Beijing in China is these days seeing the Winter
Olympics 2022, which kicked off with a curling competition on Wednesday.
Training for the men’s luge contest has officially begun. Fresh curling contests
are to take place on Thursday as well as well as in Freestyle skiing and the
first matches of the women’s ice hockey tournament. In Beijing, Romania is
being represented by a delegation of 22 athletes, 8 in the women’s contests and
14 in the men’s competitions. They are participating in 7 events, luge,
bob-sleigh, skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and speed
skating.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday on the
Olympic Stadium in Beijing, where the Romanian flag will be carried by Raluca
Strămăturaru and Paul Pepene. Raluca, a 36 years old athlete running in the
luge race, is at her fourth participation in an Olympic tournament. At the
latest edition of the prestigious competition, in 2018 in Korea, Raluca managed
the best show in the Romanian delegation coming 7th in the ranking. Cross-country
skier Paul Pepene is also at his fourth Olympic participation. 33-year-old
Pepene is the only Romanian athlete to have won a world title in international
under 23 competitions.
Bob-sleigh was the only winter sporting event where athletes
from Romania ever claimed a medal. The event took place in Grenoble in 1968,
when the team made up of Ion Panturu and Nicolae Neagoe stepped onto the third
step of the podium. Italians Eugenio Monti and Luciano de Paolis won the gold
medal while the silver went to Horst Floth and Peppi Bader of Germany.
Almost 100 years ago, another two bobsleigh racers
from Romania, Alexandru Papana and Dumitru Hubert got the same performance. The
event took place in Schreiberhau, Germany in 1933 and a year later another pair
from Romania, Alexandru Frim – Vasile Dumitrescu, scored the same result in
Engelberg, Switzerland. However, the best Romanian performance in a world event
was secured by Ion Panturu and Dumitru Focseneanu who got second in Lake
Placid, the USA, in 1969.
(bill)