#Alexandra Marinescu

[freifraufischer]

A non-exhaustive list of gymnasts whose ages are known to be falsified.

“Dick does she look 14 years old to you? [...]  I tell you we have a story going around the gymnastics community that is pretty traditional that when a young Romanian girl is asked her age she looks to her coach for the answer.”  --Bart Conner, 1985 American Cup

Since Wikipedia can’t be trusted to be right for a lot of details of gymnasts careers...

Olga Bicherova

Born in either 1967 or 1968, during Bicherova’s elite career the age requirement was that you had to turn 15 in the year of competition.  Either birthdate would have made her too young for the 1981 World Championships where she won two gold medals, one in the all around and one with the team.  If you take the 1967 birthdate she could have been age eligible for the 1982 World Cup where she won 5 medals, 3 of them gold except that one of the requirements of the World Cup at that time was previous participation in the World Championships.  [In fairness to Bicherova the above picture is slightly mean of me to use as she never grew very tall.]

Ecaterina Szabo

Born in 1968, during Szabo’s elite career the age requirement was to turn 15 in the year of competition meaning her first year of senior eligibility should have been 1983 and 1983 is when her first major titles occurred.  Except she was competing as a senior in 1982 winning a number of international invitationals (which she may have been eligible for anyway because juniors and seniors often competed together at those).  It’s unclear to me why her birthdate was changed though it might have simply been something that happened when the government changed her name to hide her Hungarian ethnicity.  Szabo’s first language is Hungarian and she was born in Transylvania as Szabó Katalin.  She still goes by Katalin in her private life.  She was of age during the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1983 World Championships

Olga Mostepanova

Born in 1970, during Mostepanova’s elite career the age requirement was to turn 15 in the year of competition (or 14 for the World Championship that qualified for the Olympics).  She has said herself that while she was competing her passport was wrong by “years”.  By the accounts as I understand them her first senior year should have been 1985.  Mostepanova was the top Soviet gymnast in 1984 winning the alternative games held for countries that boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games (and the reality of her age falsification makes playing ‘What if?’ for who should have won the 1984 Olympics awkward).  Aside from her 5 Friendship Games gold medals, she would have also been age ineligible for the 1983 World Championships where she won 4 medals, 2 gold (team and beam) and 2 silver (all around and floor).

Oksana Omelianchik

Born on January 2, 1970, during Omelianchik’s elite career the age requirement was to be turn 15 in the year of competition and her first year of eligability was 1985.  None of Omelianchik’s elite career honors are tainted however she says at one point she was given a passport with her birthdate shifted by a week (which would have made her able to compete in the 1984 Olympic Games).

Daniela Silivaș

Born in 1972, during Silivaș’ elite career the age requirement was that you turn 15 in the year of competition meaning her first year as a senior elite should have been 1987.  In 1985 she won a European bronze medal on beam, a World Championship gold medal on beam and a silver with the team.  She also won 3 medals at the 1986 World Cup.  She was of age for the 1988 Olympic Games

Kim Gwang-suk

Only the universe knows what year Kim Gwang-suk was actually born.  She was listed as 15 years old for three consecutive years by the North Korean government from 1989-1991, and then 17 years old at the 1992 Olympic Games.  She may have been as young as 11 when she competed in the 1989 World Championships.  In 1991 she won the World Championship gold on the uneven bars and at least one of her birth years means she might have been age eligible for that competition (which may be why FIG was reluctant to take away that medal, officially they decided that as she wasn’t personally involved in the fraud she could keep it).  The North Korean team was banned from the 1993 World Championships for the sloppy fraud.

Alexandra Marinescu

Born in 1982, the age requirements changed in the middle of Marinescu’s elite career.  For the 1996 Olympic Gams you had to turn 15 in the year of competition and starting in 1997 you had to turn 16.  The Romanian state issued her a passport giving her birthdate as 1981 and it is worth noting that this was the post revolution Romanian government.  She competed at 1995 Worlds, 1996 Worlds, and the 1996 Olympic Games with a stated birthdate that would make her just old enough to compete in those competitions.  In fact she was younger than both Dominique Moceanu and Vanessa Atler.  At no point during her entire elite career which lasted 3 years was Marinescu of age.  She has 3 World medals (2 gold for the team in 1995 and 1997, 1 silver on beam from 1996), and one Olympic medal (bronze in the team from 1996).  The FIG database still lists her incorrect birth year and the Romanian gymnastics federation claims that she is lying about the age falsification (as well as other abuses she has been outspoken about).

Dong Fangxiao

Born sometime in January of 1986 (the exact day is still disputed), during Dong’s elite career the age requirement was to turn 16 in the year of competition.  Her first year of senior competition should have been 2001 but she competed at the 1999 World Championships under the rule at the time that if you are eligible for the Olympic Games you cold compete at the World Championships the previous year.  She won a bronze medal at both 1999 Worlds and the 2000 Olympics with the team.  In 2008 she applied to be a technical official at the Beijing Olympic Games she listed her true birthdate instead of the 1983 birthday under which she had competed.  An investigation of the case resulted in both medals being stripped.

Hong Su-jong

At different competitions during her career Hong Su-jong was entered with a birth year of 1985, 1986, and 1989.  At some of these competitions she was entered with a different birth year as her twin sister Hong Un-jong (Olympic and World Champion who has never herself been implicated in age falsification).  Hong Su-jong’s most significant medal was the 2007 World silver on vault which she is believed to be of age for but she competed at the 2004 Olympic Games with the 1985 birthdate and for that competition she was too young.  Hong Su-jong was eventually banned permanently from competition and North Korea was banned until October 2012 meaning that her sister was unable to defend her 2008 Olympic vault gold.

You may notice that He Kexin is not on this list...

During (and after) the 2008 Olympic Games questions were raised about two time Olympic Gold medalist He Kexin’s age (as well as that of several of her team mates).  Unlike all of the above cases where either inconsistent age information was entered at official FIG competitions or the gymnast themselves have stated that their birth year was changed, He’s birthdate has always been consistent in FIG documents and she herself has always denied falsification.  Her age was listed as earlier in entries for some domestic meets and that was reported by foreign press as evidence that she was too young.  This ignores the fact that age falsification (in both directions up and down) was common by city and provincial teams in China to enter age bracketed competitions and that is what may have been going on.  Either way these competitions are not governed by the FIG so the inconsistent birth information at them was not their problem.  I am generally agnostic about He’s birth year.  There is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that her age was changed (that doesn’t have to do with domestic competition forms or her appearance) however I understand why the FIG investigation decided that there was not enough evidence for them to act.

Sooooo the only people punished for age falsification have been Asians.  That’s kind of racist isn’t it?

Two things can be true at the same time.  Yes it is highly suspicious that only North Korea and China have been punished for this while there are documented cases of European federations also doing this.  However I think it’s important to note that these cases are not all the same.  North Korea was punished for providing inconsistent birthdates for the same gymnast at competitions.  The evidence of the offense was right there in FIG’s paperwork.  China was punished when Dong applied to be an official with FIG giving an inconsistent birth year.

All of these other cases involve gymnasts whose paperwork was consistent during their careers.  

The fact that FIG is only accepts that level of proof and unwilling to accept (especially in Marinescu’s case) the gymnasts own statements about their birth year certainly doesn’t make them look like they are particularly interested in punishing this kind of cheating unless absolutely forced to.  I would offer the counter point that FIG is not the police and they do not have the ability to determine if there is something else going on with such public statements and they often came out well after the standard 10 year statute of limitation for stripping medals (except in the case of Marinescu).  Some have suggested that FIG was reluctant to act on Marinescu’s statements because stripping Romania of those medals would promote China who was also age cheating at the time.  I don’t think you have to go to that place when the answer is just as likely that FIG has a very narrow standard of proof for revoking medals on the basis of age falsification and has even erred on the side of allowing the gymnast (Kim Gwang-suk) to keep a medal won while clearly under age.

Are FIG officials racist against Asians?  There is a lot of evidence for that.

Has FIG only punished Asian nations for age falsification?  Yes.  But it’s more a case that North Korea is really bad at this and the Dong case has fairly unique circumstances.

[jaywade]

[jesuisciprian]

(via Dreaming in collages- group exhibition by Romanian Collage Collective @ RAM - Romanian Art Movement, Bucharest)

Dreaming in collages – group exhibition by Romanian Collage Collective ☛ 09.02- 09.03. 2024 @ RAM – Romanian Art Movement  (Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta 37, București 030167, Romania)

DREAMING IN COLLAGES is the first group exhibition of the Romanian Collage Collective community, through which they aim to bring the art of collage to the attention of art and beauty lovers.

ARTistS 🖡 Ada Moisă, Alexandra Grigore, Alexandra Pribeagu, Andrei Argeșeanu, Andrei Stan, Andrei Victor Moldoveanu, Anastasia David Limona, Aura Ramona Badiu, Bentrez, Catrinel Dragomir, Claudia Ramba, Cristian Fierbinteanu, Cristiana Bucureci, Cristina Gârleșteanu, Cristina Maria Geană, Diana C Cartianu, Doru Drăgoi, Elena Donea, Florentin Logigan, Florin Zhu, Gabriela Elena Enache, Livia Marinescu, Maria Iulia Ursa, Aron Baltesiu, Melinda Rus, Maria Magdalena Ienci, Miruna Bălasa, Nicoleta Ababei, Oana-Andreea Kuzmanovski, Ruxandra Niculae, Ștefănescu Maximilian, Teo Vasilescu, Teodora Varzaru, Viorel Florin Costea aka DadaVFC, Robert Vereș, Stefania Șaramat

[gym-oldies]

[gymfanconfessions]

“Gymcastic did an episode on the history of Romanian gymnastics and they reacted to Alexandra Marinescu's 1995 floor routine.  Does anyone know what her music was?  It sounded like it might have been music from a mystery movie or something.  “

[draculachronicle]

Histria Books Announces the Release of Romanian Gymnastics

Histria Books Announces the Release of Romanian Gymnastics

Histria Books is pleased to announce the release of the softbound edition of Romanian Gymnastics. The book is published by the Center for Romanian Studies, an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to scholarly works on the history and culture of Romania and is issued in a special softbound edition to commemorate the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Since Nadia Comăneci captured the hearts of the world with…

[mo-salto]

Alexandra Marinescu at the 1997 American Cup

[ninetiesgymnasticsnostalgia]

[lucianatamas]

https://www.facebook.com/events/413707850403964/?ref=newsfeed

https://www.satmareanul.net/2021/12/01/bienala-jurnal-de-virus-la-muzeul-de-arta-din-satu-mare/

S-a calculat că, în unele zile din perioada de vârf a pandemiei, s-a pierdut un număr aproape la fel de mare de vieți ca în timpul Revoluției de la 1989. Războiul sanitar, deci, combinat cu tot felul de alte forme de război hibrid, a dus la răsturnări / mutații greu cuantificabile. Anul 1989 a determinat căderea unor ziduri și frontiere. Pandemia determină reapariția altor ziduri, garduri de sârmă ghimpată și limitări / distanțări de tot felul. După 32 de ani de la Revoluția Română, cu începere de vineri, 26 noiembrie 2021, de la orele 17:00, în incinta Muzeului de Artă din Satu Mare, sub titlul „Bienala Alb/Negru: Jurnal de virus”, ni se oferă posibilitatea de a „răsfoi” viziunea unor artiști, scriitori și curatori despre ceea ce este – și se pare că va mai rămâne, pentru o perioadă – „homo pandemicus”. Proiectul a fost conceput, dezvoltat și promovat de Dan Perjovschi, împreună cu artista și curatoarea Alina Andrei, fiind un work in progress publicat online pe rețelele de social media ale Galeriei White Cuib din Cluj-Napoca. Bazându-se pe bunele sale relații personale, artistul român Dan Perjovschi a invitat să participe la proiect creatori din România, Spania, Germania, SUA, Marea Britanie, Austria, Italia, Portugalia, Grecia, Cehia, Bulgaria, Uruguay, Indonezia, Columbia, Franța, Malaiezia, China, Japonia, Polonia, Republica Moldova, Ungaria și Muntenegru. În anul 2020, proiectul a mai fost expus de Galeria White Cuib din Cluj Napoca, apoi a putut fi vizitat în cadrul Romanian Design Week din București. Recent, a fost expus și în Madrid, la ABM Confecciones (curatoarea evenimentului fiind Gloria Luca). Artiştii implicaţi în proiect: Dan Perjovschi (RO) Ana Kun (RO) George Roşu (RO) Aldo Giannotti (AU) Olivier Hölzl (AU) Gloria Luca (SP) Tudor Pătraşcu (RO) David Böhm & Jiří Franta (CZ) Cosmin Haiaş (RO) Răzvan Cornici (RO) Cathy Burghi (UY) Benedek Levente (RO) Oana Lohan (FR) Cristian Răduţă (RO) Minitremu (RO) Bartha Sándor (HU) Restu Ratnaningtyas (IN) Marishka Soekarna (IN) Magdalena Pelmuş (RO) Luciana Tamas (GE) Zara Alexandrova (GE) Zoran Georgiev (GE) Roberto Uribe Castro (GE) Alina Andrei (RO) Invitații speciali: 3 137, Cristian Alexa, Sabina Aldea, Silvia Amancei & Bogdan Armanu, Daniel García Andújar, Florin Arhire, Isa Balog, Ion Barbu, Lucian Barbu, Beagles & Ramsay, Andra Beligan, Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Naomi Bildea, Brent Birnbaum, Alex Bodea, Daria Borsa, Răzvan Botiș, Luchezar Boyadijev, Vlad Brăteanu, Michele Bressan, Cosmin Bumbuț, Dan Burzo, Frank Bz, Radu Carnariu, Squeak Carnwath, Banu Cennetoğlu, Simion Cernica, Ramona Chirica, Ciprian Ciuclea, Eduard Constantin, Larisa Cont, Oana Coșug, Mihail Coşuleţu, Alicia Crasiuc, Lavinia Creţu, Ştefan Radu Cretu, Andra Cati, Dana Catona, Suzana Dan, Hans D. Christ, Megan Dominescu, Andrei Dosa, Latifa Echakhch, Farid Fairuz, Andrei Flocea, Alexandru Faur, Diana Filimon, Dora García, Cristina Gagiu, Cristi Gaspar, Bogdan Gârbovan, Bogdan Georgescu, Diana Grigorescu, Gergely Hory, Ovidiu Hrin, Andreea Harabagiu, Mihai Iepure-Gorski, Lucian Indrei, Susanna Inglada, Tadija Janičić, József Bartha, Quentin Jouret, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Rie Kawakami, Kispál Ágnes, Attila Kispál, Szabolcs Kisspál, Takehito Koganezawa, Jadranka Kosorcic, Eva Koťátková, Dana Koťátková, Levente Kozma, Ute Krafft, Mischa Kuball, Karolina Kubik, Raphaël Larre, Eirini Linardaki, Natalia Marc, Andreea Mare, Tincuța Marin, Alina Marinescu, Andreea Medar, Alex Mihăileanu, Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Milan Mikuláštík, Isola Milano, Alexandra Mocan, Bianca Mocan, Emilian Mocanu, Niță Mocanu, Eliodor Moldovan, Vlad Moraru, Ivan Moudov, Tudor Mureşan, Alexandru Munteanu, Simona Nastac, Cătălina Neculai, Mona Nicoară, Tuan Nini, Cătălina Nistor, Oberliht Association, Yuki Okumura, Miklós Onucsán, Andrei Pacea, Eugen Palagub, Daniela Palimariu, Vincent Parisot, Manuel Pelmuș, Gluklya, Mihai Plătică, Cristi Pogăcean, Delia Popa, Camelia Popescu, Caterina Preda, Ioana Preda, Silviu Preda, Andrei Pungovschi, Abel Rad, Lea Rasovszky, Saddo, Matei Rădulescu, Oliver Ressler, Cristian Rusu, Patrick Roussel, Șerban Savu, Dimitar Solakov, Nedko Solakov, Alexandru Solomon, Ada Stan, Raimar Stange, Iza Tarasewicz, Oana Tănase, Krassimir Terziev, Tudor Toader, Iulia Toma, Remus Țiplea, Tomáš Vaněk, Jaro Varga, Sorina Vazelina, Casandra Vidrighin, Dăruieşte Viaţă, Simona Vilău, Iuliana Vîlsan, Elena Vlădăreanu, Ioana Vreme Moser, Trevor Yeung, Laurenţiu Zbîrcea, Fani Zguro. Curatori: Alina Andrei Felicia Grigorescu Luciana Tămaș (Text de Luciana Tămaș)

[aurelia-dobre]

Alexandra Marinescu chewing her gum and not giving a fuck while the NBC is trying to make drama out of her not being a hard worker and being pulled out of the AA final is my fav moment of the 1996 NBC coverage

[freifraufischer]

Honestly, with hindsight, it feels like the 2008 age controversy feels like a distraction/deflection from the fact that Marta broke the 2008 US women's team so bad at selection camps that they barely had a team to begin with. And since the US gymnasts at the time had no critical thinking skills, were taught to worship Marta as a god and never question her, and were also trying to justify losing after all the hype, they (and several others) fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

I think there were clearly US gymnasts who were smart enough to question her but not publicly. The fact that Chellsie and Andy were balking at the camp system is something at least.

I think there is something to be said for the distraction of it all. One of the things I find particularly funny about my memories of that time being Bela screaming about it as an "analyst" for NBC is thinking about how much he was quick to claim Szabo and Silivas as "his gymnasts" but never mentioned to anyone about their ages when they were competing. He's at the 1985 American cup when Silivas shows up as basically a fetus.

As for the the 2008 team I'm actually pretty agnostic about it. I think there are good reasons to be suspicious (not just the meet records which I actually don't think are as clear cut as the US media made it out to be). But I also don't think that there was enough evidence for FIG to act which is more than I can say about say... Alexandra Marinescu.

But I do think a lot of it was about USAG trying to play smoke and mirrors over how broken that team was.

[beautifulsoul247]

Oh Hey Alexandra Marinescu randomly popping in my story tonight lol hope she got some messages as well btw my #rollerskates are otw been said I wanted to get a pair of those #figureskates too cute from ig@iceicedani #Atlanta96😅👋🏾🛼⛸🥉🇷🇴

[gym-oldies]

[gymfanconfessions]

“he kexin did NOTHING wrong. she was a g_ddamn child, she didn't falsify any papers, that was entirely on the chinese association. same for every other underaged gymnast (Kim Gwang Suk,Lavinia Agache,Olga Bicherova,Gina Gogean,Alexandra Marinescu,Olga Mostepanova,Daniela Silivaş,Dong Fangxiao,Hong Su Jong) they were f*cking kids that were forced into competing young by the adults in their national associations”

[like-dudnik-in-1989]

top 5 romanian gymnasts

5. Alexandra Marinescu

4. Vanda Hadarean

3. Catalina Ponor

2. Andreea Raducan

1. Daniela Silivas

[ninetiesgymnasticsnostalgia]