Presăcan quits rowing

Last Wednesday, Claudia Presăcan packed her bags and left the National rowing team behind. The Olympic team champion said her decision to quit rowing, the sport she made her debut in earlier this year, is final. “I have my reasons. One of them would be the disagreement with the people from Steaua, the club I represent. Ever since I was competing for them in gymnastics, back in ’98, I suggested they hire me [i.e., pay her for training and competing for the club]. They refused,” says Claudia. She was promised that once she switched to rowing her chances of working for the army club would increase. “That’s not how it worked out. They keep postponing my case since January.”

Another factor that contributed to her decision to quit was the fact that she couldn’t adapt to the [training] conditions in rowing. “To be honest, I didn’t even like the sport, so I didn’t fit in extremely well. There’s a ton of reasons. I’m not about to list all of them, because in the end, they’ll make it look like I was the bad guy,” confessed Claudia.

Yet another reason that could have precipitated Claudia’s decision to leave the team deals with the ROC cutting funds allocated to daily food supplies for athletes. Basically, the ROC reverted to paying the same amount of money they gave athletes before the Olympics, but with the high inflation rate, the end result is that athletes involved in high-impact sports, like rowing or weight lifting are unable to get all the food they need.

Despite the finality of the decision, assistant coach Mircea Roman, hopes the former coxswain will return to the team. “She has a dilemma on her hands. Due to her lack of experience, she can only get in the boat during training sessions. We would rather use two-time world champion Rodica Anghel for competitions,” explains Roman. "Claudia realizes how far she is from Rodica and how much longer she has to go in order to get to her level. Right now, I don’t know how willing she is to wait and pay her dues.”

Claudia first though about switching to rowing during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She went to the training camp held at Poiana Brasov in early January. Her first competition was the Collegiate regatta, held in Seattle. After placing second in their event, 6 of the team members decided not to return to Romania and stayed in the US.

The 21 year-old Presăcan is currently in Timisoara, taking her exams at the Sport University. Asked about life after finals, she said “I have no idea. I’ll go home and rest for a few days...In any case, sports doesn’t begin or end with rowing.”

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