A year after we first posted the award winning tell all exposé Secrets of a Gymnast by Andrei Nourescu, I’m embarrassed to say I still have not read it.
There seems to be several different covers. With at least two different titles in English:
Buy a copy for yourself, $20 at Cafe Press.
Books like this turn me off. I am suspicious of those who make money by “revealing” the “scandals” of the past. But, in the case of Romania, many of these scandals have been well documented already. For example: Romanian gymnasts faked age to compete (BBC, 2002).
I could believe almost anything possible.
That’s Alexandra Marinescu on the cover, one of the girls who’s age was faked.
Leave a comment if you’ve read the book and can recommend it. Or not.
Thanks northernriver of difficulty plus execution for the reminder.
1 comment so far ↓
Rick,
I have to admit the reason why I brought the topic up was because I’m not sure people should try to get the book. I’ve heard a lot about fan reaction to the book, and it was mostly unfavorable.
The content is interesting, to be sure, but nothing really new, unless one wants to know what Alexandra personally thought of her teammates. In the book, the names have been changed “to protect privacy”.
From all reports, the English version is full of spelling and grammar errors. Even the author, I’ve been told, has had his credibility as a journalist questioned. (But then again, this is Romania, the land of drama-mongerers…everyone’s going to get questioned.)
And in this case you’ve a right to be suspicious of whose making money off of this. The people making money off the book sales are people who don’t care about the gymnasts or the sport–not only that, it’s been said that the person associated with promoting/selling the book at Cafepress has scammed Romanian gymnasts themselves (most notably 2004 Olympian Oana Ban).
Isn’t Romanian gymnastics exciting?
In conclusion: it’s an interesting read, if one can get past the bad English, but I don’t think it’s worth the money.
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