Lilith
12-22-2002, 10:55 AM
TIMISOARA (Romania) - Former gymnastics star Claudia Presecan has quit her job as a sports teacher after appearing nude in a DVD film and photographs published in Japan.
A scandal erupts after (from left) Presecan, Milosovici and Ungureanu appear nude in a DVD film and pictures. -- AP
The film and a photo album shows her with fellow-former gymnasts Lavinia Milosovici, 26, and Corina Ungureanu, 22, posing and performing gymnastics naked. Some pictures show the women wearing Romanian gymnastics uniforms.
Presecan took the all-around gold and the team gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Milosovici won two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Presecan, 23, resigned from her teaching job after her nude photos appeared in the Romanian media and parents called on the school to fire her.
''She said she was too ashamed to come back,'' said the school's principal Maria Jula.
Presecan had taught sports at the school in Timisoara - a city about 500km north-west of Bucharest - for about four months. She retired from gymnastics in 2000 and went on to complete a university degree in sports.
The nude photos have sparked a scandal in Romania and Japan, with Romania narrowly escaping a ban on its gymnasts participating in competitions in Japan.
Ungureanu, a member of the Romanian team that won the World Championship in 1997 and 1999, said she accepted the punishment as ''fair'', adding that she and her former team-mates were wrong to use the emblem of the Romanian federation. AP
A scandal erupts after (from left) Presecan, Milosovici and Ungureanu appear nude in a DVD film and pictures. -- AP
The film and a photo album shows her with fellow-former gymnasts Lavinia Milosovici, 26, and Corina Ungureanu, 22, posing and performing gymnastics naked. Some pictures show the women wearing Romanian gymnastics uniforms.
Presecan took the all-around gold and the team gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Milosovici won two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Presecan, 23, resigned from her teaching job after her nude photos appeared in the Romanian media and parents called on the school to fire her.
''She said she was too ashamed to come back,'' said the school's principal Maria Jula.
Presecan had taught sports at the school in Timisoara - a city about 500km north-west of Bucharest - for about four months. She retired from gymnastics in 2000 and went on to complete a university degree in sports.
The nude photos have sparked a scandal in Romania and Japan, with Romania narrowly escaping a ban on its gymnasts participating in competitions in Japan.
Ungureanu, a member of the Romanian team that won the World Championship in 1997 and 1999, said she accepted the punishment as ''fair'', adding that she and her former team-mates were wrong to use the emblem of the Romanian federation. AP