Mixed Pairs1st4th
Swiss Cup 2nd3rd3rd2nd
World Championships 1st 5th 1st
2000European Championships 3rd 2nd
Olympic Games 1stDQ[note 1] 2nd 7th
Chunichi Cup 2nd
Cottbus World Cup 7th 2nd
National Championships 1st
2001World Championships 1st3rd3rd 1st1st
Chunichi Cup 4th
Romanian International 1st
National Championships 3rd
Massilia Gym Cup 1st

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Răducan was stripped of the all-around gold medal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine
  1. 1 2 Official FIG profile
  2. ↑ http://www.gymn-forum.net/results/JEuros/Women/1998_ef.html Results from Junior Europeans EF, Gymn-Forum
  3. ↑ Preliminary scores from the Sydney Olympics, Gymn Forum
  4. ↑ "Vault mixup could have cost gymnast medal" Associated Press, September 28, 2000
  5. ↑ "Mismeasured vault foils some gymnasts" Beverley Smith, Globe and Mail, September 21, 2000
  6. 1 2 Selena Jones, "Romania Sweeps as Controversy Swirls", New York Times, September 22, 2000
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Raducan tests positive for stimulant" Associated Press, September 26, 2000
  8. ↑ "Debate Stirs Over Gymnastics’ ‘Two-per-Country’ Rule " Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2015
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Court supports IOC over Raducan" BBC, September 28, 2000
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Arbitrators uphold decision to strip Raducan of gold" Sports Illustrated/CNN, November 13, 2000
  11. 1 2 "In our Spotlight: Andreea Raducan" International Gymnast, January 2001
  12. ↑ "Romanians refuse medals", International Gymnast, September 26, 2000
  13. ↑ "Amanar retires, Tiriac resigns", International Gymnast, September 29, 2000
  14. 1 2 3 "Amanar retires as Raducan feted" BBC Sport, October 1, 2000
  15. ↑ Transcript episodes 11-20 (Episode 19:Andreea Raducan)
  16. ↑ Episode 19:Andreea Raducan
  17. ↑ Text of the CAS decision, September 28, 2000
  18. 1 2 "Raducan can keep competing", International Gymnast, October 18, 2000
  19. ↑ "Hearing set for Raducan", International Gymnast, September 26, 2000
  20. ↑ "Amanar tops Romanian money list", International Gymnast, October 15, 2000
  21. ↑ "Amanar, Raducan declared diplomats", International Gymnast, October 12, 2000
  22. ↑ "Raducan takes over Romanian reins" International Gymnast, October 8, 2001
  23. ↑ Andreea Răducan's official website

External links


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