The Voineas create yet more chaos in Romanian gymnastics

The news out of Romania continues to be bad for everyone except Camelia and Sabrina Voinea. 

As you may recall from my previous columns, Romanian gymnastics was thrust into chaos following a November 11 interview by the former coaches of the Romanian national team, Patrick Kiens and Daymon Jones, on GymCastic.

The national team was disbanded after gymnasts alleged abuse and maltreatment from the coaching and training staff (Kiens and Jones, who had already decamped to the U.S. and are now coaching at World Champions Centre, were not included in the allegations). The athletes lost stipends and housing as a result. The team’s athletic trainer, Foti Tona, also accused Camelia Voinea of abuse. 

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Now, Camelia Voinea is alleged to have … kind of proven everyone’s point by insisting that her daughter should be prioritized in the Romanian system.

Voinea is at the center of most of the abuse allegations, and Golazo, the Romanian publication that has been a main source of information about the gymnasts and their coaches (obligatory reminder here that I’m relying on Google Translate to read it all), has published video evidence that her own daughter, Sabrina, has been a victim of hers as well.

Nonetheless, she seems to have the Romanian federation and gymnastics infrastructure in the country in her pocket, since she is now the only national team coach still getting paid, and her gym is considered the only one allowed to train elites.

The latest conflict came after a schedule was set to allow the former national team athletes to train in her gym, separately from the Voineas, with their own coaches, but Camelia Voinea insisted that she and her daughter be prioritized over the others. 

What a mess! 

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Other gym news

College Gym News has a feature on the most anticipated debuts for the 2026 season and a Data Deep Dive about whether beam is the riskiest event of the four women’s apparati.  

Balance Beam Situation has NCAA rosters and depth charts. Spencer is a master of data, so this is a great read. 

GymCastic debates the new NCAA rules, including those for coaches who can now receive yellow and red cards for bad behavior. 

Mya Lauzon will be Cal’s new assistant coach.

eMjae Frazier, who transferred from Cal to Florida for her senior season, gave an interview to Inside Gymnastics where she revealed her sister Margzetta, a former UCLA star, helped choreograph her floor routine. 

Five at The IX: The dark side of Russian gymnastics

We’ve been focusing a lot on Romania around here, but this BBC production talks about Russia’s program and the political implications for many of its athletes after they expressed support for Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.