This weekend at the Rio Test Event, the last qualifier for the Olympic Games this summer, teams ranked 9-16 from last fall's World Championships had to compete for the final 4 spots for the Olympics. In the end, Brazil, Germany, France, and Belgium won those four spots, leaving Romania on the outside looking in. Romania, who has medalled in every team final since 1976, will only qualify one gymnast to the Olympics this summer, a spot which will likely go to Larissa Iordache, provided that she will heal from her finger surgery in time.
This is a devastating blow to the Romanian program, who won the European Title not even two years ago. There is something seriously wrong with the federation. A team with as much talent and history as Romania should not be missing the Olympics.
The problem with the Romanian team has nothing to do with the athletes who competed this weekend in Rio, although they will most likely take most of the blame. And while this team did not perform up to their potential on Sunday (and losing Iordache to injury in February definitely hurt their chances a great deal), they should not have been in this position in the first place. A team that won Europeans in May 2014, should not be placing 13th at World's in October 2015, with the addition of many talented first year seniors.
The Federation does not do a good job training their gymnasts. they get pushed aside if there is an injury, or told that they are not needed because of other gymnasts. This is most prevalent in the case of Andrea Munteanu. Munteanu was quite possibly the most talented junior of the quad in Romania, however after the failure to qualify to Rio in 2015, she was pushed aside because of Catalina Ponor, who returned to gymnastics for the 3rd time since her initial retirement. Ponor continues to come back for the Olympics every year, and once the federation hears of her return, they told Munteanu that she was irrelevant. Munteanu lost motivation to train and compete, and was thus passed over for the Test Event. Who can blame Munteanu for losing motivation and burning out? The same thing happened to Ana Porgras last quadrennium, but luckily for Romania they qualified to London regardless and won the bronze medal. Porgras, who was their best gymnast by far from 2009-2011, was burnt out from injury and over training, because she was regarded as the savior of Romanian Gymnastics.
This "collapse" has been coming for a long time. They beg Catalina Ponor and Sandra Isbasa to come back every Olympics, and then push aside their younger gymnasts. There is going to be a time when Ponor will not be able to come back, she is already 27 years old. They have no depth because they rely on the same ten gymnasts, and then are put in a difficult position when someone gets hurt. However, even a healthy Iordache could not have helped the Romanians this weekend in Rio.
There needs to be a restructuring within the Romanian Gymnastics Federation. The people in charge need to step down, and make way for a system that works in the twenty-first century. As Romania has proved twice in the past six months, their system no longer works the ways it did in the 1970s.
What did the power house teams of Romania circa the 1970s have that they no longer have? Besides depth, they no longer have the Karyolis, who defected to America and have built a powerhouse in Texas. With Marta Karyoli stepping down from the head of USA Gymnastics after this summer's Olympics, it might be beneficial for Romania to put their eggs in Marta's basket once again.
Showing posts with label Catalina Ponor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catalina Ponor. Show all posts
Gymternet News #4
Mary-Anne Monckton Tears ACL; Will Miss Rio
Roxi Popa Re-injures Knee; Will Miss Rio
Jonna Adlerteg Ruptures Meniscus; Will Miss Rio
Norah Flatley Has Minor Surgery
Catalina Ponor Shines in Competitive Return
When Mary-Anne Monckton's name was missing from the Australian Test Event Team, the Gymternet went into panic mode trying to figure out what happened to the two-time 2014 Commonwealth Silver Medalist. Minutes later, news broke that Mez had torn her ACL and would need surgery, and as a result will miss the Olympics. This comes as a huge blow for the Australian Federation, who is coached by Peggy Liddick, the transplanted American. Monckton won the 2010 Australian All Around Title, helped Australia finish 6th at the Team Final in Tokyo 2011, but ultimately missed the 2012 Olympic Team. Monckton was named to the 2014 World Championship, and helped Australia finish in seventh, but later injured her ankle and missed the early part of 2015. After coming back strong from her ankle injury, she was named to the 2015 Australian World Team, where they failed to qualify to the Olympics this year, and instead will have to qualify at the Test Event in April. This injury, which occurred at the 2016 Pacific Rim Internal Trials on a double twisting Yurchenko, is a big loss to Australia. Monckton has expressed her interest to compete at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, Canada.
Roxi Popa Re-injures Knee; Will Miss Rio
The Romania-Born, Spanish-Raised gymnast Roxi Popa will miss the 2016 Olympic Test Event, and subsequently the 2016 Olympics due to another knee injury. Popa had surgery to repair her ACL and meniscus in late 2014, and missed the 2015 competitive season. Popa is far and away the best gymnast in Spain, and had already been selected to represent Spain at the test event. Spain qualified two gymnasts to the test event, and if the qualify a spot to the Olympics this summer, they must send a gymnast that competed at the test event. So even if Popa recovers from her knee surgery in time (which is unlikely), she will not be able to compete at the Olympics.
Jonna Adlerteg Ruptures Meniscus; Will Miss Rio
Jonna Adlerteg from Sweden injured her meniscus this weekend at the Doha World Cup on her dismount from bars in the final. Adlerteg had a beautiful bars routine in qualifications, scoring a 15 and qualifying first into the finals. In the finals, Adlerteg scored a 14.925 and won the gold by seven tenths. However, Adlerteg was in serious discomfort after her dismount, and was unable to accept her gold medal. Once back in Sweden, it was announced that she tore her meniscus, but is thankful that her ACL is fine. Much like Roxi Popa of Spain, Adlerteg is unable to compete at the Olympics as Sweden did not qualify a team to the Test Event, and they must send a gymnast who competes there to Rio later this summer.
Norah Flatley Has Minor Surgery
Norah Flatley has been considered a front runner for the Olympics since she qualifyed elite in 2013, as she hails from the same club that brought the world Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas. Even though she has not been in a competition since 2014, people do not doubt that Chow will work the same magic with Norah that he did in the Olympic year with Johnson and Douglas, both of whom won Olympic Golds. However, those thoughts seemed to stand still after Flatley posted a picture with teammate Victoria Nguyen of her in a boot. Not much is known about the extend of the injury, but according to Lauren Hopkins of thegymter.net, it was a minor suregry. We are hoping for a quick recovery for Flatley and that she will come back stronger than ever this summer!
Catalina Ponor Shines in Competitive Return
Catalina Ponor of Romania started off yet another comeback with yet another win this weekend at the Doha World Cup. Ponor won three gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics with the Romanian Team, on Beam and on Floor. Ponor continued to compete into the next quadrennium, where she competed at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, and retired for the first time. Ponor came back to training in March 2011, and later competed at the Tokyo World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games, where she won the silver medal with the Team and placed fourth in the beam final, after losing a tie-breaker to American Aly Raisman. She once again retired. Ponor stunned the Gymternet by once again returning to training in early 2015, but missed the 2015 World Championships, where Romania placed thirteenth, and missed direct qualification to the Olympics. Ponor will be on the Romania team for the Test Event. In Doha, Ponor won the Gold on Beam, and looks ahead to the Test Event. If Romania wants to qualify a team to the Olympics, they need Ponor to be back at her 2004/2012 level.
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