Radio Romania International Sports Club

Javelin thrower Mihaela Penes

Radio România Internațional, 26.02.2025, 13:45

Romanian veteran athlete, the late Mihaela Penes passed away on August 29, 2024. Penes was one of Romanian athletics’’ first Olympic champions, Mihaela Penes lead a life totally dedicated to sports, first as a performer, then as a head-coach and official of Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. However, in recent years Mihaela Penes retired from public life. She went to a monastery in Northern Moldavia and later she spent the rest of her days in a care home in Bucharest.

Mihaela Peneş was born in Bucharest on July 22nd, 1947. She took up sports when still a child, under the direct supervision of her mother. Her first great performance occurred when she was only 7. Back then Mihaela swam across the Floreasca lake. For her performance she was rewarded with an ice-cream.

Mihaela Penes had a dalliance with swimming and handball, yet she eventually opted for athletics. It didn’t taker her long to break the juniors’ javelin throw national record in 1964, when she was only 17. Also in 1964 Mihaela Penes was included in the line-up for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Back then she was highly unlikely to win a medal, yet Mihaela Penes succeeded the impossible.

In the qualifiers, veteran athlete Yelena Gorchakova of then the USSR succeeded a throw measuring 62 meters and 40 centimeters, setting a new world record, unparalleled for eight years. However, in the final Gorchakova came in third. From her very first attempt, Mihaela Peneş succeeded to throw the javelin at the distance of 60 meters and 54 centimeters, winning the gold medal. Hungary’s Marta Rudas won the silver medal, with a throw of 58 meters and 27 centimeters. Yelena Gorchakova of then the USSR walked home with silver, with a throw measuring 57 meters and 6 centimeters.

At the Olympic Games in Ciudad de Mexico in 1968, Mihaela Penes competed as a defending champion. Again, her best attempt in the final was her first throw, measuring 59 de meters and 92 centimetres. However, Hungarian athlete Angela Nemeth in her second attempt managed a throw measuring 60 meters and 36 centimeters, scooping the gold medal, Mihaela Penes had to make do with the silver medal. The bronze medal went to Austria’s Eva Janko, with a throw measuring 58 meters and 4 centimeters.

After she retired from competition, Penes was a dedicated head coach. Later she was on the official top management staff of the Romanian Athletics Federation and the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. Mihaela Penes also had a stint as director of Romanian Olympic Academy.