Soccer, the difficult succession
Football is the national sport and is a huge success with children and teenagers who play it constantly in cities all over the country. You only have to look at the pages of the daily newspapers to understand the popularity of this sport. The local tricolours make Romanians proud or sad, depending on their results. The great era of the 1980s and 1990s and the golden generation of Gheorghe Hagi ("the Maradona of the Carpathians"), Popescu, Petrescu and Stelea is over, but has brought long periods of happiness to the whole of Romania. The national team then took part in three World Cups in a row (1990, 1994, 1998), achieving very good results (notably the quarter-finals in 1994). The team also managed to qualify for the Euro in 2000, 2008 and 2016. Unfortunately, Romania failed to qualify for the last World Cup in Russia in the summer of 2018.
Great tennis champions
The great period of Romanian tennis was in the 1970s when the national team, led by Ilie Năstase and Ion Țiriac, two players who excelled on the individual circuit, reached the Davis Cup final three times (1969, 1971 and 1972), but never won it, being beaten each time by the Americans. Ilie Năstase, number 1 in the world in 1973 and winner of Roland Garros (1973) and the US Open (1972), remains a star and has greatly contributed, through his results and antics, to Romania's recognition throughout the world. If good players like Andrei Pavel have emerged since the beginning of the 2000s, Romanian men's tennis is struggling to renew itself today. On the other hand, in women's tennis Simona Halep stands out: number 1 in the world in 2017, winner of Roland Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, she proudly wears the Romanian colours.
Gymnastics, the country's showcase
Gymnastics is the discipline that made Romania known to the whole world, the one that brought the most medals to Romanian sport: more than sixty for the Olympic Games alone. Their white uniforms with tricolour edging (blue-yellow-red) are still very feared on the floor.
The communist authorities opened a special school in Deva (in the west of the country) where the country's elite are still training today. Gymnastics became a matter of state, a discipline that was to make Romania known and whose successes made it possible to taunt the great Soviet neighbour. Nadia Comăneci was the first grand champion. Her face, her performances, her medals (five in Montreal in 1976) and her incredible marks then marked the whole world.Other Olympic disciplines
Canoeing and rowing. These disciplines have always brought many medals to Romanian sport. During the Olympic Games, rowing brought back more than thirty medals, as did canoeing and kayaking. These two disciplines are thus ranked just behind gymnastics in terms of number of medals. The first big star was Ivan Patzaichin, who, between 1968 and 1984, won four Olympic gold medals and multiple world titles in canoeing. More recently, the Olympic Games in Athens saw the Romanians win gold in rowing and Georgeta Damian-Andrunache and Viorica Susanu won gold in the same discipline at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2012 London Olympics, no medals were reported by the national team, but in 2016, in Rio, the team won bronze in rowing.
Boxing. The first title won in this discipline by a Romanian was that of European champion, snatched by Lucian Popescu in 1930. The sport was then promoted in the army under the communist regime, as in other friendly countries such as Cuba, Bulgaria and the USSR. The boxers were then exclusively amateurs and made the Romanian team happy at the Olympic Games (more than twenty medals won).
After the Revolution, boxing remained very popular and was no longer limited to the amateur arena. Some boxers excelled at the highest level, such as Francisc Vaștag and Mihai Leu (several times European and world champions). More recently, let's mention Leonard Doroftei (world champion in 2002 and 2003 in the super-light category), Adrian Diaconu (who won fourteen out of fifteen medals during his participation in Olympic tournaments), Lucian Bute (world champion in the super-middleweight category from 2007 to 2012) or Christian Hammer (WBO Europe champion in 2008, 2016 and 2017, WBO International champion in 2015).
Athletics. The first competitions in Romania were organized in 1910. Over the decades, Romanian athletics has developed excellent athletes who sometimes dominate their discipline. The first big star will be Iolanda Balaș, who will dominate women's high jump for many years. Between 1957 and 1961, she broke the world record fourteen times! She went on to win the Olympic gold medal in 1960 in Rome and again in 1964 in Tokyo. Thirty years later, it was another woman who, thirty years later, carried the three colours of the Romanian flag high. Gabriela Szabó will indeed be one of the great champions of the middle distance during the years 1998-2004. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Constantina Diță won gold in the marathon, becoming, at 38, the oldest athlete to win this medal. Romanian athletes, however, went home without medals from the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Oina, a typical Romanian game
The rules are pretty simple. Two teams of eleven players compete against each other. One is at bătaie (attack), the other at prindere (defense). A player of the attacking team throws a ball (140 g) that the opponent must try to hit with a wooden bat (bâtă) and send it as far as possible into a 70 m x 32 m playing field surrounded by lines. Doesn't this remind you of baseball? Oină is first mentioned in texts in 1364, during Vlaicu's reign Vodă. The game was then played by the shepherds of Wallachia. During the 1896 Olympic Games, Romania proposed to introduce the discipline. But the Olympic authorities refused... because the game was only played in Romania. Three years later, the Minister of Education, Spiru Haret, decided that oină would be practiced in schools and organize national competitions. But despite this measure, this ball game is not very successful and it is gradually disappearing. Two federations still exist, in Bucharest and at Chișinău (in the Republic of Moldova).
Nature activities of choice
Hiking. Whether on foot, by mountain bike or on horseback, Romania offers a wide range of nature walks for families and sports enthusiasts alike. The Carpathians as a whole are remarkably suitable for hiking. The landscapes and altitudes are varied. Easy or difficult paths, one hour or several days, everything is possible. Romanians walk, but the tracks are not yet overrun, as is the case in the Alps or the Pyrenees.
You can stay in the refuges, often very simple but convivial, or pitch your tent in their surroundings. However, it is advisable to take your provisions with you. There are good maps in Romanian bookshops showing marked trails and shelters
Finally, agencies specialized in Romania will be able to offer you excellent treks all over the country. All you have to do is choose between the Bucegi Mountains (accessible by cable car), the Apuseni Mountains (superb, but less crowded), the Rodnz massif (well-marked and abundant in rare plants and animals), and so on.
Bird watching. In spring and autumn, many ornithologists visit one of the most beautiful sites in Europe, the Danube Delta. During the long nesting and migration periods (March to May and August to October), millions of birds land here. Local agencies organise expeditions of one or more days by boat, which is the only way to get close to the site of the birds. You can find their offers in Bucharest or on site in Tulcea or Crișan. In the Carpathians, a large number of species are also present for the delight of nature lovers.
Climbing. Romania has a large number of climbing sites. Among the country's natural highlights are the Bucegi and Piatra Craiului massifs, located near the city of Brașov, or Cheile Bicazului (the Bicaz Gorge), near the city of Piatra Neamț
Extreme sports. They have been developing more and more in recent years. Rafting, climbing, off-road, paragliding and many other activities await thrill-seekers. Teams of professionals offer tours almost everywhere in the country
Water sports. On the coast, in the summer, Romanians flock in large numbers. Jet-skiing, windsurfing, pedal boats, water-skiing, paddle-skiing or all the towed buoys are popular at quite affordable prices.
On the river side, despite a beautiful Olympic tradition of canoeing, it is not necessarily easy to paddle. The best known sites remain the gorges of Lăpuș and the river Vaser, in Maramureș, or the Bistrița Aurie, in Bucovina
Winter sports. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are very little practiced, even though many regions lend themselves very well to them. But the ski resorts in the Prahova Valley are beginning to attract more and more people. In Poiana Brașov (the best known), people usually ski from November to March. The neighbouring resorts of Predeal and Bușteni are also popular. You can also ski near Sibiu at Păltiniș, at Borșa in Maramureș, at Semenic in the west of the Carpathians, or at Gura Humorului near Suceava.
Caving. The Apuseni and other areas of the Carpathians have some of the most beautiful abysses and caves in Europe. But caving is not a discipline practiced on a large scale and remains the prerogative of a few specialists. Enthusiasts should therefore contact the Romanian Speleology Federation in Bucharest.
