The Year 2025 in Sports
A roundup of the some of the best performances obtained by the Romanian athletes in 2025
Florin Orban, 23.12.2025, 13:45
For the Romanian athletes the year that is ending proved relatively rich in performances as they claimed medals in both continental and world competitions. World titles were obtained in world championships in swimming, rowing and weightlifting, and our programme will be mentioning all the performers of Romanian sports this year, in two episodes. In the first one, we will be talking about the performances obtained between January and June, and in the second, about the results obtained in the second half of the year.
January once again brought honorable shows put up by the Romanian players at the Australian Tennis Open, but without the brilliance of previous years, when Simona Halep was among the protagonists of the competition. We also noted the performance of motorcyclist Emanuel Gyenes at the Dakar Rally. He ranked 20th in the standings, but he won in the Original by Motul category, where bikers compete without technical assistance. This is the second time the athlete from Satu Mare has won in the aforementioned category, after the 2020 edition. In 2011 and 2015, he won the Marathon class. His best overall ranking, out of the 15 participations, remains the 2016 edition, when he ended in the 14th place.
In February, figure skater Julia Sauter, Romania’s representative at the European Figure Skating Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia, finished 7th in the final standings of the women’s individual competition. It was the best Romanian performance ever at a continental figure skating competition. Later, the Romanian rugby team qualified for the 2027 World Cup, which is going to take place in Australia. The “Oaks” as they are also known secured the second place in Group B of the 2025 Rugby Europe Championship, after winning their first two games of the year: 48 – 10 at home against Germany and 31 – 14 away against Belgium. However, in the group’s last game, they were defeated by Portugal 34 – 6 in Botoşani, north-eastern Romania.
The Romanian performance of the month of March was recorded at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in the Netherlands. Our delegation walked away from the aforementioned competition with two medals: gold in the men’s shot put contest, won by Andrei RareşToader, and silver in the women’s triple jump, secured by Diana Ion. Also in March, upon the semifinals and finals of the Rugby Europe Championship 2025, the Oaks, or Stejarii in Romanian, our national fifteen, won bronze medals. They lost, in the semifinals, to Georgia, away, 5-43, but they outperformed Portugal, 21-7, in the third-place play-offs in Lisbon. The European journey of the FCSB football side ended in March.
In the round of 16 of the Europa League, the second most valuable continental interclub competition, the Romanian side was defeated by the French side Olympique Lyonnais 3-1 at home and 4-0 in an away game. Then, the World Indoor Athletics Championships were held in Nanjing, China. Sadly, the Romanian delegation walked away from the competition with no medals. The closest to a place on the podium was Alina Rotaru – Kottmann, who ranked 5th in the long jump event.
At the European Weightlifting Championships held in Chisinau in April, athletes from Romania won 11 medals, including 4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze. Three of the gold medals were won by Mihaela Cambei. In the 49 kg category, she won the snatch event with 85 kg, the clean and jerk by lifting 105 kg, and the total with 190 kg. The fourth gold medal went to Andreea Cotruţa in the 59 kg category, with a total of 208 kg, after taking silver in the snatch contest with 94 kg and the throw with 114 kg. Also in April, CSM Bucharest missed their qualification for the Final Four of the Women’s Handball Champions League. The Romanian champions were outperformed in the competition’s quarters by the Danish team Team Esbjerg after 30 to 29 at home and 22 to 26 away.
In May 2025, the Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea and her Russian teammate Ana Kalinskaya won the doubles of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid, with 8 million dollars in prize money. They advanced to the final against the Russian-Belgian pair Veronika Kudermetova / Elise Mertens with 6-7, 6-2 and 12-10 in tiebreak. Ana and Sorana were rewarded with a check of 400,560 euros and 1,000 WTA points. For Cîrstea, this was the sixth WTA doubles title of her career. Also in the month of May, the domestic football season ended. The Super League Championship was won by FCSB, and the Romanian Cup by CFR Cluj, which advanced to the final in Arad, against Hermannstadt, 3-2. The month ended with the silver medal won at the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, by Romanian player Bernadette Szőcs, alongside the Austrian of Moldovan extraction Sofia Polcanova, in the women’s doubles event. It was the first medal won by Romania in a women’s individual competition at the World Championships after a 32-year break, since the bronze medal won by Otilia Bădescu in the singles, in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1993.
The end of May and the beginning of June brought Romania medals from the European Gymnastics and Rowing Championships. In gymnastics, at the competition hosted by the German city of Leipzig, Ana Maria Bărbosu came third in the individual all-around event as well as at the parallel bars, second in the beam event and the best in Europe on the floor. In rowing, the Romanian delegation returned from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with seven medals, out of which three were gold, two silver and two bronze. The first European title was obtained in the women’s double sculls, with a new European record, by Magdalena Rusu and Simona Radiș. The Romanian representatives in the men’s double sculls, namely Florin Arteni and Florin Lehaci, also won by setting a European record. The third gold medal was won by the men’s four crew, made up of Ștefan Berariu, Sergiu Bejan, Andrei Mândrilă and Ciprian Tudosă. Also in June, and still on the water, but at the European Kayaking – Canoeing Championships in the Czech Republic, in Račice, Cătălin Chirilă won the final of the 1000-meter single canoe event, and the bronze medal in the 500-meter race.
(bill)
