Minister of Youth and Sports believes "things are very serious" in Romanian gymnastics

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Eduard Novak, considers that things are very serious, if Romania managed to qualify only one gymnast at the Olympic Games and opined, in a press conference held in Miercurea Ciuc, that the Romanian canoeists have only chance for obtaining a gold medal.

"Romania currently has 62 qualified athletes, the Olympic Committee hopes for 80 - 90 athletes. Now there are some qualifying competitions for rowing, which can qualify 19 more athletes, plus wrestling. There is no wrestler qualified. Gymnastics has been barely qualified through Larisa Iordache, so things are very serious. (...) I hope for 4-6 medals, but it's certainly an optimistic prognosis. The only chance for a gold medal I think comes from rowing and it may be a surprising result, but the surprising results come and go. I think that weight lifting and rowing have very good performance systems and we have to follow this system," said Minister Eduard Novak.

Romania has three qualified gymnasts at the Tokyo Olympics, Maria Holbura, Larisa Iordache (both in the all round) and Marian Dragulescu (jumps). Larisa Iordache got her ticket to Tokyo on Wednesday, after the qualifying rounds at the European Championships taking place in Basel.

Also wrestling has an athlete qualified for the 2020 Olympics, Alina Vuc (cat. 50 kg).

Eduars Novak also said that "the Olympics will be organized, one hundred percent", but only with the spectators from Japan and it will be a very rigorous testing system, but also strict rules for moving or sanitizing the spaces.