Reckless Step
Neue Zeit, 20 January 1978
At the European gymnastics championships in the Sports Hall in Prague there was a situation unparalleled in the history of this sport. Almost at the same time as the highest score in gymnastics appeared on the scoreboard, a perfect "10" for Comaneci's beam routine, she left the arena with Ungureanu and her coach. The Romanian team withdrew from the competition at the direction of the Secretary of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, Nicolae Vieru, because he was not satisfied with the competition draw or the scoring of the Romanian gymnasts. This urgent and erroneous decision by the head of the Romanian delegation is not the way to solve problematic situations based on subjective opinions, much less a way to influence the results. The head of the Romanian team also announced that they would "go into seclusion" and their gymnasts would not be performing publicly until the rules of gymnastics were modified.
These are the same rules as the Montreal Olympics, where Comaneci won. The FIG has recently created maximum conditions for objective judging which, in the opinion of all other judges and officials from all over Europe, led to "fair play" at the Prague championships. All routines were video taped for later inspection. Several hundred journalists expected that after the championships that not only the FIG but leaders of the Romanian delegation would participate in the press conference. Despite their promises, none of the Romanian delegation attended the press conference. The chair of the women's technical committee of the FIG, Ellen Berger, stressed that, according to her opinion and that of other technical committee members, the judges had made objective decisions.
Gymnastics performances cannot be measured with stopwatches, or by meters and centimeters, and so in the past there were often erroneous decisions. Big figures of world gymnastics could tell you about it, including Czechoslovak representatives of previous periods (Bosakova, Caslavska, Brazdova), and also gymnasts like Korbut, Turischeva, and others. They wanted to win, but lost gracefully. And that was their greatest strength.
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