\nIvan Patzaichin was the greatest
\nRomanian canoeist of all time. All along his career he reaped 8 world
\ntitles between 1970 and 1983, as well as 4 Olympic gold medals at the
\nfive Olympic Games he attended between 1968 and 1984.
\n<\/p>\n
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\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He was born on November 26th
\n1949 and in 1967 he signed up with Dinamo Bucharest Sports Club. He
\nwas inspired by the performance obtained by three boys from his
\nnative village in the Danube Delta who had earlier become world
\nchampions in Berlin. Patzaichin obtained his first notable
\nperformance three months later, when he came in second in the
\nnational under twenty-one championship. A year later in 1968 he won
\nhis first Olympic gold in the 1000 meter men’s canoe double race
\ntogether with Serghei Covaliov.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPatzaichin made history at the Olympic
\nGames in Munich in 1972 after
\nhis paddle had broken right at the beginning of the 1000 meter
\nqualifying race. The referees didn’t
\nstop the race as regulations required, so Patzaichin had to use what
\nwas left of the paddle to end the race three minutes after the first
\nboat. There was a lot of talk, but the Romanian was eventually
\nallowed to compete in the semifinals on September 8th
\nwhen he ended the race three seconds ahead runner-up
\nCzech Ji\u0159\u00ed \u010ctvrte\u010dka.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe Romanian was 20 seconds faster
\nthan the winners of the other series and became the odds-on favourite
\nof the finals race on September 9, where he obtained a clear win
\nalmost four seconds ahead the runner-up, Tamas Wichmann of Hungary.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n By the end of his career Patzaichin
\nwon two more Olympic gold medals: in 1980 in Moscow and in the 1000
\nmeter double race of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles four years
\nlater together with Toma
\nSemionov.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAfter withdrawing from competitions,
\nPatzaichin coached Romania’s kayak-canoe team for many years,
\nwinning numerous medals in European, world and Olympic contests. He
\nlater got involved in various projects of promoting the Danube Delta,
\nits people and traditions. He is staging traditional boat contests
\nand supports various projects on sustainable tourism in the region.
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A champion with a broken paddle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":120154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[31354,41816,35169,40346,41815],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-120586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-berlin","tag-covaliov","tag-dinamo","tag-patzaichin","tag-semionov"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n