Famous Romanians

Sports
The world knows Romanians for their many and
important contributions to arts and sciences, for
their business success, either while living abroad,
or from their home base in Romania. We’ve listed
some of the highlights, the names you are most
likely to hear in different areas of life. The
complete stories are on
www.citycompass.ro.
Nadia Comăneci
• is probably the most
famous Romanian in
the world. When she
was 14, Nadia
Comaneci became
the star of the 1976
Summer Olympics in
Montreal, Canada,
when she earned the
first ever perfect
score of ten.
Gheorghe Hagi
• , “The Maradona of the
Carpathians”, as he has been
labelled by the media and by
fans, is seen as the greatest
Romanian football player of all
time. He was the first
Romanian to play for Europe’s
top clubs, such as Real
Madrid, Barcelona and
Galatasaray. Through his
outstanding dribbling, vision,
execution of pass and shots
from distance, he managed to
impose himself as one of the
world’s best players alongside
Maradona and Pelé.
Ilie Năstase
• was the first famous
Romanian tennis player. His
colorful personality and the
spectacular playing style
earned him nicknames like
“Nasty”, or “Bucharest
Buffoon”. In 1973, he was
ranked as the world’s No.1
player in professional tennis.
He was included into the
Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991.
In 1996, he made an
unsuccessful run for mayor of
Bucharest.
•
Elisabeta Lipă
• is a famous Romanian
rower that has a pile of
sports records. In her
rowing career she
competed in six Olympics
and she won at least one
medal in each of them.
She holds the rowing
record for most Olympic
medals won (eight, five of
them gold) and at the
Sydney Summer
Olympics she became the
oldest oarswoman to win
a gold medal.
Ghiță Mureșan
• is a famous Romanian basketball
player who, at 7 foot 7 inches
(2.31 m), is the tallest man who
ever played in the National
Basketball Association in the US.
He spent six seasons there – four
with the Washington Bullets and
two with the New Jersey Nets. In
1995 he was named NBA’s Most
Improved Player. He co-starred
with Billy Crystal in the movie “My
Giant”. He also played a
ventriloquist in Eminem’s video-
clip “My Name Is”. He has done
TV spots for Snickers candy bars,
Nike and ESPN, the cable sports
network.
Ivan Patzaichin
• is a Romanian sprint
canoeist, who competed
from the late 1960s to the
mid 1980s. He won seven
medals in five summer
Olympics. He also won
22 world championship
medals with nine golds.
More recently, Patzaichin
opened a fashion house
and created the official
outfits for Romania’s
Olympic team in the
London 2012 Olympics.
 Olympic medal record Romania
• 1924 - The first official participation of the Romanian sport the
eighth edition of the Olympic Games in Paris which meant also the
first medal in the history of Romanian Olympic sport, obtained rugby
team that ranked third .

• The Romanian delegation was present in all editions of the Olympic

Games since 1924, except for two editions of the summer, the 1932
and 1948 and one winter, one in 1960.

• With a record 301 medals (including 88 gold, 94 silver and 119

bronze) won by Romanian sportsmen in the Olympic Games, the
first edition, Paris, 1924 to 2012 London edition, plus obtained
bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 1968.