Retired from the public life, the former athlete Mihaela Peneş (61) divides his life between monasteries and a nursery-hospital
At the Nursery-hospital "Sf. Luca", avery body heard about Mihaela Peneş. The Olympic championship from 1964 at throwing the javelin leves very often her house from Dorobanţi in order to hospitalize in this institution chronic diseases and geriatrics.
"We are the « former » champions. Nobody can take this title from us. And when we die, on our cross will be written « Olympic champion »", said Peneş in 2004.
The institute is in the 4th district, on Berceni Road, after the hospitals no. 9 and 10. The right side is occupied with the chronic oncology patients, and the left one is occupied with the aged. On this side of the hospital stays from time to time Mihaela Peneş, too. "Of course we know her. She is hospitalized at the 4th floor, but, if you want to speak to her we need to have her agreement", explains one of the two guardians from the entrance in the nursery hospital. After a few minutes, went down an assistant. "You cannot speak with her because she is not here. She comes and goes. She is not staying permanently here", says she.
44 years ago, Mihaela Peneş had only 17 years old. She was the youngest Romanian athlete in the delegation from Tokyo. She was sent to the Olympiad in order to gain experience. She entered the first in the contest, with the number 179 fixed on the undershirt. A strong girl, tall of 1, 88 m and weighting 92 kilograms. At that time, when people were still moving in the stand, looking for their seats, she made the perfect throw. 60, 54 m! No one could exceed her until the end. She was Olympic champion!
Mihaela Peneş is a very well known person in the nursery hospital. If call at the public phone from the 3rd floor and you ask about the former athlete, any patient can speak to you about her. "Mrs. Peneş is hospitalized at the 4th floor. She is a nice woman. It is obvious that she made sport", answers an old man with a fast voice. Next time a woman answers the phone. "How shall I not know about Mihaela Peneş? She is that champion at javelin. It has passed a long time since then. But now she is not with us. She comes and goes... Now, we are alone here and close. There is nobody with us. We don’t even know where we are...", chattered the patient.
When she won the Olympic title at Tokyo, Mihaela Peneş was still a pupil in the 11th form of the High school "Ion Luca Caragiale" from Bucharest.
The geriatrics nursery hospital belongs to the 1st district. "It is a rented building", the guardian explains why this ward is in the other part of the Bucharest. "It belongs to the state, but doesn’t come anyone here", says a visitor. "You have to give a lot of money before coming here and anyway everything is paid. Here come the old persons, who need nursing or not".
At the press conference which took place after the contest, Peneş had a big surprise. Iolanda Balaş, the one who had won the title at high jump one day before, came to congratulate her. Hugged her and said: "Bravo, Mihaela, you don’t even imagine how glad I am for your victory..."
Mihaelei Peneş’s life from the last three years, since she retired from the Romanian Olympic Committee is a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. "After her husband died, she retired immediately. It was a trauma", said Iolanda Balaş, the president of the Romanian Foundation of Athletic, who remembered also the fact that, in the same year, Peneş had lost her both parents.
"I started to make sport at 5 years old. My mother, Ştefania, was in her youth a good sportswoman, gymnastic champion for Romania. She was my first coach. She taught me to swim", narrated the Mihaela Peneş in the book written by Ilie Goga and Romeo Vilara dedicated to the Olympiad from Tokyo. Later, she played basket ball and volley ball, but she stopped to the athletics. Disc, weight and, finally, javelin.
Iolanda Balaş, the double Olympic champion at high jump, remembers that, since 2005, spoke with Peneş only a few times. "She came to me, at the foundation, and I said to her that she can collaborate here if she wants to. She came two times and then she disappeared".
In 1968, at Ciudad de Mexico, Peneş participated having on her shoulders the weight of the Olympic title gained 4 years before. She had been seeded in spite of form fluctuations, but she made again an unforgettable contest. She won the silver medal, with 59,92 meters. "A few months ago, when I got hurt and I suffered a serious wrick in the lumbar area, I didn’t tell about this, for fear of losing even more the trust, not very well, whom I benefited by lately", said the sports woman after the contest from Mexic.
Hospitalised at the Psychiatry in January
Mihaela Peneş did not even answer the phone in the last three years. Step-by-step, she isolated herself, withdrawn of all her friends and colleagues. Last year she went a lot on the monasteries from Moldova. "The last I talk to her on the phone was this summer. She was in Bacău and was going to Moldova. It was a very short conversation", adds Iolanda Balaş.
"I am alive; I do not want to dye! It is true, from a while; I wanted to retire from the public life. I am very disappointed with everything that happens in the Romanian sport, with the fact that we forgot to appreciate our values, and I do not want to give too many details. I have some medical problems which I have to solve, because the sports lifestyle leaves traces. I remain with the satisfaction that I am the youngest Olympic champion from Romanian history, but people forgot about this thing", declared Peneş one year ago in the newspaper "Gardianul".
Mihaelei Peneş earnings are the pension and the life annuity. The life interest is sent on the address from Dorobanţi, but it is taken by someone else, after the indications she gives. The name of the former athlete appears on the list of persons hospitalized this year, in January, in one of the psychiatry wards of the neuropsychiatries Hospital Alexandru Obregia. "A patient with the name Peneş Mihaela was hospitalized in our institution in January 2008, but we are not allowed to give information about his disease", was the confirmation of the Hospital no. 9 from Bucharest.
"I really want to find her, to try to help her. I have always sent her magazines and books on the address from Dorobanţi, but I have never had the confirmation that she received them", says Iolanda Balaş.
3000 lei is the amount which Mihaela Peneş receives every month as life annuity
