Team Romania in the Coronavirus Pandemic: “Raluca and Valentin benefit from the IOC solidarity program!”

Bucharest (FIL) The Covid-19 pandemic has kept Europe in suspense since March 2020. Even in the small country of Romania, with a population of about 19.4 million, according to official statistics more than 10,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and more than 2,000 people even died of Covid-19. Difficult and uncertain times are ahead for competitive sports in Romania, as in all of Europe.

The federal coach of the Romanian Luge Federation Sorina Țicu speaks of changes in the structure of the national team: “This year we were able to admit more athletes to the Olympic team. There are also more young athletes who are supported by our National Olympic Committee (NOC). Some of them will already be training to qualify for Beijing, but have set their big goals for Cortina 2026. Our top athletes Raluca Stramaturaru and Valentin Cretu will benefit from the IOC solidarity programme, for which we are very grateful!”

Up to now, the athletes in Romania have had to advance their school education and pursue their work, as far as this was possible within the framework of the measures to contain the Covid 19 pandemic. Although Romania was less affected in the first phase of the pandemic than it is now in August 2020, the government declared a state of emergency from March to April.

The federal coach reports: “Our training plans had to be adjusted and the training at the beginning of the summer season had to be organised from home. Within ZOOM Meeting, video analysis and WhatsApp we were able to communicate and conduct video analysis of some of the luge runs from last season with the athletes. We studied the different lines and steering  techniques in comparison to the world's best luge athletes. I personally worked from home and had a lot of online contact with our athletes and their families. This enabled me to understand their needs and problems very well. In the months May to July the situation was more relaxed and training with the athletes of the general class takes place regularly again with our coach Eugen Radu. The juniors will start a centralized training course on September 6th, 2020 with the whole team under the guidance of our coach Ioan Apostol.” 

The training sessions of the Romanian luge athletes are currently held in groups of six people. All participants are regularly tested on the Coronavirus. The Romanian Federation  had planned the pre-Olympic season with training sessions and the national start championships on ice in Oberhof (GER) perfectly. Sorina Țicu had to reschedule because of Covid-19: “Due to the pandemic we have now planned the start championships in Romania. As we don't have an ice start track, they will be organized with spikes on a special start track for summer sliding and will take place from October 4 to 10, 2020. We had hoped for a successful season and are now preparing for special conditions.”