Article by Roxana Fleşeru – published on Sunday, May 18, 2025, 18:13 / Updated Sunday, May 18, 2025 18:13
Cristina Neagu played her last official match, setting up a career in which she showed a feature that only the great athletes have.
Cristina Neagu played her last career match on Sunday, in the Multipurpose Hall in Bucharest. Her career ended with a champion title with CSM Bucharest. This would be the dry statement. But on Sunday, a player did not withdraw, but the one who was designated the best player in the world in four lines. He cried, laughed, was carried on his arms, bent in front of the spectators and then put an end to the spectators.
Beyond trophies, medals, voids, passes, critics remains something else. David Foster Wallace named it in the essay “Federer as a religious experience“As a kinetic beauty.
It's a kind of beauty that only the biggest athletes have. “The human beauty we are talking about is one of a particular type. It does not have to do with sex or cultural norms: it could be called kinetic beauty. Its power and attraction are universal,” the American writer said.
And Cristina Neagu had this beauty in her game. Testimonies are the dozens of video recordings with his matches, because, from now on, we can only see that unique move when he approached the gate and launch the ball. Its uniqueness is evident even for someone who has not seen a handball match in his life. Maria Covaci, her first coach, also in the Multipurpose Hall at the last match of the one she discovered and shaped, called Cristina several times.
“When you see Cristina playing, as if you would like to see only her, that the ball only be with her, to see how she moves, how she passes, how to see the game,” said Maria Covaci contending in ideas with David Foster Wallace without knowing. Sometimes greatness is measured in something other than medals.
