The Romanian Gymnastics Federation banned three former gymnasts from coaching and refereeing in official competitions for five years after they appeared nude in a DVD film and photographs published in Japan.
The film, which began to be marketed in Japan two weeks ago, shows Romanian gymnasts Lavinia Milosovici, 26, Claudia Presecan, 23, and Corina Ungureanu, 22, posing and performing gymnastics naked.
``Their action [posing nude] has damaged Romanian gymnastics,'' Adrian Stoica, the secretary general of the federation, said on Wednesday.
PHOTO: AP
The suspension means the athletes can coach privately, but cannot take part in any official competitions organized by the federation. Milosovici is a gymnastics coach while Presecan teaches gymnastics in a school.
Stoica said that while athletes had the right to pose nude, they should not have used gymnastics suits with emblems of the Romanian federation.
Milosovici won two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, while Presecan took a gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The decision to suspend them comes a day after the Japanese Junior Gymnastic Club Federation officials debated whether to ban Romania from a youth tournament scheduled to take place in Yokohama, Japan, next September.
Japanese organizers, who were concerned that the three former stars could set a bad example for teenage gymnasts, decided in the end to allow two Romanian gymnasts to be among the 40 athletes from 14 nations expected to take part in the competition.
The flap over the DVDs comes weeks after the three former gymnasts bared all in photos carried in the Nov. 16 edition of Shukan Gendai, a Japanese weekly magazine. The magazine bought the photos from Tokyo-based Ongaku Senaka Co, which published a book of the photos last month.
Both the publisher and the DVD producers refused to say how much the former athletes earned, but Romanian newspapers reported the former gymnastics stars earned some US$40,000 each for the pictures and the film.
Ungureanu, a member of the Romanian team that won the World Championship title in 1997 and 1999, was at the center of a similar scandal in 1999 when she posed nude for the Romanian edition of Playboy magazine.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS