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Andreea Raducan is back in Germany, though this time it has nothing to do with competing gymnastics. Gymworld met her at the large international tourism fair “ITB” in Berlin where she represented the company CMB TRAVEL, where she has already been working for a couple of months. Seeming a bit exhausted after a long working-week at the busy ITB, Andreea was nonetheless as charming and as friendly as ever. She was happy to have a chat with gymworld about her new career plans.
A first sight, it might not be understandable why someone from gymnastics ends up in tourise, but Andreea explains this easily. "During my gymnastics career I travelled a lot and met a lot of people from all over the World. Now I would be happy if those people come to Romania so that I can show them my country. We have prepared a special cultural and touristic program which includes a surprise for the tourists. I will meet them at the airport and for one day during their stay we will visit the gymnastics school in Deva. I will be there to answer all their questions.”
 Considering the friction that has come up between the Romanin coaches and some of the national team member is recent years, one might wonder what Octavian Belu thinks about a bunch of tourists running into his home turf.Andreea explains that even the coaches liked the idea very much."They think that the publicity will be a good thing also for Romanian gymnastics.” Andreea divides her time between Timisoara, where she's a second-year physical education student, and Deva, where she still has a lot of friends. At the moment, Andreea is spending most of her time in Bucharest, where CMB travel has it's offices. “I like going to the office. The work is interesting and I can learn a lot of new things there.”
Despite her studies of Physical Education, Andreea seems more interested in a career in tourism than a life as a gymnastics coach. ”There is a lot of competition in the field of tourism, just like it is in gymnastics – and I like that!” Unlike many other former Romaian gymnasts, Andreea has no intenetions of moving to a foreign country. “No, I don’t think so. I like travelling a lot but I don’t like to be away from home for too long.” She still maintains close contact with her former teammates. “Of course, we have lived together for so long and belong to the same generation. There are various opportunities to see each other, such as at university. For example, Andreea Isarescu is studying in the same year together with me.”
 With the Olymic Games in Athens approaching, Andreea sometimes wonders if she should have done it again. “But in order to compete at such level of competition you have to work a lot in order to be in a very good shape. And I also think that in Sydney 2000, I performed on the Olympic stage during my best years!” She has gotten over loosing the all-around gold medal in Sydney, although there are still times where she thinks about how it would have been to keep the medal. Even today in Romania people in the streets ask her about this. “I am very glad that in the hearts of the people I am still the Olympic Champion. That is more important to me than having the medal.” Having put so much work into her gymnastics career Andreea now enjoys having a bit more free time. She smiles when telling gymworld that she has a boyfriend and mentions: “Sometimes I like going to the disco too. We are young and of course always find something to do!” – Well, if you're convinced now that Andreea will also be able to present you with something to do in Romania, just go to www.rotraveler.com to find out more details…
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katjafan /Elena |
