Athlete of the Week – Rowers Simona Radiş and Adriana Adam

Nine of the Romanian rowers who competed at the European Championships in Italy returned home with two gold medals each.

Florin Orban, 04.08.2026, 13:45

For Romanian rowing, the European Championships held last weekend in Italy represented a historic moment. It was the first time that the Romanian athletes won 6 European gold medals. Furthermore, thanks to these medals, the Romanian delegation finished first in the nations’ medal table. Previously, the best editions of the European Championships were the one in Munich, in 2022, with five gold and three bronze medals, and the 2023 edition, held in Bled, Slovenia, when five gold and one silver medal were won.

This year, gold medals went to the Romanian crews in the women’s pair, men’s pair, mixed double sculls, as well as the men’s, women’s, and mixed eights. The men’s four secured a silver medal, while the women’s quadruple sculls took bronze. Nine of the Romanian rowers returned home with two gold medals each. Let’s start with the women. Simona Radiş and Adriana Adam won gold in both the women’s pair and the women’s eight. Magdalena Rusu, Maria Lehaci, Ancuţa Bodnar, Amalia Chelaru, and Victoria Petreanu claimed European gold in the women’s eight and the mixed eight. Two men joined them: Florin Lehaci and Ştefan Berariu, European champions in the men’s pair and the mixed eight. For the Athlete of the Week title, Radio Romania International had to choose from among all these double medalists and ultimately selected Simona Radiş and Adriana Adam. The decision was motivated by the European record they set in the women’s pair final.

Simona Radiş is from Botoşani (northern Romania), where she was born on April 5, 1999. She holds numerous European and World championship titles. In 2021, in Tokyo, she won the Olympic title in the double sculls alongside Ancuţa Bodnar, bringing home the only gold medals for the delegation that represented Romania in the Japanese capital. In 2024, in Paris, she won the Olympic silver medal in the double sculls together with Ancuţa and was part of the eight crew that claimed the gold medals. Recently, she transitioned from the double sculls to the women’s pair, and her most recent performance in this new event is the world title won last year in Shanghai alongside Magdalena Rusu.

Adriana Adam, née Ailincăi, is also an Olympic champion and a multiple World and European champion. She was born in Văleni commune, Vaslui county (eastern Romania), on April 11, 1999, just six days after Simona Radiş. She achieved most of her top performances with the Romanian women’s eight crew. However, her first major international results also came from the women’s pair: silver at the 2019 European Championships in Lucerne, alongside Maria Tivodariu, and gold at the 2020 edition in Poznan, alongside Iuliana Buhuş. In Paris, in 2024, she was part of the women’s eight crew that became Olympic champions. She is married to Constantin Adam, who is also a rower and a member of the men’s eight crew that won the gold medals on Sunday in Varese. (LS)