Romania (ROU)

Romania’s first Olympic participant was future International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Gheorghe Plagino, who competed in the clay trap shooting event in 1900. The nation next competed at the 1924 Olympic Games and has since missed only the 1932 and 1948 Olympics. Romania defied pressure from its neighbors and valiantly was the only Warsaw Pact country to compete at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Romania has competed at the Olympic Winter Games since their inception in 1924, missing only 1960. Romania has won 305 Olympic medals, with 89 gold medals. Only a single bronze medal has been earned in the Winter Olympics by Ion Panţuru and Nicolae Neagoe in the 1968 two men bobsleigh. Romania is best known for its outstanding women gymnasts, and has also produced excellent several rowers and canoeists. The most famous Romanian Olympian is certainly gymnast Nadia Comăneci, who in 1976 became the first person to earn a perfect 10 in Olympic competition, and won a total of five golds and nine medals in all. Rowers Elisabeta Oleniuc-Lipă and Georgeta Damian-Andrunache have also won five gold medals.