Romania at the Olympic Games

Florin Orban, 07.07.2021, 14:01

Athletes from Romania have obtained
the best performances in individual contests of the 21 editions of the Olympic
Games they have attended. Teams from Romania have obtained only six medals,
four in handball competitions, one in volleyball and one in rugby. Most of the
medals have been claimed by Romania’s male and female gymnasts who stepped onto
the podium 72 times winning 25 gold medals.

The first participation of our
gymnasts in an Olympic contest was in Berlin in 1936 but they started winning
medals only 20 years later. Elena Leustean became bronze medalist in the floor
event in Melbourne where the Romanian team also ended in the third position.
Another bronze was won in Rome in 1960, which was followed by a 16 year pause.

Then Nadia Comaneci managed a
perfect ten making the three-digit scoreboard in Montreal obsolete. Nadia has
won five Olympic gold medals, three of them in Montreal, in the individual
all-round, balance beam and uneven bars event. Ecaterina Szabo comes next with
four Olympic titles all of them in Los Angeles in 1984. Three Olympic gold
medals have been won by Daniela Silivas, Simona Amanar and Catalina Ponor.
Silivas compelled recognition in Seoul in 1988 when she won the uneven bars,
beam and floor events.

Amanar won the vault event in
Atlanta in 1996 and individual all round and the team contest in Sydney 2000.
Ponor won the Olympic titles in the beam, floor and teams contests in Athens,
in 2004. In the men’s competitions, Romania had only one Olympic champion,
Marius Urzica who won the pommel horse event in Sydney.

When it comes to the best Olympic
performances, the Romanian rowers are coming right after the gymnasts with 38
medals, half of them gold. Romania’s first participation in an Olympic competition
was in Helsinki, in 1952 and has so far missed only one edition in 1956. The first
medal was obtained in Munich in 1972 by Petre Ceapura, Ladislau Lovrenschi and
Stefan Tudor who became bronze medalists in the Men’s Coxed Pairs.

The women’s contests were
introduced for the first time in Montreal in 1976 and Romania’s coxed quadruple
scull stepped onto the podium’s third step. At the next edition held in Moscow
in 1980, Sanda Toma won gold for Romania in the single scull race. Women rowers
from Romania dominated the competitions from 1984 to 2004 winning 17 gold
medals most of them in the Los Angeles Olympics.

In 1984, Romanian rowers won five
Olympic titles in the women’s competitions and one in the men’s contests.
Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu obtained the last Olympic gold for
Romania in the women’s pairs of the Beijing Olympics while the Romanian eight
obtained the bronze medal in the 2016 edition in Rio.

Next in terms of Olympic medals won
for Romania are athletes with 35 medals, kayak-canoeists with 34 and wrestlers
with 33 medals. Iolanda Balas is the only Romanian athlete with two gold medals
in the Olympic Games, in 1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo. Ivan Patzaichin reaped
four gold medals and three silver in the kayak-canoe races. He and Serghei
Covaliov compelled recognition in the 1000 meter race of Mexico Olympics in
1968, in Moscow 1980 and in Los Angeles four years later together with Toma
Simionov. Patzaichin also won the 1000 meter single race in Munich in 1972.

Gheorghe Berceanu and Stefan Rusu
compelled recognition in Greek-Roman wrestling competitions. Berceanu won gold
in Munich and silver four years later in Montreal while Rusu became silver
medalist in Montreal and gold medalist at the Olympics in Moscow.

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