#sandraizbasa

[thestoryalist]

Alice in Wonderland a.k.a. @sandra_raluca394 🆕💣 Haistyle- @jovskystudio @geaninaflorina MakeUp - @andreea_popeanu_make_up_artist Style - @eniko_szanto Outfit: @mmarquise * project by @talentivity_ ---- #thestoryalist #instaportrait #perfectlight #snowqueen #sandraizbasa #makeup #hairstyles #winter #portraitphotography #photography #picstitch #picoftheday #instagood #ootd #dare #different #yourphotographer #iseeyou #followme @thestoryalist

[romaniankoko]

Catalina talks about her recent muscle injury, she says training has been going great and really wanted to compete at nationals but she has to respect the doctors orders/advice. She does not know how long her recovery will be medical wise, only the medical staff can say exactly what happened with my injury. 'I am optimistic and hope to recover soon considering the world championships are three weeks away.' Ponor was asked if she prepared anything special for these world championships? 'My focus has been to regain majority of my old skills, I won't be showing anything new nor very difficult because the time to prepare for these championships has been short. I want to go out with clean execution and don't want to look like I lost anything during my time off from the sport since London. Regarding Rio de Janerios- 'Rio is/is not in my mind. Of course from many perspectives it is in my mind and it is my goal. However, I have to see how everything holds up with my health. Rio is still a long ways ahead, I am focusing on the present right now'. Regarding Larisa Iordache- 'Larisa is looking very good considering she was out with that injury for 8 months. She can still recover more and we have two weeks until the competition with Italy and three weeks until worlds, she can still add a few things here and there'. (I also want to mention that Miss Bitang during the nationals broadcast mentioned how driven Ponor and Iordache are. It is an extremely important trait to have as an athlete if you want to be successful and it's tremendously beneficial to the team. However, their drive can also be their worst enemy as they both push themselves too much sometimes. They want it too much placing them at a higher risk of injury. This injury Ponor has could probably have been avoided if she took training a bit lighter and not have been so aggressive in such a short period of time. Iordache has also been out for most of the year due to her ankle pain/injury and for her to be back at this competition level is remarkable. Bitang mentions how she thought Iordache should not have competed the silivas at nationals in EF. She wants to be on top and be competitive, we want that too, but she also pushes herself a bit too much. Is it worth risking another injury so early after her return to competition just to increase her D score by .2? Bitang doesn't think so.) SANDRA IZBASA! Reporter- Sandra, we were hoping to see you competing here today. How are things going? 'Training is going well, it's difficult but it's going. I am in the gym every day. I am training all four events with UB being the most difficult because it has never been my forte and the skills required on that event are still a 'shock' to my body and my palms are constantly burning now (not using grips?). I have been focusing more on conditioning/strength rather than regaining full routines/skills back. I feel that if I have my strength, flexibility & conditions back it will be easier to regain certain skills and full routines. If I had my routines back I would be here today competing at nationals, but as of right now I do not. Once I have full routines and am capable of doing them you will see me compete'. Is Rio on your mind? - 'Yes Rio is on my mind, it's my goal and I want to get there. If it will happen I will be very happy. If Rio does not happen then I'm fine with that because I have already accomplished so much'z

[mcsmariasgymnastics]

[gymfanatik]

I don't want to thing or to say or to consider that this is your last routine. I know that you will come back and you'll take your revenge. We love you Sandra and we will always support you no matter what. Enjoy your break. We'll be waiting for you. #sandraizbasa #sandraizbasafanclub #gymnastics #queen #romania #romaniangymnastics #teamromania #gymnasticalegend #gymnasticsQueen #weloveyouSandra #supportyourgymnast #olympics #OlympicChampion #facebook #vault #goldmedal

[dianachelarufan1101]

OMG she's a beauty 💕

[justsomegymnastics]

izbasa <3

[sunisalee]

[daveeft]

#SandraIzbasa #TeamRomania #London2012 #Gymnastic (Tomada con Instagram)

[romaniankoko]

Sandra Izbasa looking ahhhh-freaking-mazing. In and outside of the gym.

[romaniankoko]

Catalina has been training at Izvorani for one month, she returned to help Romania place on the podium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. She is training on 3 events, beam, floor, and vault. The “Constănţeanca: (City where she was born and raised) states that her entire life has been guided by the advice of Mariana Bitang and her mother. Her passion is playing the piano, but due to her lack of time she has not been able to make much progress playing the piano. “My favorite song to play is ‘Someone like you’ by Adele. I love artists that play the piano. The piano relaxes me and it gives me a spiritual comfort every time i hear piano music.”

Video Translation

What inspired you to come back again after 2.5 years away from the sport? Catalina: Overall I am a very ambitious person and the fact that no other gymnast in Romania has participated in three Olympics are some of the factors that have determined me to start training again. Catalina: You know I feel good, however after sitting home for two years it’s not that easy to get back into shape, it can’t be done over night. Of course there are aches and I feel sore. This is a hard time but also a beautiful time for me and I am sure that in the future this (training/comeback) will all play out in my favor.

Where do you find this motivation to still compete? Catalina: Well like I said I am ambitious, usually when I set my mind to do something I am successful. May God help me stay healthy and give me health until the the Olympic Games so I can bring good results.

She perhaps desires more medals, podiums, and moments where on that floor or beam she brings the audience to live and breath with her. “I think gymnastics for me is my life expressed without words. It is everything, it’s the sport that I have practiced since I was 4 years old, its gotten into my blood stream.” Appreciated, admired, or criticized, the ‘beam queen’ as she is knows is a mature person with a strong personality, sincere and open that will say things as they are.

What is the hardest part of a comeback? Catalina: I think the period that you basically have to get your organism back together, in which you as an old athlete have to take on the same sacrifices that you took on when you were younger and the period of getting back into shape. Getting back into physical shape is the priority. Is there a critical time at the beginning where the thought of leaving or restarting happens? Catalina: Yes, always. I have not arrived at that moment, but at some point I will run into a mental road block that if I don’t overcome will cause me not to succeed or achieve my goals. As an athlete you always have to push yourself from behind, you can’t wait for others. If you don’t desire to succeed but others do the results will not come. I had a lot of those moments during my last comeback in 2011 where I said I couldn’t do it anymore, but I pushed through and with my moms support I overcame them. I love to dance and listen to music, I love Enrique Iglesias, but I have never been to his concert. I actually have only been to only one concert in my life, tha was Justin TImberlake when I was in Canada with Loredana Boboc. I like figure skating, I follow it on t.v.

How do you feel after a month of training? You started working on 3 events? Catalina: If I am to make this comeback it has to be textbook material. For me there was never the thought to only comeback for one or two events. Either all three events or nothing at all. If I want a spot on the team I have to compete beam, floor and vault. There are aches at the beginning, its normal, I have some tendon and back aches that I will never escape, but I push through. It’s just important to be healthy because of the ambition and desire I have for these games. I could risk the biggest failure of my career, but I will try and will work hard to avoid failure because in life if you set your mind to something you will succeed. 

What did those close to you say or think about your comeback? Catalina: To be honest they were not in favor. My mom nor Tommy wanted me to comeback, they are thinking about my health. My mom is still hoping that I will change my mind. I actually laugh and joke with her when we speak, I tell her I’m still in the gym. How do you feel in the gym among the small girls? Do you ask yourself what you are doing there? Catalina: In general I don’t really look at the other girls to see what they are doing. For me there is that desire to show everyone what I can do and how I can do my thing, so I just mind my own business and focus on what I have to do instead of looking at what is going on in the gym. Of course it is normal to cheer for them, to shout at them when there is a verification, to push them, but in training day to day I mind my own business. Are you afraid of critics? There will always be critics, I cant please everyone and I don’t wish to. There will be some people that will criticize me even if I succeed, something to contest, maybe they want others to win or they simply tell themselves that since Ponor came back she is replacing someone else. But I do not pay attention to that, do we? (she smiles). “I don’t think the desire and motivation that we used to have exists anymore.”

The first reactions related to your and Sandra Izbasas comeback were that you will take the younger girls spots. Is it hard to enter the gym with that thought? Catalina: Here is the thing. Gymnastics is a sport that is done on difficulty and execution, which you either have or don’t. It’s simple! I wish for the girls in the gym to show me that they are better than me and to create that competition in the gym. I would like to see that they all work hard and have the desire to beat me and that I do not deserve anyone’s spot on the team, to show that they deserve a spot on the team. I have no issue with the coaches telling me “Hey Ponor, look X gymnast is better than you, you need to work harder”..

Do you see yourself in the younger girls in the gym? Your 2003, 2004 Catalina. Do you tell yourself “that is how I was when I was their age”. I didn’t know what I wanted and didn’t really want to do this or that”?? Catalina: Yes, because I had moments where I didn’t like the physical training, I wold cry if they would make me do a routine again. I had moments when I wanted to leave. I actually had conversation with one of the girls where I explained to them that I had the same mentality. You just have to overcome these things. I had plenty of those moments in the 2004 quad, however we were a team and as teammates we encouraged each other. My teammates encouragement were more important for us than those of the coaches.

Do you think the girls today don’t feel like a team? Catalina: I think that today the motivation and desire that we had during my younger years is non existent. There is not that hunger for medals, for results. For us, the 2004 generation, every competition was a fight where we gave it all or nothing, in every competition we all had the same thought: to beat everything, to be the best. Are we missing that rough desire to win? Catalina: A bitter desire to win all…Yes. We never had issues with our competitors. For us all that mattered was that we would go with a routine that had hundreds of repetitions in the gym, to do clean work and do exactly as we did in the gym. There was never the thought that maybe the gymnast from Russia or China had a better routine. Yes, but the code of points has changed, it’s hard to arrive to a routine with big difficulty. Catalina: Gymnastics is a sport is done with talent and hard work. With thousands of repetitions, with training days that leave you falling apart and not able to get out of bed in the morning, but if you do all this with consciousness, day to day, believe me that you can get to high difficulty. You just have to want it… What is your first memory from the gym? Catalina: My first and favorite one is that of when I first stepped foot into the gym. I was simply fascinated by all that I saw in the gym. How were you perceived by your class mates? Catalina: We were a group of 7-8 girls, we would come and go together like little birds. Back then our school from Flamanda, #30 Gheorge Titeica was a general school with other athletes/sports. Do you remember your first competition? Catalina: I was 9 yrs old, I remember that during that time I loved UB and vault, exactly the opposite of whats happening now. At that competition my UB routine was a mess, but beam was good and I even won the beam title. From that moment I said that beam will be my favorite event, so I insisted a lot on this event. It’s true that until now I have not fell on beam, and I hope God to prevent that. From when I was young I caught a special technique on beam. With fingers I hold on to the beam. It was always the dismount on bars that scared me, I never had a good dismount.   How did you get that consistency on beam? Catalina: My grandfather worked in construction, I told him I wanted the Uneven bars in the house so I could practice all the time, but my mom and grandmother would say “Daughter, you are mental, where do you want to put the Uneven Bars in the house?”. I told them I wanted an event in the house so I could practice at home too not just in the gym. So then my grandfather brought home a plank, as big as one of those on a bench because he didn’t know how wide a beam was. From that moment I placed the plank on two poufs and I tried to do what I did in the gym. I was desperate to show my parents and grandparents what I learned in the gym. What is your relationship with UB? How did it come that you don’t train it anymore? Catalina: I think I had bad basics at the club, initially I didn’t do UB anymore since 2004, exactly since the end of team finals at the 2004 Olympic Games. I tried a bit in 2011, but it was so hard to comeback on that event, the dismount was the biggest issue for me as I never had a good one. Would you change anything in your career? Catalina: Nothing. I say that I have achieved all that I set myself to, I think Ive had a full career in which I have showed that it was never a coincidence that I won. After London you said there was no chance of a comeback, how come you changed your mind? Catalina: The desire to experience moments of training, to be in the gym, to stay at Izvorani camp, and the desire to stay in a room with 4 walls to be with myself and my thoughts. In the end camp is part of your life and a day comes when you miss it. Even if we didn’t like camp/national training before, now we have come to like them. I think I just matured, the fact that I know what I am here for and the fact that the desire to leave/sneak out doesn’t exist anymore. What is going on in your head during a beam routine? Catalina: I always have in mind my coaches corrections so everytime I get on any event I tell myself what I need to do, what I need to do with this hand, to hold the foot this way, and in general I do not hear what is going on around me because I talk to myself. I tell myself exactly what my teammates yell during my routine <<”Breath, careful, put the foot here, breath, careful, come on you can do it>> When you came back in 2011 people spoke of a rival between you and Izbasa. You are two persons with different strong personalities, ambitious. Now she declares that you motivated her to comeback. Catalina: In the end this rival has an advantage, now it depends how each person sees things. If for Sandra it was a motivation for me to be her rival, we were not rivals, we were in competition with each other. In the gym we didn’t have the same events in common aside from floor, she would do vault and floor, I would do beam and floor, but at the same time it was a competition that helped both of us. The result was seen at the Olympic Games where we were the only ones to walk away with medals. Did you and Sandra become closer after your comeback in 2011? Catalina: You know how it is, in a family there are conflicts. After the London Games we relaxed with everyone, we had discussion in where we asked what we had against each other, only to come to see that the information would come and go in a weird way from one place to another like in a wireless phone. That discussion helped us be open with each other, we began to communicate more with each other and to not consider this as a rivalry. What does the 2004, 2012, and 2015 Catalina have in common? Catalina. Ambition and stubbornness. I like to take negative things that are said, like ‘she is too old’ and to demonstrate the exact opposite. Its a drive for me.   Do you watch your routines on youtube? Catalina: Yes, in general I just watch the good routines. I do not like to watch the bad ones, the ones where I faltered. For example, I have not watched the beam routine from event finals in London because I know I messed up. I like to stay with the good memories and images. In general I am a perfectionist and try to bring that into my routines. When I look on youtube I watch the floor final from London and those routines from 2004. I would like to have an element named after me, however its hard with the current code of points, but I do play around with new skills in the gym and I hope in the end fro something new to show up, but we will see. What is your favorite medal? Olympic gold medal with the team, that happiness when we hugged each other, we looked in each others eyes telling each other that we are olympic champions will not be replaced by anything. We were like little sisters

[mcsmariasgymnastics]

[gymfanatik]

One year ago you conquered the world! #vaultqeen #olympicchampion #sandraizbasa #sandraizbasafanclub #londonOlympics #gymnastics #romaniangymnastics #OlympicChampion #London2012 #VaultChampion

[gymfanatik]

Congratulations Ms Lieutenant! We love you! #sandraizbasa #sandraizbasafanclub #champion #goldmedal #gymnastics #romaniangymnastics #London2012 #Beijing2008 #Olympics #FloorChampion #VaultChampion #rolemodel #favoritegymnast