Andreea Chitu – She Remembers

septembre 11, 2024

Born on May 7, 1988 in Bolintin-Vale (Romania), Andreea Chitu moved from the U57kg to the U52kg category at the age of 23. A rare decision, as most category changes during a career are generally made to the higher one, in order to relieve the body after years of cutting weight. A choice that led her to « weigh herself five times a day » for ten years, but which proved more than profitable for someone whose main achievements until then were « only » three consecutive finals (for one title) at the European Championships for under-23s. Third at the 2011 World Championships, second in 2014 and 2015, she won six European medals between 2012 and 2020, including two titles in 2012 and 2015, extending a golden age of Romanian women’s judo whose peak was the eight continental titles in nine years and the 2008 Olympic victory of the U48kg Alina Dumitru, as well as the Olympic finals, four years later, of the same Dumitru and the U57 Corina Caprioriu. Retired on the evening of the Tokyo Olympics, the student of the very protective Florin Bercean and Simona Richter gave birth eleven months later to her daughter Kaori Maria and has since coached the national cadet team at the Olympic Center in Bucharest… Ten years and dozens of WhatsApps have passed since a first interview on a bench on the sidelines of a world championship in Russia, and five since she helped me, in the stands at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, to translate live the words of her almost compatriot, the Moldovan Denis Vieru, Olympic medalist in U66kg category this summer in Paris. A long companionship that deserved a unique format, that of the photo album and what it says about a life under the sign of the tatami, in a nod to a 2016 exchange around this piece of local pop that brightened with a typically eighties-high school lightness the final scene of the nevertheless very dark film Baccalaureat by Critian Mungiu. – JudoAKD#023.

A French version of this article is available here.

“This is me at ten months old, on my mother’s lap. Until I started school at the age of seven, I lived most of the time in the countryside, with my grandparents. My mother was always so protective and calm. She always encouraged me to do sports. From the age of four, she took me to gymnastics three times a week. It was an hour’s bus ride. And she did the same for judo during the summer holidays since we spent them, every year, with my grandparents… I was born in 1988 but I have few memories of the Ceaucescu regime, apart from what I was told about it. What I do know, however, is that the roads were safer at the time since my parents easily let my brother and I go to training alone.”

« In this photo I am in the fourth grade, with a diploma for my good results that year. At home, at the end of the school year, if you finish in the top five in your class, you receive a prize – usually books – and a diploma at the end-of-year party. At the time this photo was taken I had already started judo even though I did gymnastics before. »

“The photo above was taken right after the end-of-year party, in my classroom. We had to learn a song or a poem and perform it in front of our classmates and parents. The teacher here was Mrs. Elena Griva, a warm and fundamentally kind person whom I loved and respected very much.”

“It was at my club at the time. I am in the middle, second from the right. That day all the students and teachers had to come with all the medals they had won since they started judo. It was for the school magazine and some of the photos were then displayed in our dojo. Next to me is my brother, Iti. When we were children he was my best friend. We often trained and fought together. Afterwards we grew up and lost touch. I went my own way.”

“Victory at the international tournament in Trappes, France. It was my very first tournament abroad. The trip was organized by my club, with all the children. We traveled in a big coach and, alongside that, we took the opportunity to visit Italy, France and Andorra.”

“At the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It was at the time of the Trappes tournament. There were two other girls on this trip who are not in the photo. Of this generation, I am the only one to have continued in judo.”

« In this photo I win the national cadet championship for my first participation at this level, even though I had already won quite a few competitions at the local level. »

“Here I won the silver medal at the Romanian Junior Championships while I was still a cadet. It was after this competition that I was invited to join the National Training Center in Cluj-Napoca.”

“With the girls from the National Training Center. There was a forest near our residence and we spent our weekends playing in the snow.”

“In my younger years I did a lot of training, on all levels. With experience, I learned to target my sessions more. I learned to know my body and to listen to it. At the same time, I also did swimming, hiking, cycling… I even tried yoga but clearly it wasn’t my thing [Laughs].”

“This one was during a July camp in Alicante, Spain. I always loved international camps in Spain. We also organized them in Romania, but only in the mountains and two or three times a year. These were camps where we adapted our preparation according to upcoming deadlines.”

« That was at the European Games in Minsk in 2019, in the arms of the mascot and surrounded by my teammates Loredana Ohai, Alexandra Pop, Monica Ungureanu and Adelina Dobre. Even though we never had the opportunity to compete together in a team competition, most of us stayed in touch. After all, with the exception of Easter and Christmas, which we spent with our families, we spent the rest of the year all together. »

« This photo with Yamashita Sensei dates back to 2019 I think, during a stay with the national team before the Olympic Games. I went to Japan for the first time in 2009. I remember that we didn’t have time to eat properly or rest between training sessions. It was like a survival test. My body has not forgotten these endless ground fighting sessions. My skin and my knees still remember them! And we continued like this at the rate of one training camp per year on average in this country. I like Yamashita’s style just as I like that of Gévrise Emane, Kaori Matsumoto or, today, Uta Abe. But above all I like watching fights. »

“This is a special gold medal for me at the Antalya Grand Prix 2019. Firstly because it was after my second knee surgery, and secondly because the road to this medal had been long and difficult. There were many doubts and insecurities to overcome.
I chose this screenshot on purpose. Ippon TV remains for me a way to stay up to date with world judo, to discover new talents and new judo. It is thanks to this site that I can continue to follow the tournaments and my national team. And it is thanks to this site that my family, friends and my first coach have been able to follow my entire career.”

“This photo was taken in Brasov, at the Romanian Championships, in September 2020, right after my last national title (in the U57kg category). I needed to rediscover the spirit of competition. We had talked about it together in the stands of the Tel Aviv Grand Slam in February of the following year, and I’ll tell you again here: this period of Covid-19 was the most difficult to manage in my entire life. I hated that moment, really. Even going to competition had become a challenge. It generated a lot of insecurities and stress in me. Everything was chaos. Every day I had to dig deep for motivation, push my body, stay positive and keep an open mind. A daily fight.”

“I have never missed a weigh-in in all my years of competition. When I took the risk of dropping from the U57kg to the U52kg category in June 2011, I was already 23 years old. I was just beginning to get to know my body and its reactions to different types of training and meals. I was also discovering that I had a good metabolism. This photo was taken at the Tokyo Olympics, ahead of what would remain the very last official weigh-in of my career.”

“Former French champions turned coaches Automne Pavia and Larbi Benboudaoud came to Romania in 2022 for two days of training with our national coaches (here with me Andreea Catuna, Alina Dumitru, Dan Deliu and Monica Ungureanu). Generally speaking, I have never talked much with my rivals off the mat. Paradoxically, the one I talk to the most is Majlinda Kelmendi, despite our long rivalry. I really enjoy talking with her.”

“Here with my round belly, a few months before the birth of our daughter. It was during a cadet European Cup in Bucharest. The girls around me were my athletes and some still are. I consider them part of my family and educate them and teach them judo with the aim of them becoming the best version of themselves… I no longer pay as much attention to my weight as I did throughout my career, but I try to stay balanced. Now that I am a mother, it is important for me to be a kind of example for my daughter.”

“It wasn’t my farewell ceremony because it was smaller with friends, coaches, a few people but not many journalists. This photo was taken at the awards ceremony held after the European Championships in Prague in November 2020, where I reached the final against the Italian Odette Giuffrida. My sixth and final continental medal… I never had any worries when it came to retiring from sport. I knew that a coaching job was waiting for me because of my commitment to the army club. Right after I retired, I had an offer to go and coach in Israel but I got pregnant and had to decline. In the end, the Olympic Committee placed me in charge of the Olympic Center for Cadets in Bucharest.
Sometimes things come together very smoothly. I like to think that, in a way, our path is already mapped out. You just have to take it and enjoy every moment of it… I believe that success comes after years of hard work, discipline and step-by-step progress, encouraged every day by people who can guide and motivate you. An Olympic podium is about consistency, being healthy during the preparation and, of course, a bit of luck.
We were a group of girls who trained together every day. We had very few holidays and were mostly focused on our training and on this simple and beautiful goal of becoming better. And we were lucky to have Olympic and World medalists with us to inspire us. The experience they gave us was invaluable. As a coach of the Romanian cadet team today, I see that the new generation needs to have more patience. They need to learn to accept defeat as they do with victory. Mistakes are a source of learning. Their vision of success is different from that of the previous generation. What I tell them is that you may not always be motivated. But, on the other hand, you can always be disciplined.
If I could speak to the Andreea I was when I was a white belt, I would tell her to love the journey. That, even if you lose in competition, it is still beautiful to have gone there and done your best. Because what is life if not trying to be happy? And judo makes you happy. I am a living proof of that.” – Interview by Anthony Diao, winter-spring-summer 2024. Opening photo: DR/JudoAKD.

A French version of this article is available here.

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