Ion Panțuru
 Panțuru (left) and Focșeneanu (1973) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 11 September 1934 Comarnic, Romania | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | January 17, 2016 (aged 81) Ploiești, Romania | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 77 kg (170 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Bobsleigh | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Bobclub Sinaia | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ion Panţuru (11 September 1934 – 17 January 2016) was a Romanian bobsledder. He competed in two-man and four-man events at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics and served as the Olympic flag bearer for Romania in 1964 and 1972.[1]
Panţuru took up bobsleigh at the age of 24, after playing as a football goalkeeper at the Divizia B-level.[2] At the 1968 Games he won a bronze medal with brakeman Nicolae Neagoe, which remains Romania's only medal at the Winter Olympics. At the same Olympics he was also close to a bronze medal in the four-man competition, placing fourth. At the FIBT World Championships he won two medals in the two-man event, together with another brakeman Dumitru Focșeneanu, with a silver in 1969 and a bronze in 1973. At the European championships Panţuru won four-man gold medals in 1967 and 1971, placing second in four-man in 1968–69 and in two-man events in 1967 and 1969; he also won a four-man bronze medal in 1970.[3]
Panţuru lost his 1969 World Championships medal in a car on his way to the airport. The medal was found in a basement 30 years later, and returned to Panțuru. After retiring from competitions he worked as a national bobsleigh coach.[3] For his sports achievements he was made an honorary citizen of three Romanian towns: Comarnic, Sinaia and Busteni.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Romania Archived 16 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- ^ a b "Ion Panţuru, eroul bobului romanesc" (in Romanian). Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ a b Ion Panțuru Archived 16 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
External links[edit]
- 1972 bobsleigh four-man results
- Bobsleigh two-man Olympic medalists 1932–56 and since 1964[dead link]
- Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931
- DatabaseOlympics.com profile
  | This biographical article relating to bobsleigh in Romania is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1934 births
- 2016 deaths
- People from Comarnic
- Romanian male bobsledders
- Olympic bobsledders for Romania
- Bobsledders at the 1964 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1968 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1972 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1976 Winter Olympics
- Olympic bronze medalists for Romania
- Olympic medalists in bobsleigh
- Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics
- Sportspeople from Prahova County
- Romanian bobsleigh biography stubs