Athletes of the Week: Mihai Tentea and George Iordache
The 25th Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina have just come to a close, marking a historic chapter for Romanian winter sports
Florin Orban, 24.02.2026, 13:45
In a competition that saw a record number of athletes and remarkable performances, one result stood above the rest for the Romanian delegation: a 5th-place finish in the two-man bobsleigh event. This achievement represents the best Olympic result for Romania in the new millennium. For this extraordinary feat, Radio Romania International names Mihai Tentea and George Iordache our Athletes of the Week.
To find a superior result, we have to travel back 34 years to Albertville 1992, where Ioan Apostol and Liviu Cepoi took 4th in the doubles luge. In the world of bobsleigh specifically, you have to go even further back—to the 1972 Sapporo Games—to find the last time a Romanian duo reached 5th place. Since then, our tricolor athletes had not come this close to the podium. Now, in Italy, Tentea and Iordache finished an grueling competition just 0.85 seconds away from a medal, trailing only three dominant German pairs and a duo from the United States.
Born in Pitești in 1998, Mihai Tentea has been dedicated to high-performance bobsleigh since the age of 14. A veteran of the ice despite his young age, Milano-Cortina was already his third Winter Olympics. Before this Olympic breakthrough, he proved his pedigree by winning medals at the 2020 and 2021 Youth World Championships. More recently, he signaled his rising status in the senior circuit with an 8th-place finish at the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid alongside his current partner.
While Tentea brought the experience to the table, George Iordache brought the fresh energy of a debutant. Hailing from Curtea de Argeș, George was an athlete until 2022 before making the switch to bobsleigh. His transition was lightning-fast; by 2023, he was already winning silver at the Junior European Championships in the four-man bobsleigh and breaking into the top 10 at the senior level. His first Olympic appearance has now ended with a result that etches his name into the history books of Romanian sport. (VP)
