BUCHAREST, Romania -- Three Romanian Olympic gymnasts have been criticized after posing naked for a Japanese news magazine.

Lavinia Milosovici, 26, who won two golds at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games; Claudia Presecan, 23, who won a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics; and Corina Ungureanu, 22, denied disgracing the image of Romanian gymnastics.

''After all we've done for Romanian sport, we don't deserve so much denigration,'' Milosovici was quoted Friday in the Jurnalul National newspaper.

However, Adrian Stoica, secretary of Romania's Gymnastics Federation, said the photos of the women in positions they used as gymnasts, were demeaning.

''Everyone has a free will, but I believe they have stained the image of the country,'' Stoica told the daily Libertatea.

The Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Gendai, which covers current affairs and also publishes pornographic photos, bought the photos of the gymnasts from a book to be published later this month.

Ungureanu denied there were any pornographic scenes. She caused a big stir in 2000 when she posed naked for the Romanian version of Playboy.

The gymnasts did not disclose how much money they had earned for the sitting, which occurred in September, but Romanian newspapers reported it was up to $40,000.

Adrian Presecan, father of one of the gymnasts, said he was upset about what his daughter did.

''I don't know what was in her head. Probably the large sum of money,'' he said in the Jurnalul National.