Former world and European gymnastics champion Corina Ungureanu trains children and junior athletes at Petrolul Ploiesti Sports Club (CS), her ambition and that of her colleagues being to reach the top tier of clubs alongside names such as Dinamo, Steaua, Deva, Onesti and Constanta.

After retiring from the competition activity, Corina Ungureanu remained close to gymnastics and, in a small hall in an old building near the Ilie Oana stadium in Ploiesti, she works daily with young athletes who dream of a career inspired by that of Nadia Comaneci.

'Nadia paved the way towards gymnastics of difficulty and elegance and is certainly an inspiration for each of us who are part of the generation that continued the tradition of Romanian gymnastics. Nadia belongs to us, to Romania, and the 50 years since she received the first 10 in the history of gymnastics must be and deserve to be celebrated,' Corina Ungureanu told AGERPRES.

Children continue to take up the sport but the major problems are the lack of coaches and suitable space for training young athletes.

Photo: (c) Corina Ungureanu/Personal archive

'Children come, the problem is that we do not have enough coaches. We would like to promote gymnastics more because it is the foundation for all other sports. We would like to, but the hall is small, we do not have enough coaches and we are limited in these respects. Even former athletes no longer come. This sport is so complex and comes with such great responsibility, regardless of the level at which you practise as a coach... There are four of us here. We also have a former gymnast who helps us with groups for all ages. From there we select a few promising athletes whom we promote to advanced groups and continue working with them. We try to promote towards this five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week performance only those children who truly have that something which can promise a future,' said Corina Ungureanu.

The coaches at CS Petrolul Ploiesti aim to align the club with those in the top tier and the first notable results have already appeared, with strong prospects for further achievements.

'Our ambition is to reach the top tier of clubs, to be alongside Dinamo, Steaua, Deva, Onesti and Constanta. We were somehow behind and we have started, little by little, to move upwards. We have been working together with these 2021 generations. I believe that this year we will already get closer and that from next year we can have higher expectations. We took two girls, Bianca Barla and Daria Mihai, to trials for these Olympic scholarships for a junior squad and we are waiting for the results. They meet the age requirements. For next year there are two more children whom we believe could join a junior squad. It would be extraordinary to have three or four girls in a junior squad for a period. We also have here a six-year-old girl who has that spark you only expect once in a career. Of course, there is still a long way to go but it is a first step and this happens after many, many years, to be able to have a cohesive team of junior girls who can compete and have the motivation to move forward. It is very positive in the section that through hard work, many sacrifices and many shortcomings we manage to convince children to come after five or six hours of school for another five hours here,' the coach said.

One of the major challenges in working with current generations is that coaches must adapt to increasingly strong and varied personalities and bring each athlete to the point where she is ready for training or competition.

Photo: Anamaria Constantin/AGERPRES

No intervention or motivation from coaches is sufficient, however, if the young gymnasts do not love the sport, which Corina Ungureanu says is not boring, being a sport of imagination, but is demanding.

'It is not a boring sport. We can line up one hundred days of training and no two days will be alike. It is very varied. You have the freedom to do things. Of course, you comply with technical and execution requirements. But it is a sport of imagination. As a coach, you must know when you feel they are starting to get bored with a particular exercise, you must have the ability to understand, to know each one and to intervene, change and adapt. We spend more time with them than they do with their parents at home. We see them from the moment they enter the hall, who is smiling, who is not, who is tired, from the way they start running. (...) We must somehow balance seriousness and work, to make the children truly want to surpass themselves and it is not easy to pull them away from phones and various influences. Other children go to the shopping centre, we come to the gym hall on Saturdays. Other children do certain things, we come and work. It is not easy. Anyone who does not want to do this and does not love what we do will achieve nothing. It is simple. There are no secrets or other recipes,' the former champion explained.

At present, the gymnastics section of CS Petrolul Ploiesti has 14 girls who officially represent the club in national competitions, eight of whom are trained by Corina Ungureanu and Camelia Radulescu.

Photo: (c) Corina Ungureanu/Personal archive

The year marking 50 years since Nadia Comaneci received the first perfect 10 in the history of gymnastics, the Rising Stars Trophy, an international junior women's artistic gymnastics competition, will return to Ploiesti after three years, with an estimated 60 to 70 athletes from around ten countries expected to participate.

'There are only two international competitions in Romania, the Nadia Comaneci Cup in Onesti in May and ours, the Rising Stars Trophy. We will make the most of all that means promotion of gymnastics and of this name, Nadia, which must somehow help us bring gymnastics back on track,' said Corina Ungureanu.

On 10 July 2025, President Nicusor Dan signed the decree promulgating the law establishing 2026 as the Nadia Comaneci Year to mark 50 years since the legendary performances of the Romanian gymnast at the 21st edition of the Summer Olympic Games held in 1976 in Montreal, where she achieved the first perfect 10 in world gymnastics. Throughout 2026, several events will be organised under the coordination of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee.

The Montreal Summer Olympic Games have rightly remained in history as the Nadia Comaneci Olympics, being associated with the perfection achieved by Nadia Comaneci in artistic gymnastics. For the first time ever, the Romanian athlete received a 10 on the uneven bars, a score that could not be displayed on the electronic scoreboard. The electronic equipment for gymnastics had not been programmed to display a 10 as no one believed such a score could be achieved.

At the age of 14, Nadia Comaneci became a star of the Olympic Games. Not only was she the first gymnast to receive a perfect 10 at the Olympics but she achieved this performance no fewer than seven times in a single Olympic competition, a historic record. She won three gold medals in the individual all-around, balance beam and uneven bars, a team silver medal and a bronze medal in the floor event. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Anamaria Constantin; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)