Olympics Update: Team Romania on the board of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris
Romania is currently on the 16th place in the national ranking of medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Star swimmer David Popovici secured Romania’s first gold after dominating the 200m freestyle event.
Radu Dumitrescu · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
Romania is currently on the 16th place in the national ranking of medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Star swimmer David Popovici secured Romania’s first gold after dominating the 200m freestyle event.
First place in the ranking currently goes to Japan, with 13 medals, 7 of which gold, while France and China take second and third places. Australia and South Korea take fourth and fifth, while the US is in sixth.
Here's what Team Romania did in several sports so far:
Judo
Romanian Alex Creț won against Hungarian judoka Krisztian Toth in the first round of the Olympic judo tournament in Paris, in the 90 kg category. Toth accumulated penalties for false attacks and non-combativeness, and Creț was declared the winner.
Following this victory, Creț advanced to the round of 16, where he will compete against Brazilian Rafael Macedo later today.
Gymnastics
Romania took part in the artistic gymnastics final and finished seventh. The US team won the Olympic title, Italy came second, and Brazil third. Off the podium were Great Britain, Canada, and China.
The Romanian team started promisingly on the floor, and after the first two rotations, they were in fifth place. Mistakes on the uneven bars and the beam, the final apparatus, pulled the team down. Sabrina Voinea had to perform on the beam while US athlete Simone Biles was on the floor in thunderous applause, which made concentrating difficult.
Ana Barbosu, who also qualified for the floor final, declared herself satisfied with the team's result. "We qualified for the final in 8th place and finished 7th. It is a good result and an important step towards better performances!"
The result marks Romania’s return to an Olympic gymnastics final for teams for the first time in 12 years.
Former gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comăneci watched the team final from the stands alongside former American tennis player Serena Williams: "I explained to Serena how gymnastics works because she had never been to a gymnastics competition. She liked it very much, and so did her daughter, who I believe does gymnastics,” she said, cited by ProTV.
