Romania at the 2016 Summer Olympics | |
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IOC code | ROU |
NOC | Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee |
Website | www |
in Rio de Janeiro | |
Competitors | 96 in 14 sports |
Flag bearers | Cătălina Ponor (opening)[1] Simona Pop (closing) |
Medals Ranked 47th |
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Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
Romania competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's participation started in 1900 (and its official debut in 1924), Romanian athletes had appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except for two occasions: the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles during the worldwide Great Depression, and the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.
The Romanian team consisted of 97 athletes, 34 men and 63 women, across 14 sports, their smallest in Summer Olympic history since 1988. For the fourth time in history, Romania fielded more female athletes than males at the Games, due to the proliferation of women in both athletics and rowing making the cut and the comeback of the women's handball squad after being absent from London 2012.
Romania left Rio de Janeiro with four medals (one gold, one silver, and two bronze), signifying the country's poorest performance at the Summer Olympics since 1952.[2][3] The women's épée team brought home Romania's only gold medal at the Games, beating the top-ranked Chinese team in the final match with the help of early unmatched touches from four-time Olympian Ana Maria Brânză.[4] Horia Tecău and Florin Mergea secured a historic first Olympic tennis medal of any color for their team, a silver in the men's doubles.[5] The women's eight rowing squad made a late surge to obtain the final podium spot, while Russian-born Albert Saritov closed out the nation's overall tally at the Games with a bronze in freestyle wrestling.[2] For the first time since 1972, Romanian athletes failed to earn an Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics.[citation needed]
Originally, Romania collected a total of five medals. On 13 October 2016, the International Olympic Committee stripped weightlifter Gabriel Sîncrăian of his bronze medal after he tested positive for excess testosterone.[6]