Aurel Neagu was a sports journalist for the Sportul newspaper, published by the Romanian Communist Party. Neagu frequently covered women’s gymnastics in the 1970s and 1980s, including Olympic star Nadia Comăneci and her longtime coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi. In “Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police: A Cold War Escape,” historian Stejărel Olaru details the relationship between sports and politics during the Communist regime in Romania–along with just how far the authorities were willing to go to ensure Olympic success. Olaru writes that “[t]he majority of the claims included in this book come from the Archives of the Securitate, the Romanian Secret Police.” And, according to the archives, Neague was an informant with the code name ‘Constantin.’ Olaru notes that “[t]argets of the State Police have raised concerns about the contents of the Securitate Archive. They say that some of the information gathered and collated there was biased, incomplete, one-sided or even untrue . . . In truth, many Secret Police informers were recruited through blackmail and threats. They were forced to work as informers against their will.” Olaru writes that Neagu helped put on a gymnastics event in Bologna; published articles critical of the judging at the World Championship in France; and traveled with Comăneci to London alongside other Securitate officers and informants. Neagu passed away a few years ago, and little information is available online. Without access to his file, it’s hard to know if his collaboration with the Securitate was voluntary. The Károlyis defected to the U.S. in 1981, Comăneci in 1989–right before the Romanian Revolution and the end of Communist rule in the country.
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Aurel Neagu
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Aurel Neagu was a sports journalist for the Sportul newspaper, published by the Romanian Communist Party. Neagu frequently covered women’s gymnastics in the 1970s and 1980s, including Olympic star Nadia Comăneci and her longtime coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi. In “Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police: A Cold War Escape,” historian Stejărel Olaru details the relationship between sports and politics during the Communist regime in Romania–along with just how far the authorities were willing to go to ensure Olympic success. Olaru writes that “[t]he majority of the claims included in this book come from the Archives of the Securitate, the Romanian Secret Police.” And, according to the archives, Neague was an informant with the code name ‘Constantin.’ Olaru notes that “[t]argets of the State Police have raised concerns about the contents of the Securitate Archive. They say that some of the information gathered and collated there was biased, incomplete, one-sided or even untrue . . . In truth, many Secret Police informers were recruited through blackmail and threats. They were forced to work as informers against their will.” Olaru writes that Neagu helped put on a gymnastics event in Bologna; published articles critical of the judging at the World Championship in France; and traveled with Comăneci to London alongside other Securitate officers and informants. Neagu passed away a few years ago, and little information is available online. Without access to his file, it’s hard to know if his collaboration with the Securitate was voluntary. The Károlyis defected to the U.S. in 1981, Comăneci in 1989–right before the Romanian Revolution and the end of Communist rule in the country.