It's like someone important is missing from a party because you can't imagine an Olympic gymnastics competition without Romania.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.
Gymnastics is so huge in the Olympics. There are a lot of fans who want to see more.
The Olympics shows the community what gymnastics is all about.
My mother never watched me train in Romania. She wasn't allowed, it just wasn't done back then. My training was paid for by the government. My parents were not at the Olympics with me, either. I never expected them to be.
Gymnastics should be popular everywhere; you just need the right person to start the right programme.
It's never easy at the Olympic level. Russia, Romania and China always are contenders.
Finally I almost dropped gymnastics because I couldn't live without create, and you know, and then, all public in the world start to say, we don't want to see gymnastics without OLGA.
More than ever, Romania now needs to see that a force exists that puts an end to Ponta and Antonescu's abuses and coup d'etat. This force is none other than the Romanian people.
See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?'
Romania doesn't have a big tradition of gymnastics as a fun activity. We were a little behind in this aspect.