Athlete of the Week on RRI
Heavyweight lifter Mihaela Cambei
Florin Orban, 15.04.2025, 13:45
The best European weightlifters are competing these days at the European Championships in Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova. Romania has 15 athletes in the competition, 8 men and 7 women. After the first two days of competition, four of the weightlifters who make up the Romanian team have already climbed the podium. On Sunday, Mihaela Cambei won three gold medals. In the 49-kilogram category, she won the snatch with 85 kilograms, won the clean and jerk with 105, and won the total with 190 kilograms.
In the same category, Cosmina Pană won a bronze medal in the snatch event, after lifting 76 kilograms. Another bronze medal was won, in the 45 kilogram category, in the snatch event, by Ioana Mădălina Miron, with 71 kilograms. Then, on Monday, in the men’s 55 kilogram competition, Cristian Luca won the silver medal in the snatch, with 110 kilograms. Following these results, the three-time European champion Mihaela Cambei was designated by Radio Romania International as the Athlete of the Week.
Mihaela came to Chisinau as the first-seed in the 49-kilogram category. At the Paris Olympics last year, where she won the silver medal, she had no European athletes among her rivals. Then, the Romanian lifted 205 kilograms. Now, in the Republic of Moldova, the competition was much easier. With the total of 190 kilograms with which she won, Mihaela would not have joined the top 8 in Paris. In Chisinau, she lifted, in total, 17 kilograms more than the second-place finisher, the Spanish athlete Lucia González Borrego.
Mihaela Valentina Cambei was born in the village of Dofteana, Bacău County (east), on November 18, 2002. In 2018, at just 16 years old, she won the bronze medal in the 48 kilogram category at the Summer Youth Olympic Games, organized in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She stood out in the senior competitions at just 20 years old, also demonstrating that she enjoyed competing in South America. In 2022, at the World Championships in Colombia, in Bogota, she won the silver medal in the 49-kilogram snatch competition. Starting in 2023, she dominated the European Championships. Then, at the Paris Olympics last year, she won the only medal of Romanian weightlifters – silver in the 49-kilogram snatch competition. (MI)
