In an ironic twist, Mihai Brestyan, the US coach who made the appeal that lost Romania's Catalina Ponor the bronze medal in the beam competition at the London Olympics on Tuesday (August 7 ) is Romanian. Brestyan, by his original name Brestian, US gymnast Alexandra Raisman's coach (both in picture), left Romania in 1985.  The irony has been much debated by Romanians in social media, and many blamed him for having 'stolen' the bronze medal from a Romanian.

He and his wife, Silvia Brestyan, are Romanian born and both graduated Physical Education Sciences from University in Romania. They previously coached the Romanian and the Israeli National teams and at present train gymnasts in Massachusetts, USA.

Brestyan, now with both Romanian and American citizenship, left Romania in 1985 to to coach Israel's Olympic team, he said in a recent interview for Evenimentul Zilei. In 1996 he arrived in the US and in 2000 opened his own private gymnastics club. He said he will always consider himself a Romanian but  that he now makes a living in the US.

According to their website they have over 20 years experience of coaching gymnastics at the highest level. Mihai, born in Timisoara, also won the title USA Gymnastics coach of the year in 2005.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: London 2012 Olympics website)