RRI Sports Club – Gymnast Dan Grecu
Dan Grecu was one Romania's best-performing gymnasts.
Florin Orban, 25.02.2025, 13:45
Another top-performing athlete who passed away last year was the great gymnast and coach Dan Grecu. He was the first Romanian gymnast to become world champion. The next world champion in the history of Romanian men’s gymnastics, Marius Urzică, was his student. Dan Grecu was the first Romanian to win a medal in the Olympic men’s gymnastics and, 20 years later, he trained another athlete who grabbed the first Olympic gold for Romanian gymnastics: Marius Urzică.
Dan Grecu was born September 26, 1950, in Bucharest. He took up gymnastics at the age of 8, in Iași, under the guidance of coach Octav Ungureanu. At the age of 12, he returned to Bucharest, where he enrolled at CSS Viitorul, with Mircea Bădulescu as his coach. He then moved to Dinamo Bucharest, a club where he spent his entire career as an athlete and later as a coach. In 1966, he won his first junior title. In 1970, he was drafted for the first time in the country’s representative team, taking part in the World Championships in Ljubljana. In 1972, he took part in the Munich Olympics, where he ranked 7th with the Romanian team. He grabbed his first notable results in 1973, at the European Championships in Grenoble, where he won silver in the still rings event.
Dan Grecu’s name will remain forever tied to his great achievement in 1974. Then, in Varna, under the guidance of Mircea Bădulescu, he won the world title in the still rings event, after a fantastic battle with the representative of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Andrianov, with whom he was tied for first place on the podium. In 1976, at the Montreal Olympics, he once again confirmed his excellent skill in the rings event, winning the bronze medal.
As a coach, Dan Grecu was at the helm of the best men’s gymnastics team that Romania has ever had. His students grabbed an Olympic gold, won by Marius Urzică in 2000 in Sydney, and several medals at the World and European Championships. In 2001, at the World Championships in Gent, the Romanian men’s gymnastics achieved the best results in its entire history, winning three gold medals. Marian Drăgulescu won the title in the vault and floor events, and Marius Urzică won gold in the pommel horse event. Following a career of excellence, in 2024 Dan Grecu was awarded the Golden Torque, the highest distinction of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. (VP)
