Lia Manoliu

This article is about the Romanian athlete Lia Manoliu, the Bucharest stadium can be found at Lia Manoliu Stadium .

Lia Manoliu at the 1964 Olympics

Lia Manoliu (born April 25, 1932 in Chișinău , † January 9, 1998 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian discus thrower . She took part in six Olympic Games from 1952 to 1972 and won one gold and two bronze medals.

When she first participated in the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 , she finished sixth. In 1956 in Melbourne she came only in ninth place, but then won the bronze medal at the two following games in Rome and Tokyo . For the participation in the Summer Games 1968 in Mexico City Lia Manoliu was originally no longer planned by the Romanian federation, she nevertheless secured a starting place and despite being injured won the gold medal at the age of 36 in front of the highly favored Liesel Westermann . At the 1972 Games in Munich , she ended her sporting career in ninth place. It is noteworthy that she achieved an increase in her performance every time she participated in the Olympics.

Lia Manoliu was a member of the Romanian Senate for the FSN party from 1990 to 1992 . In addition, from 1990 to 1998 she was the chair of the National Olympic Committee of Romania .

She died of a heart attack in 1998 after falling into a coma after undergoing brain tumor surgery.

The former national stadium in Bucharest was named after her. The national sports complex next to the stadium still bears her name. The complex includes an athletics hall, an athletics stadium, a swimming pool, an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts and a sports hotel.

Successes in detail

• 1952, Olympic Games Helsinki : 6th place (42.64 m)
• 1956, Olympic Games Melbourne : 9th place (43.90 m)
• 1960, Olympic Games Rome : 3rd place (52.36 m)
• 1964, Olympic Games Tokyo : 3rd place (56.96 m)
• 1968, Olympic Games Mexico City : 1st place (58.28 m)
• 1969, European Championships Athens : 4th place (57.38 m)
• 1972, Olympic Games Munich : 9th place (58.50 m)

Web links

Commons : Lia Manoliu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Lia Manoliu at COSR (Romanian)
• Lia Manoliu in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on Lia Manoliu at runningdivas.com, accessed on May 1, 2019 (Romanian)
2. ↑ Complexul Sportiv National “Lia Manoliu”