Rower Leon Rotman
Rower Leon Rotman, one of Romanias greatest athletes, celebrated his 80th birthday anniversary last week.
Florin Orban, 30.07.2014, 13:01
Leon Rotman was born on July 22nd 1934 in Bucharest. He was the fourth child of carpenter Iosif Rotman. When he was 15, as an apprentice with the Timpuri noi factory, Rotman first took up wrestling with the Flacara sports club, where he excelled in the 67-kilogram category.
In 1952, Rotman discovered the beauty of water sports and joined the Dinamo sports club in Bucharest, which had a strong rowing team. Rotman soon persuaded his coaches that he was perfectly able to take part in single skull competitions. He became Romania’s rowing champion three times and was consequently chosen to form part of the crew representing his country in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
In Melbourne, Romanian rowers won three of the four gold medal in canoeing, outshining their contenders from Russia and Hungary, who were dominating world rowing at the time.
Rotman won his first Olympic gold medal in the 10,000m race. When tested for torsional stiffness, Rotman’s boat was found not to meet current requirements, so he was given another boat. The new boat also had a problem, as it was found to be longer than the approved size. The canoe was then simply cut using a jigsaw. During the race, Rotman proved his incredible talent, outclassing the 10,000m race favourites, Janos Parti and Istvan Hernek from Hungary and Gennady Bukharin from the Soviet Union. Rotman finished almost 80 meters ahead of his runner-up, Janos Parti.
In the 1,000-meter final, Rotman was thus the favourite. He met all expectations, winning the gold. The silver went to Istvan Hernek and the bronze to Gennady Bukharin, just like in the 10,000-meter race. Romania’s third gold medal in Melbourne came from Alexe Dumitru and Simion Ismailiciuc, who won the double skull 1000m.
Four years later in the Rome Olympics, Romania’s rowing delegation only won one medal, as Leon Rotman finished third in the single skull 1000m.
