24. August 2005
Bucharest / Romania
Artistic Gymnastics
Ioachim OANA: I still feel guilty!
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Ioachim OANA in interview...
Prosport, Romania
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In case of Raducan 2000...
After five years of silence, the Romanian doctor Ioachim Oana, who gave Andreea Raducan the Nurofen pill prior to the all-around competition after which she tested positive for a banned substance and lost her AA-title, accepted to give Romania’s second sports newspaper 'PROSPORT' an interview where he talks and answers questions about the “Nurofen-case” around Andreea Raducan adding together more details....
Oana states that he has always admitted that he considers himself responsible and regrets all the things that happened after Raducan’s urine sample tested positive, the reason being the cold pill “Nurofen” Oana had given to Raducan during podium training after she complained about a severe headache and presented with fever.
Interview
-Prosport, Romania
I.O.: -- “In Sydney at that time the whole team was suffering from a flu and those who were in Sydney remember that I was walking up and down the Olympic Village with an electric kettle in my hands. I gave her that pill for her cold and not for anything else.
Asked whether he is still in contact with Andreea Raducan from that moment in Sydney on, he declares:
I.O.: -- “Yes, our relationship is as good as ever, despite the fact the many people asked her to guilt me in public for the things that happened. I still call her to wish her Happy Birthday, and so does she.”
He declares to still maintain relations to the team coaches and that he has been even proposed returning to the team in his function as the team doctor (I. Oana was expelled from the Sydney 2000 OG and banned for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as well as barred from participating in the World, European Championships and any other FIG-sponsored international events for four years = until 2005):
I.O.:--- I’m regularly talking to Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang and even requested to go back to the team however just when I decided to return, the Petrovschi-Scandal started off.
With regard to that, Oana asserts that injuries like those of Petrovschi are unfortunately common among all gymnasts, resulting from practicing and training a competitive sport.
source: prosport/ROM
Three mouthfuls of water Gazeta Sporturilor, Romania In an interview with last weeks weekend-edition of the Romanian sports newspaper “Gazeta Sporturilor”, Andrea Raducan, becoming 22 in September, tells her 'story' in short.
Among hundreds of plush animals from the Antwerp visitors - big sympathy worldwide - here at the
Olympic Gala 2000 in Antwerp (photo, right >>)
The article entitled “Three mouthfuls of water” (a quote of Andreea) features a very up-to-date interview/-portrait as well as recent pictures of of the Romanian gymnast who talks about her activities both throughout her competitive gymnastics career (especially comments on the Sydney-episode) as well as after, her life right now and her plans for the future.
Asked about why she “always hides”, Andreea responds that she doesn’t like being a public person, always being featured in the press. Quote: “If I would be in the papers all the time, people would get bored seeing my face over and over again”.
The article alludes to the happenings at the Olympic Games in Sydney, 2000, where Raducan was stripped of her all-around gold medal after testing positive for a banned substance in a drug (Nurofen®) she was given unintentionally by team doctor Ioachim Oana after reporting headache and fever during podium training.
„Three mouthfuls of water“ is a quote of Andrea Raducan since in the interview, she retrospectively supposes that if she would have taken the pill with „Two or three mouthfuls of water“ instead of swallowing it just with saliva (being on the podium, working on the balance beam at the moment) it might not have been that concentrated in the sample she provided after the AA-competition, testing positive later-on.
Ironically, according to the Summary of Key Changes to the WADA Prohibited List 2004, published by WADA in 2003, the banned substance „pseudoephidrine“ in Nurofen®, that made her test positive:
(…) „...has been removed from the banned list from Jan 1st. This is good news as it means that athletes can take many decongestant remedies, which were previously prohibited (e.g. Codral, Coldrex, Nurofen Cold and Flu, Sudafed) to alleviate symptoms of the common cold... (…).
She is still in touch with Ioachim Oana and considers him not guilty, describing him as “a very nice person; a sentimentalist” .
On the question how much money she still owns from her times as a gymnast she tells Gazeta that although she was offered and signed an advantageous contract with the manufacturing company of Nurofen, half of them got spent quickly and she even finds herself without money sometimes.
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... still dreams of performing on the beam!
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She does not complain however and considers herself lucky although she tells Gazeta that unfortunately she didn’t find someone who could have turned her image and story in some financial benefits.
Asked about her future plans, Andreea says that she doesn’t know yet what she is going to do in the future.
She refused to become a news anchorwoman for a Romanian television channel and asked about whether she would become a coach she answered: “Never!'
Questioned “Why?” she answered:
“As a coach you need to have specific attributes, among which the attribute to be strict. I am not like that. I could just coach little kids (literally translated: “small dwarfs”) practicing somersaults with them.”
“The only thing I am missing from gymnastics is the balance beam exercise. There a nights in which – in dreams - I see myself working on the beam!'- Andreea Raducan told Gazeta Sporturilor.
