Andreea constantinescu biography examples

Romanian gymnast

Andreea Mădălina Răducan (Romanian pronunciation:[anˈdree̯arəduˈkan]; born 30 September 1983) is a retired gymnast from Bârlad, Romania. She currently works as a sports announcer and journalist.

Răducan began competing in gymnastics at a young age and was training at the Romanian junior national facility by the age of 12. As one of the outstanding gymnasts of the Romanian team in the late 1990s, Răducan was known both for her difficult repertoire of skills and her dance and presentation. Over her four-year senior career, she won Olympic or World Championships medals on every event except the uneven bars and earned three individual World Championships titles, on the floor exercise in 1999 and 2001 and the balance beam in 2001.

Răducan competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she contributed strongly to the Romanian team's gold medal and won an individual silver medal on the vault. She was also the original winner of the all-around title, but was disqualified and stripped of her gold medal shortly after the competition concluded, when it was revealed that she had failed doping controls, testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance. She and her coaches maintained that she had been given the substance in two cold medicine pills by a Romanian team physician, and that they had not affected her performance in any way.

The case generated a significant amount of media attention, and Răducan was supported by members of the gymnastics community and the Romanian public. Her case was brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in autumn 2000. Răducan herself was exonerated of any personal wrongdoing by the CAS, the Romanian Olympic Committee and the International Gymnastics Federation, and was not subject to any disciplinary measures. However, her medal was not reinstated, and the team doctor who administered the medicine was banned for two Olympic cycles.

Răducan returned the year after the Olympics to w

The Aromas of Melting Pot Street
by Margaret Duda

From the age of five to eight, I lived
in a big city on a street with a name,
but most called it Melting Pot Street
because immigrants lived in every home.

It was like a miniature United Nations
with a different language and aroma
flowing from every apartment as mothers
cooked with spices common to their country.

I did not know enough English to name any
spices, but the smell of garlic and oregano
was an Italian family, black pepper a German,
bay leaves a Polish, and dill a Russian family.

Most familiar to me was the odor of paprika,
“pepper” in Hungarian, dried and ground
to a red powder that was either hot or sweet
and the staple of almost every Hungarian dish.

Turks introduced it to Hungary in the 16th century,
strings of peppers decorating Hungarian castles
until shepherds and peasants made it famous
in one kettle stews using mutton, beef, or pork.

Southern Hungary, around the city of Szeged,
near the village where Mama was raised,
became famous for the long, thin peppers
that thrived on the hot and dry Great Plain.

In 1937, four years before I was even born,
Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
earned a Nobel Prize for discovering Vitamin C
in paprika. To keep us healthy, Mama added more.

On most days, the unique aroma of paprika filled
our apartment. As soon as I opened the door,
I hoped for chicken paprikas, stuffed cabbage,
goulash, or lecso, the Hungarian ratatouille.

Mama would always stop what she was cooking,
wipe her hands on an apron she wore every day,
and lean down to hug and kiss me, smelling like
our kitchen and the spice that made Hungary famous.

PHOTO:Paprika in a Hungarian crystal dish by Andreea Constantinescu.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I love writing about my bi-lingual, bi-cultural childhood and am fortunate that my mother brought many photos with her

Interviewer: Andreea Doria Constantinescu

Interviewee: Professor David Good °

° Professor and Former Chair of Neurology at Penn State University, Pennsylvania, United States

Doctor at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, United States

Dr. Good (BS, MD, FASNR) is a Professor Emeritus of Neurology at Penn State College of Medicine. He obtained his MD degree from the University of Wisconsin and received his Neurology training at the University of Minnesota. He has served in academic positions at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, and Penn State College of Medicine, where he was the founding Chair of the Department of Neurology. Professor Good has a long career in neurorehabilitation and has served in several leadership positions, including President of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation and President of the World Federation for Neurorehabilitation (WFNR). He is the author and co-author of multiple abstracts and peer-reviewed papers and has co-edited 3 books on neurorehabilitation. He has lectured widely on neurorehabilitation topics, and his current research focuses on motor recovery following a stroke.

A.D.C.: Dear Professor Good, we are here, in Vienna, for the 12 World Congress for NeuroRehabilitation, organised by the World Federation for NeuroRehabilitation. What is your first-hand opinion on this event so far?

D.G.: I think the event has been tremendously successful. There has been good attendance, there’s a lot of enthusiasm by the attendees, and the science has been top-rate. The venue in Vienna has also been wonderful. It’s a great time of the year to be in Vienna, so if we have any free time, we can get to enjoy the city a little bit. I think that the set-up at the Convention Centre is very nice; we’ve had very good support, not only from the Convention Centre but from the other staff that we have from EFNR and the WFNR, as well.

A.D.C.: Have you participated in any previous edition