Romania Gathers Only 4 Medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020

Team Romania ended its participation at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, even though the competition is not over yet. Romanian sportsmen gathered only 4 medals. This performance is even worse than the predictions.

Before the competition, the booking houses estimated that Romania will get 5-6 medals at the Olympics. Besides, the authorities added 1 medal to this prediction and came up with 6-7 medals. There were voices who mentioned 7-8 medals, but these were more than optimistic.

What medals won Romania at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020?

Romania won 4 medals at the Olympics in Tokyo: 1 Gold and 3 Silvers.

• Gold medal: Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis, Women’s double sculls
• Silver medal: Ana-Maria Popescu, Women’s épée fencing
• Silver medal: Mihaita Tiganescu, Mugurel Semciuc, Stefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari, Rowing, Men’s coxless four
• Silver medal: Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosa, Rowing, Men’s two-frame event

Why is the Romanian Olympic performance in free fall?

For many years in a row, Romania has been in a free fall when it comes to the Olympic Games. Actually, the performance of Team Romania in Tokyo is, by the number of the medals gathered, equal to the performance in Rio. But the evolution of this number over the years shows the disaster of the Romanian sport:

• 1924 – 1 medal
• 1936 – 1
• 1952 – 4
• 1956 – 13
• 1960 – 10
• 1964 – 12
• 1968 – 15
• 1972 – 16
• 1976 – 27
• 1980 – 25
• 1984 – 53
• 1988 – 24
• 1992 – 18
• 1996 – 20
• 2000 – 26
• 2004 – 19
• 2008 – 9
• 2012 – 7
• 2016 – 4
• 2020 – 4

In 1984, in Los Angeles, Romania was at its peak. Yes, it was the only communist country to take part in the Olympic Games that year, but still, the performance of Team Romania exceeded those of countries like China, the United Kingdom or France. Romania ranked second in 1984, after the United States.

Now, with 4 medals in each of the last two competitions, Romania tries to find out the causes of this decline. It is beyond understanding for most sports lovers worldwide.

Still, they have to understand that sport isn’t a priority in Romania any longer. The investments in sport declined and so the results went down. The attraction of the younger generations to sport declined as the attraction for e-games and social media platforms increased.

The fact is Romania gradually lost its role models in sports for the younger generations. Once, Hagi inspired thousands of kids to start a football career, such as Nadia Comaneci inspired hundreds of little girls to become the next big star of Romanian gymnastics. Now, the Youtube and Instagram influencers are the role models for them.

Not only that Romania lost its sports leaders, but the politics is often caught with its sleazy fingers in the Romanian sports pie, in a country more and more accused of corruption at all levels.

Why Romania gets no more than 4 medals per competition during the Olympics? Why Romania hasn’t managed to qualify for a Football World Cup or for the final European tournament for years? Why is the Romanian sport at the lowest level ever?

All these are questions to be answered by the whole political class who’s been running the country since the so-called Romanian Revolution. Speaking of the political class, it is worth mentioning that the Romanian Minister of Sports didn’t even wait the gold medal winners at the airport, as usually. He was competing at that moment, as he is registered as a cyclist. More probably, he was afraid of another confrontation with the athletes as days before the silver medal winner Ana-Maria Popescu refused to handshake him at the airport.