The Trade Union Sport Organisation in Communist Romania between 1973 and 1989: Workplace Gymnastics, Mass and Elite Sport

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of trade union sport organization, concept, structure, and policy during the last period of communism in Romania. Elite sport was extremely developed and successful. The concept was, however, centred on workplace gymnastics and ‘Daciada’, a national mass sport competition, which was adapted to communist ideology to increase nationalism, production and performance. The structure of workplace gymnastics introduced different terms such as gearing gymnastics, production break gymnastics, moment gymnastics and individual gymnastics. This had the responsibility to educate the masses for the practice of regular physical activities to develop elite sports (for the most talented) and mass sport (as leisure and healthy activity for the rest of the people). The conclusions highlight how workplace gymnastics was promoted only by propaganda. It was not really practiced by the workers. Some men preferred ludic or relaxing activities, while some women were interested in health and aesthetics.