Romania at the Olympic Games: A golden coach

Over half of the Olympic medals brought home by Romanian gymnasts have been won under the training of one coach: Octavian Bellu.

Florin Orban, 22.05.2026, 13:45

Romania won 318 medals at the Olympic Games. Of these, according to the website of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, 93 were gold, 101 silver and 124 bronze. Of all sports, artistic gymnastics brought Romania the largest number of medals: 72 in all, of which 25 gold, 20 silver and 27 bronze. Over half of them, more specifically 39, of which 16 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze, were won under the leadership of one coach: Octavian Bellu. These Olympic performances added to over 300 medals in world and European championships, which led the World Record Academy to designate Bellu as the Most Successful Coach.

Octavian Ioan Atanase Bellu is from Ploiești, where he was born on February 17, 1951. As a young man, he practiced various sports, including gymnastics, without achieving any notable performances. In 1974, he graduated from the Institute of Physical Education and Sports in Bucharest, specialising in gymnastics. He then worked as a physical education teacher in Valea Călugărească, until 1978, when he became a gymnastics coach at the Petrolul Ploiești club.

He began his career with the women’s gymnastics team in 1981, after the couple Marta and Bela Karoly left the country. He worked under coach Adrian Goreac until 1990, when he became the senior coach of the team, a position he held until 2005. He worked closely with coach Mariana Bitang, whom he later married.

In the first decade of the 21st century Bellu held a number of administrative positions at government level, then returned to lead the women’s gymnastics team for the 2012 London Olympics, the last in which Romania achieved major results. However, a low-performance period followed, and the Romanian team missed out on qualifying for the 2016 Rio Games and the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Bellu officially retired, but remained close to gymnastics. Together with Mariana Bitang, he founded an initiative called “Country, Country, We Want Champions!”, a national selection and training program aimed at restarting women’s artistic gymnastics in Romania. The results were seen at the 2024 Paris Olympics, when the Romanian team once again managed to reach the Olympic final. (AMP)