Olympic Profiles – Cyclist Vlad Dascălu
Vlad Dascalu will compete in the cross-country mountain bike event at the Olympics
Florin Orban, 10.09.2020, 13:45
One of the
youngest members of Romania’s delegation for the Tokyo Olympics due next year
is cyclist Vlad Dascălu. He secured qualification to the Olympic Games back in
2019, when he won the World Championship, the World Cup and the European
Championship in the under-23 cross-country mountain bike competition.
Vlad Dascălu was
born on December 7, 1997 in the village of Buda, near Falticeni, in Suceava
County. At 9 years of age he moved to Spain with his parents. It is here that he
got his first bike, aged 10. According to the website of the Romanian Olympic
and Sports Committee, Vlad first competed in a cycling competition at the age
of 14. At 16 he took part in his first cross-country race and he ranked 2nd.
This was the moment that would forever shape his sports career. Only a year
later, at the Youth European Championship, he came in 6th.
At the age of
18, he came to Romania and won the national mountain bike championship, the cross-country
Olympic event, despite being an amateur and having enrolled in the race
individually. He was immediately signed by Dinamo BikeXpert Superbet, where he
grabbed his first notable performances. He commuted from Spain to Romania to
train with his team, he won World Cup points and started being scouted by
top-class teams.
In 2018 he was
signed by Brujula Bike Racing Team in Spain. In July 2019, in Brno, the Czech
Republic, he won the European Youth Championship in the under-23 category. A
month later, in Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada, he won the world title in the same
category. He also grabbed good performances at the World Cup, winning 4 out of
the 7 stages, a feat for which he was designated cyclist of the year 2019 in
Romania.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
