Romania at the Tokyo Games

An overview of Romanias results at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Florin Orban, 09.08.2021, 14:00

The 32nd
edition of the Olympics Games came to an end. The closing ceremony, hosted by
Tokyo’s National Stadium, put an end to the first edition in modern era to be
held without spectators. The Covid-19 pandemic seriously disrupted sports competitions,
with many being delayed for one year, which had a major impact on final rankings.

101
Romanian athletes went to Tokyo, but only four won a medal, three of which in rowing.
Ancuţa Bodnar and Simona Radiş won the gold in women’s doubles sculls. Mihăiţă
Ţigănescu, Mugurel Semciuc, Ştefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari won the silver in
the men’s coxless four, while Ciprian Tudosă and Marius Cozmiuc won the silver
in men’s coxless pair. Ana-Maria Popescu (Brânză) won the silver in the women’s épéeindividual competition. After the
closing of the Games, the president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee
Mihai Covaliu said:

We
definitely could have won more medals. I’m thinking about swimmer David
Popovici who missed out on a medal by just two hundredths of
a second. He has a bright future ahead of him, of course, but it was important
for him to win a medal here in Tokyo, especially because he is very, very young.
I’m also thinking about Laura Ilie in shooting. She was also very close to an
Olympic final, where I’m sure she could have won a medal. I’m thinking about Alina Vuc and Albert Saritov in
wrestling, who could also have hoped to win a medal had they gone past the
first round. These are all excellent athletes who, unfortunately, did not
manage to overcome their nerves and the pressure of these Olympic Games. Unfortunately,
we only managed to win four medals. The Sports Technical Committee predicted
four to six medals. The federations aimed for much more. They achieved little.
I’m not satisfied with these four medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The dissatisfaction
of the Romanian sports official is understandable. Romania ranked 46th in the
team medal count ranking, a position it shared with Venezuela. It’s true that
Romania fared even worse at the Rio Games, in 2016, when it ranked 47th. One explanation
for these poor results is the collapse of certain sports, such as gymnastics,
where Romania was a world leader for years and which accounts for a third of
Romania’s gold medals at the Olympic Games. In Tokyo, no Romanian gymnast
competed in a single final. To complete the sad picture of Romanian sports, no
Romanian weightlifter was able to compete in Tokyo because the Romanian Weightlifting
Federation was banned from competition over several violations of antidoping
regulations.

The causes
of the Romania’s poor results at the Tokyo Games will surely be analysed in the
coming days. As for fans, they can only hope that things will be better next
time, in Paris, in 2024. (CM)