The Sentimental Pick for Romania: Raluca Haidu

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Raluca Haidu was a member of both the 2010 and 2011 Romanian Worlds Team. She is best known for being one of Romania’s best uneven bars worker in this quad. She is affectionately called Pitic which means dwarf.

Octavian Belu has previously suggested that the Romanian Olympic team will consist of Catalina Ponor, Sandra Izbasa, Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar, and Diana Chelaru. The first three are most definitely locks and Bulimar might as well be a lock since she has performed admirably in the past. The one that fans can’t quite understand is Diana Chelaru. She is best known for her floor work but with the other 4 gymnasts, Romania doesn’t need another floor worker. What they need is a gymnast that excels on uneven bars. The two that come to mind are Amelia Racea and Raluca Haidu.

Haidu won bronze on the balance beam at the 2010 European Championships. She had a very shaky performance with a fall in the preliminaries and was only allowed to compete in the finals because Romania’s Ana Porgras had sustained an injury. Since then, she has been known as a bit of a headcase but has always been used in the bars lineup. Here’s her performance in the event finals (or here:



Raluca Haidu was in a documentary called The Secret of Deva where we get an inside look at the training of young gymnasts in Romania. The first video in the series can be found here: The Secret of Deva

However, the part that made me sentimental and made me fall in love with Pitic (along with the rest of her fans) was at the beginning of Part 3. Watch her reaction in the first few minutes, at just 8 years old, when her father says that she might not make it to the Olympics.



I hope her dreams come true. If she is allowed to compete for the team on Thursday at the European Championships, I imagine this will be her last chance to prove that she should be on their Olympic Team. I hope that she does not fall and she proves that she can be the bars specialist for Romania.

Good luck, Pitic!