President Klaus Iohannis receives Team Romania athletes ahead of Paris Olympic Games

President Klaus Iohannis received the athletes who will represent Romania at the Paris Olympic Games at the Cotroceni Palace, in a special ceremony held on July 17.

The Romanian delegation has 107 athletes qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will take place between July 26 and August 11. Team Romania will compete in swimming, athletics, rowing, canoeing, boxing, water polo, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, table tennis, yachting, wrestling, fencing, triathlon, cycling, weightlifting, judo, archery, and tennis.

Klaus Iohannis sought to encourage the athletes during the meeting.

"A century after Romania's first participation in the Olympic Games and the moment it won its first Olympic medal, you will go to the same place as then, and I am sure you will write a new important page in the history of Romanian sports. I am convinced that the entire country is with you and awaits the Romanian anthem to be heard many times in Paris and to enjoy the good results you will achieve,” he said.

The president also said that sport is one of the anchors of the fundamental values of society.

"Romania has gathered 309 Olympic medals in its entire 110-year history. I am convinced that we will hear the Romanian anthem again in Paris, just as we will hear the beating hearts of all Romanians from all corners of the world,” said the president of the COSR executive committee, Mihai Covaliu, quoted by Radio Romania Actualitati.

During the ceremony at the Cotroceni Palace, president Klaus Iohannis handed the Romanian flag to rowers Ionela and Marius Cosmiuc, husband and wife, who will be the flag bearers for Romania at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.

Romanian athletes will march at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games under the new Team Romania emblem approved by the International Olympic Committee. They will wear uniforms created by Romanian designer Gyarfas Olah and manufactured in Romania by Pandora Prod, according to the COSR press release.