Gymnastics, Romania’s most successful discipline in the history of the Olympic Games, went through difficult years, in which it no longer mattered even at the European level. The year 2024 was the turning point and things seemed to be back to normal. But 2026, in which we will celebrate 50 years since the perfect score achieved by Nadia Comăneci at the Olympic Games, begins with shocking decisions.
The multiple scandals involving Camelia Voinea, the mother and coach of the hopeful Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, led to the dissolution of the national gymnastics teams. In addition, the end of last year also brought the resignation of Corina Moroșan, the coach who qualified the national team after 12 at the Olympics, and who obtained the first medal for Romania (Ana Bărbosu – bronze on floor), after the historic successes of the tricolors at Londa 2012 (Sandra Izbașa – gold on jumps, Cătălina Ponor – silver on floor and team bronze).
Corina Moroșan announced through golazo.ro that she has closed her accounts with the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, following the scandals that had Camelia Voinea as the protagonist and the lack of a vision at the federation level.
Corina Moroșan has been active in the national team since 2020
“On December 27, I submitted my resignation and it was accepted. I could no longer work in that environment. I did not interact with anyone from FRG, they did not ask me anything, everything was done through the lawyer. I had no doubt that they would agree to the resignation. The situation (not with the scandals) dragged on and nothing was resolved, and that was a waste of time. The lack of vision bothered me, and here I mean the dissolution of the lots nationals, and I didn’t see a future anymore.
I didn’t know where else to get it. And the girls, since they came from the World Championships, have not trained twice a day. Essential time, to set up physical training, learning new elements. It is also important that we lost Sebi (no – Sebastian Nemeș, second coach) and no solution was found for him to return. And what could I do alone? That I was effectively alone. The entire collective was disbanded. And it’s hard to find other people as good“, said Corina Moroșan, who also coached the Great Britain and Belgium teams before returning to the helm of the Romanian team in 2020.
Nicolae Forminte will take over the team
FRG reacted quickly after settling accounts with the 59-year-old coach. Last night, he installed Nicolae Forminte at the helm of the national gymnastics team, who was in this position between 2005 and 2010, then between 2016 and 2019. His departure 6 years ago came after the girls’ disastrous performances both at the Europeans (the first edition without a medal after 31 years) and at the 2019 World Championships (22nd out of 24 teams, below North Korea, Mexico or Argentina), equivalent to missing the qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Romania’s women’s artistic gymnastics teams, before disbanding
Batch 1
Sporty: Sabrina Maneca-Voinea
Head Coach:
Camelia Voinea
Second coach:
Dan Potra
Batch 2
Sportswear: Mara Ceplinschi, Amalia Ghigoartă, Anamaria Mihăescu, Denisa Golgotă (on the verge of retirement)
Head Coach:
Corina Moroșan (resigned)
Second coach:
Sebastian Nemes (resigned).
The two lots are to be united into one, under the leadership of Nicolae Forminte.
