{"id":1019908,"date":"2026-05-21T13:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/?p=1019908"},"modified":"2026-05-21T12:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:44:12","slug":"romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html","title":{"rendered":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Romanian athletes have often stood out through outstanding performances at a young age. The great champions have proved their worth since their junior years, and the best example is Romania&#8217;s number one athlete, Nadia Com\u0103neci. At 12 years old, at the Romanian Internationals, she won the first place in the all-around event and in all 4 apparatus finals in the junior competition. She is also the youngest Olympic champion in Romanian history. In 1976, in Montreal, she won 3 gold medals, in the all-around, parallel bars and beam events. She first climbed the Olympic podium at 14 years and 249 days old.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a ranking of Romania\u2019s youngest Olympic champions, Nadia is followed by another gymnast, a medalist at just 14 years and 321 days old: Simona P\u0103uc\u0103. In 1984, in Los Angeles, she won the gold with the Romanian team and the beam final, tied with Ecaterina Szabo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Next comes Lavinia Milo\u015fovici, twice an Olympic champion in Barcelona \u200b\u200bin 1992, in floor and vault, at the age of 15 years and 295 days. The 10\/10 score she won for the floor exercise was the last in the history of gymnastics. \u201cMilo\u201d also competed in 1996, in Atlanta, where she was awarded silver medals in the individual all-around and team events.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Leaving gymnastics and moving forward in time, we stop at the 2000 edition of the Olympic Games, which took place in Sydney. The surprise in that edition of the Olympics was Diana Mocanu, an Olympic champion at 16 years and 15 days in the 100- and 200-metre backstroke.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The youngest Romanian Olympic champion in the men&#8217;s events, David Popovici, also competes in swimming. On July 29, 2024, in La D\u00e9fense arena in Paris, he won gold in the 200-metre freestyle at the age of 19 years, 10 months and 14 days. It is worth noting, however, that at 17 years, 10 months and 29 days, at the European Championships in Rome in the summer of 2022, he broke the world record in the 100-metre freestyle. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Romanian athletes have often stood out through outstanding performances at a young age. The great champions have proved their worth since their junior years, and the best example is Romania&#8217;s number one athlete, Nadia Com\u0103neci. At 12 years old, at the Romanian Internationals, she won the first place in the all-around event and in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":982191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[30283,146495,34837,147590,30557,191209],"coauthors":[113302],"class_list":["post-1019908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-champions","tag-david-popovici-2","tag-games","tag-nadia-comaneci-2","tag-olympics","tag-youngest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Romanian athletes have often stood out through outstanding performances at a young age. The great champions have proved their worth since their junior years, and the best example is Romania&#8217;s number one athlete, Nadia Com\u0103neci. At 12 years old, at the Romanian Internationals, she won the first place in the all-around event and in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Florin Orban\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Florin Orban\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Florin Orban\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde\"},\"headline\":\"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\"},\"wordCount\":331,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"champions\",\"David Popovici\",\"Games\",\"Nadia Comaneci\",\"OLympics\",\"youngest\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\",\"name\":\"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"The Olympic Games (photo: Agzam \\\/ pixabay.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\\\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Homepage\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Actualitate\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/actualitate\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sport\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/news-and-current-affairs\\\/sport\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/\",\"name\":\"Radio Romania International\",\"description\":\"Totul despre Rom\u00e2nia \u015fi rom\u00e2ni, \u00een 13 limbi\\\/dialecte!\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde\",\"name\":\"Florin Orban\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rri.ro\\\/en\\\/author\\\/florin-orban\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International","og_description":"&nbsp; Romanian athletes have often stood out through outstanding performances at a young age. The great champions have proved their worth since their junior years, and the best example is Romania&#8217;s number one athlete, Nadia Com\u0103neci. At 12 years old, at the Romanian Internationals, she won the first place in the all-around event and in [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html","og_site_name":"Radio Romania International","article_published_time":"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Florin Orban","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Florin Orban","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html"},"author":{"name":"Florin Orban","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde"},"headline":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions","datePublished":"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html"},"wordCount":331,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg","keywords":["champions","David Popovici","Games","Nadia Comaneci","OLympics","youngest"],"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html","name":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions - Radio Romania International","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-21T10:45:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/JO-cercuri-olimpice-Agzam-pixabay-com.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"The Olympic Games (photo: Agzam \/ pixabay.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/romania-at-the-olympic-games-the-youngest-champions-id1019908.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Homepage","item":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Actualitate","item":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/actualitate"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sport","item":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Romania at the Olympic Games: The youngest champions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/","name":"Radio Romania International","description":"Totul despre Rom\u00e2nia \u015fi rom\u00e2ni, \u00een 13 limbi\/dialecte!","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/#\/schema\/person\/69677d14c8796101e5d809074fc06fde","name":"Florin Orban","url":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/author\/florin-orban"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019912,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019908\/revisions\/1019912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019908"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1019908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}