Romanian Olympians Join YMCA Gymnastics Coaching Staff

The Darien YMCA is excited to announce the newest additions to the Gymnastics program, former Romanian Olympic team members, Robert Ciuculete and Daniela Andrei.

Daniela is the Y’s new floor exercise and girl’s choreography coach for the Y’s travel team, and Robert is the uneven parallel bars and power tumbling coach. In addition, Robert works with the up and coming pre-team members.

Robert and Daniela both became gymnasts at a very young age. Robert was four when he was scouted by a coach from his kindergarten class and Daniela was five when her father first took her to a gymnastics class.

Both quickly showed a talent for the sport, and grew up with an increasingly rigorous training schedule as they progressed. Both Robert and Dana (as she prefers to be called) were invited to join the Romanian National Junior Team, and several years later, the Romanian National Olympic Team.

For both of them, their recent arrival to the United States has been a big transition. When asked about the most notable differences between the US and Romania in youth sports, both offered the perspective that American children appear to have a greater selection of, and participate in, a wider variety of sports.

By contrast, in Eastern Europe children tend to specialize in one sport, like gymnastics, swimming, dance, soccer, etc. much earlier on. Robert explained that “in Romania children pursue their respective sport with great determination and discipline, whereas here in the US, kids are doing 4 or 5 sports at a time.”

There is also a big lifestyle difference between the United States and Romania, according to Dana. “Coming here, you can have a job doing what you want to do, you can be safe here and have more opportunities,” she said.

Dana says her greatest accomplishment in gymnastics is competing for Romania in the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, and making the 2012 Romanian Olympic Team. For Robert, his greatest achievement is similar, being selected for the Romanian Olympic Team. Robert’s favorite events are the pommel horse and floor exercise. For Daniela, her best event is uneven parallel bars.

YMCA Gymnastics Director, John Schwartz said that “The YMCA is exceedingly proud of its state-of-the art facility and nationally ranked gymnastics program. The addition of our new, extremely talented Romanian coaches will ensure that the Darien YMCA offers the very best gymnastics not only locally, but on the national stage.”

For more information about the Darien YMCA gymnastics team please visit www.darien-ymca.org.