The Athletes of the Week

Rowers Ionela and Marius Cozmiuc will be the Romanian delegation’s flag bearers at the Olympic Games in Paris

Eugen Nasta, 09.07.2024, 13:45

The 33rd edition of the Summer Olympic Games will kick off on July 26 in Paris. The opening ceremony will most likely be impressive, all the more so as, for the first time ever in the history of the Olympic Games, it will be will be held on the river. The athletes will parade in boats on river Seine, each delegation in their own boat, from Austerlitz Bridge to Trocadero. Hundreds of thousands of spectators will thus watch the boat parade from the banks of River Seine.

Just like in the last edition of the Olympic Games, host by Japan’s Tokyo, the flag of each delegation will be borne by a man and a woman athlete.

The Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee chose rowers Ionela and Marius Cozmiuc, husband and wife, as flag-bearers for the Romanian delegation. All told, Ionela and Marius have won 19 medals in the world’s major competitions.

Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Ionela and Marius Cozmiuc the Athletes of the week.

Ionela Cozmiuc, known as Ionela Lehaci in the early days of her career, was born on January 3rd, 1995 in northern Romania’s Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Her track record includes the 8th and the 6th place in the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, respectively.

Ionela won three gold medals in World Championships, one in lightweight women’s single sculls and two others in women’s pair, teaming up with Gianina Beleagă. In 2024 Ionela compelled recognition at the European championships, twice in women’s single sculls and once in women’s pair, in Szeged, Hungary again teaming up with Gianina, whose name is now van Groningen.

Marius Cozmiuc was born in 1992, on September 7, in northern Romania’s Suceava. Marius is a world champion and a two-time European champion in men’s coxless pair. Marius won his first European gold medal pairing up with Ciprian Tudosă, Marius won his second European title as well as the World Championships gold medal pairing up Sergiu Bejan. So far, Marius has participated in three editions of the Olympic Games, in London, in 2012, in Rio, in 2016 and in Tokyo in 2020. At the most recent edition of the Olympics, Marius Cozmiuc was an Olympic vice-champion, jointly with Ciprian Tudosa, in the coxless pair race.

Ionela and Marius Cozmiuc are not the first rowers assigned to bear the Romanian flag as part of an Olympic Gams opening ceremony. The first one was Iulică Ruican in Atlanta, in 1996. Back then Iulica Rican was fresh from winning gold in Barcelona in 1992, in the four coxed pair event. Then the five-time Olympic champion and current president of the National Sports Agency president, Elisabeta Lipa, followed.

Lipa bore the flag in 2000 in Sydney and in Athens, in 2004. The last rower was Simona Radiş, who was flag-bearer at the Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony, jointly with swimmer Robert Glinţă. Then pairing up with Ancuta Bodnar, Simona won the Olympics gold in women’s double sculls.