Sports performance and school performance are often seen in Romanian society as two diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive things. However, there are both studies and cases of students, which prove exactly the opposite, especially if a few golden rules are followed.
In Romania, there has long been the concept that sports performance excludes school performance and vice versa. Or, in other words, according to the same concepts, a child either does performance sports or school, both of which are almost impossible to achieve.
There are still enough Romanian parents who believe that it is better for the student to do more school than sports, sacrificing, for example, the hours intended for physical movement to work more on mathematics, Romanian or other subjects considered important. On the other hand, there are also parents who claim that teachers should be lenient at school with performance athletes, on the principle “Why do they need so much school?”, that they become boxers, footballers, wrestlers, athletes and so on anyway.
The phrase also appears: “You can’t be good at everything“. Well, in Romania there are enough students of the impossible. That is, children who manage, miraculously for some, to have phenomenal results at school, but also to perform at the highest level in the sports field. In addition, specialized studies confirm the fact that, indeed, sports go hand in hand with school performance and are recommended for increasing intellectual capacity. At the same time, intellectual performance, in turn, increases the career success of athletes and helps them to do better in life after they finish their performance The Truth presents you with both expert opinions and examples of students who manage to get 10s in school and at the same time achieve notable achievements in sports.
National goalkeeper, with ten on the line
One of the best examples is Andra Romaniuc, an 18-year-old young woman from Botoșani. She is a student in the 12th grade at the High School with Sports Program in Botoșani, one of the top vocational-sports high schools at the national level and where the emphasis is on school and sport equally, with a special spirit of discipline. Andra is the goalkeeper of the women’s football team of FC Botoșani and, at the same time, she also has two selections for the Romanian women’s national football team, for juniors. He coaches kids at a local club, does very well at the national sports theory olympiads and has a successful career ahead of him. Andra is not only a national soccer player, but also an outstanding student. He ended the year with 10 on the line and took the first prize. Moreover, for Andra Romaniuc, performance in sports and in education always went hand in hand. “For me, school was always important, and so was sports. Both were very important”confesses Andra.
The passion for football started from childhood. “She was always bullied by her cousins. And there he caught the “germ”. I had this passion since I was little, I was put in the gate by my cousins and from there the flame was lit and I really wanted to continue“, adds Andra. That’s how he became a goalkeeper at FC Botoșani and, at the same time, he got two important selections for the women’s national football team. More precisely, at U15 and U16.
“I was part of the national team, as a goalkeeper, and participated in various development tournaments”adds Andra. The young woman from Botosani says that she has no secret about the fact that she manages to achieve both educational and sports achievements, unlike many other children of her generation, who choose one or the other.
“Throughout the years I tried to be as consistent as possible, to have the best averages. I studied in all subjects. For me, all subjects are important, they have their role in my development. In addition, as a child I was a perfectionist in everything. And I tried to create a balance between sports and education”explains Andra.
“It’s important to be organized and disciplined”
In addition to Andra Romaniuc, there are other students who come to contradict all the urban and educational myths about sports and education. For example, Irina Funduianu is a student in the 10th grade and succeeds brilliantly in performing at both the educational and sports levels. She finished the school year with only an average of 10. At the same time, she is a top athlete, managing to become national champion in the mountain running event, but also in the cross country event. She created her own system and also confesses that she is very organized.
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“I learned by myself how to learn, how to organize myself. To plan my time well, to be rested and in training, to do my lessons well, to read, to learn, to have free time. It is important to be organized and disciplined”says Irina.
Another Botošan woman, Beatrice Ungureanu, is also an ideal example. She finished high school as valedictorian, with an average of 10 in all years of study. And, watch out, practice freestyle wrestling, managing to get on the podium at the national level.
“I took 2nd place, 3rd place, with the team, individually. At school I am head of promotion. I finished the 12th grade. I had a general average of 10 in all the years of study. Indeed, I managed to create a balance between sports training and lessons at school. I took everything slowly, methodically, organized. I learned every day, for each subject, I didn’t leave anything for the last hundred meters, I didn’t let gaps accumulate. That’s how I succeeded”says Beatrice.
Sports improve academic performance. The secret of success
Expert studies show that sports, including performance sports, go hand in hand with school performance. On the contrary, sports have been shown to stimulate and improve academic performance. In particular, it is about an important study carried out by the specialists of the University of Sydney, Australia, through the Charles Perkins Centre. At the same time, the results of more than 115 studies carried out worldwide, which included more than one million students from several areas of the globe, aged between 9 and 18, were taken into account.
The study indicates that including a moderate participation in sports activities during the sports classes, i.e. two hours per week, has a noticeable effect.
“We believe we see this link because sports activity occurs immediately before academic lessons and therefore can have an immediate effect on children’s attention and concentration on schoolwork. We observed that the most significant improvements occurred in the subjects of mathematics and science,” states Katherine Owen, coordinating doctor of the study, published in the scientific journal “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise”.
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Other studies indicate that exercise physically changes the brain, increasing volume in regions associated with memory and cognitive functions. This is where better results in science come from.
The secrets of students who perform well in sports as well as in education, experts say, actually lie in discipline and organization. High achievers plan their weeks in advance and know exactly when they have tests and practices, avoiding learning on the last hundred meters. Instead of studying for hours, they use short periods of concentration in the breaks between practices.
Then there is that “growth mindset”, defined by many specialists and translated as “growth mindset” or “success mindset”. They are the children who accept failure and learn from it. In both science and sport, learning involves trial, error and resilience. These children treat failure as a learning opportunity, not as a final failure.
At the same time, an important ingredient is the passion for sports and learning, which helps them maintain a constant pace in both areas without being overwhelmed.
Last but not least, sleep and recovery are important. Sleep is when the brain processes information and the muscles recover. They prioritize 8–10 hours of quality sleep per night. It’s the students who work smarter, not necessarily harder. Instead of excessive training or repetitions, I use short but intense and quality sessions, both in sports and studies.
It relies on strategic time management and internal motivation rather than innate genius. The secret lies in a balanced lifestyle, where regular physical activity actively improves cognitive functioning. Basically, sports and academic learning help each other. The overlap between the two areas involves a strict daily routine and a healthy growth mindset.
Culmea, in Romania, following a survey conducted by World Vision Romania among parents and teachers of physical education and sports in rural areas, worrying results appear. About 81% of children do not have sports activities outside of physical education classes.
