President of the National Sports Agency Elisabeta Lipa said on Monday, upon the return of the last group of Romanian athletes from the Olympic Games, that only joint efforts by athletes, coaches and sports leaders can ensure even better results at the 2028 Los Angeles edition than at the Paris Olympics.
„I want to congratulate all the athletes and all the professionals behind them, who helped them along this Olympic cycle to be the best of the best at the Olympic Games. I am firmly convinced that we will be much stronger at the next edition of the Olympics. I believe that together we can make Los Angeles much better than Paris. The current Olympics have come to end and now we can enjoy the 23rd place held by Romania in the overall medal count. We are all happy for these nine medals,” Elisabeta Lipa said at the Official Lounge of the Henri Coanda Airport.
The last part of the Romanian delegation, made up of weightlifters, wrestlers, table tennis players, water poloists, track and field athletes and their coaches touched down on Monday in Bucharest from the Paris Olympic Games and were welcomed at the airport’s Official Lounge by representatives of federations, clubs, families and friends.
Romania ended its Olympic participation with a tally of nine medals, of which three gold, four silver and two bronze, placing 23rd in the nations’ ranking.
Gold was captured by swimmer David Popovici in the men’s 200m freestyle event, rowers Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache in the men’s double sculls, and the women’s 8 crew (Maria Magdalena Rusu, Roxana Anghel, Ancuta Bodnar, Maria Lehaci, Adriana Adam, Amalia Beres, Ioana Vrinceanu, Simona Radis, Victoria Stefania Petreanu).
The silver medalists were Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis in the women’s double sculls, Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel in the women’s pair, Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc in the women’s lightweight double sculls event, as well as weightlifter Mihaela Cambei in the women’s 49 kg class.
The bronze rewarded David Popovici in the men’s 100m freestyle, and gymnast Ana Maria Barbosu in the women’s floor event, following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
This is Romania’s best medal ranking since 2008 (Beijing), when the tricolors finished on the 18th spot (4-1-4). At the 2020 Olympic Games (Tokyo) Romania finished in the 46th place in the overall medal ranking (1-3-0), one notch up from Rio 2016, when it was 47th (1-1-2), and in London 2012 it ranked 31st ( 2-4-1).
AGERPRES
