Nicu Vlad

Nicu Vlad
Nationality:	Romania
Date of birth:	November 1, 1963
Place of birth:	Piscu
Size:	181 cm
Medal table

Nicu Vlad (born November 1, 1963 in Piscu , Galați County ) is a former Romanian - Australian weightlifter .

Career as an athlete

Nicu Vlad won several world championships and Olympic medals for Romania in his career. In 1994 he briefly competed for Australia.

Vlad was discovered as a student by the former weightlifter Gheorghe Gospodinov , who took him to the sports school in Galați . When Gospodinov moved to Rapid Bucharest , Vlad followed him and remained his student until his Olympic victory in 1984 . Vlad later moved to Steaua Bucharest and was trained by Dragomir Cioroslan .

Vlad won his first world championship together with the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , which at that time also represented the world championships. He lifted 392.5 kg in the class up to 90 kg and thus distanced the runner-up by 32.5 kg. This would certainly not have been possible with the presence of the Soviet lifters who had to boycott the games.

In 1985, Vlad switched to the 1st heavyweight division (then up to 100 kg) and took 3rd place at the World Championships in Södertälje with 405 kg in a duel behind Pawel Kuznetsov from the Soviet Union . As early as the 1986 World Cup, a year later, it increased to 437.5 kg and won gold in a duel. In 1987 he placed himself again behind Pawel Kuznetsov and was runner-up in the duel with 420 kg.

In his second Olympics Vlad had in 1988 in Seoul bow again and won with 402.5 kg silver medal behind Kuznetsov 425 kg. The originally runner-up Andor Szanyi achieved 407.5 kg, but was disqualified for doping. At the World Cup in Athens in 1989 , he once again won silver behind the Bulgarian Petar. In 1990 he was able to realize his third World Cup victory and won gold with 412.5 kg in the class up to 100 kg.

At his third Olympic Games in 1992 , Vlad competed in the class up to 110 kg in spite of only 103.10 kg body weight and took 4th place there. For the 1993 World Cup in Melbourne , however, he switched back to the new class up to 99 kg and was able to win silver in the snatch. In the push he could not bring in a valid attempt and thus no duel scoring. In 1994 in Istanbul Nicu Vlad started a class higher, up to 108 kg. There he won two silver medals in pushing and dueling as well as a bronze in snatch.

The end of his career was his fourth Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta , where he took 3rd place in the class up to 108 kg with 420 kg in a duel. Second-placed Russian Sergei Syrtsov lifted the same load, but was 480 grams lighter.

Others

After his career, Vlad initially worked as a trainer and has been President of the Romanian Weightlifting Association since 1997. Vlad was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in 2006. On April 1, 2009, he was elected Vice President of the IMF after having been a member of its Technical Committee for a long time.

Personal best

• Tear: 200.5 kg in the class up to 100 kg at the World Cup in Sofia.
• Push: 237.5 kg in the class up to 100 kg at the World Cup in Sofia.
• Duel: 437.5 kg in the class up to 100 kg at the World Cup in Sofia.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nicu Vlad in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ), accessed on January 2, 2010.
2. ^ Andor Szanyi in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ), accessed on September 3, 2018.
3. ↑ Nicu Vlad Romanian weightlifter and weightlifting official
4. ^ Weightlifting Hall Of Fame List Of Members

swell

• Interview with Nicu Vlad

Web links

• Profile of Nicu Vlad in the lift-up project at chidlovski.net (English)
• Portrait on weightliftingexchange.com
• Nicu Vlad at the Institute for Applied Training Science