Андрея Радукан: Трагедия и триумф румынской гимнастки

Romanian gymnast

Andreea Mădălina Răducan (; born 30 September 1983) is a retired gymnast from Bârlad, Romania. She currently works as a sports announcer and journalist. Răducan began competing in gymnastics at a young age and was training at the Romanian junior national facility by the age of 12. 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 around 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 autumn 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.

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 Miloșovici and Gina Gogean. She began gymnastics at the age of four and a half 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 Onești. 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 and took fourth place in the all around. The next year, she rose to the senior ranks and made an impact at the World Championships in Tianjin, China, winning the floor exercise final and placing fifth in the all around. The all around 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. The British gymnast Annika Reeder was hurt badly enough to withdraw from the remainder of the competition. 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. 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 around 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 around title since Nadia Comăneci in 1976; it was also the first time since 1960 that gymnasts from a single country swept the WAG all around podium at the Olympics. 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. Andreea went on to win the silver medal in the Vault final, behind Elena Zamolodchikova of Russia and ahead of Ekaterina Lobazniouk of Russia. Speculations around the all around gold arose and Andreea was informed that there was a possibility that she could be stripped of her all around gold medal. This affected her mentally and she went to the floor final fazed by the situation. She fell on her third tumbling pass, and received a score of 9.275. Without that error, she would have scored a 9.775, which was enough for the bronze medal.

Several days after the competition concluded, the IOC announced that Răducan had tested positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance. 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. 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. 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. All three declined a formal ceremony when the medals were re awarded. 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. 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:

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. 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 Țiriac, the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee (ROC), resigned over the scandal. 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". 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 cleared of malpractice by the Deva Physicians' Association, who stated that he had not committed any offense "from a medical perspective". She, along with Amanar, was awarded a diplomatic passport by the Romanian government for being a "good ambassador for Romania".

Răducan continued to train in Deva after the Olympics. With the retirement of her Sydney teammates Amânar, Olaru and Presăcan, she found herself one of the senior gymnasts at Deva. 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 around 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. In 2010, Răducan released her autobiography, The Other Side of the Medal, which provides further insight into the disqualification of her all around result at the 2000 Olympic Games. The 2020 "Golden Girl" film, directed by Adrian Robe and Denisa Morariu Tamas, covers her attempt to reclaim her title.

On August 4, 2017, Andreea Răducan was elected president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation (RGF). She takes over from Adrian Stoica, who was the President of the Federation for 12 years. It is expected to a huge challenge for Răducan to improve the performances of the Romanian team, who did not qualify a full team to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The failure to qualify marked the first time Romania did not field a gymnastics team at the Games since 1968. Drawing on the success of Romania successfully hosting the European Gymnastics Championships April 18–23, 2017, Romania was expected to contend for the all around and individual titles at the 2017 World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, Canada. Unfortunately, their arguably best all around gymnast Larisa Iordache suffered a torn Achilles tendon during warm up for qualifying. Romania's other hope for a medal, Cătălina Ponor, multiple medal winner in her gymnastics career, failed to qualify in either of the events she competed – beam or floor. She stepped down from her position upon the failure of either the women's or men's teams qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics.