Mihai Covaliu
Mihai Covaliu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Braşov, Romania | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Romanian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 71 kg (157 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Fencing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weapon | sabre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hand | right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | CS Dinamo București | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FIE ranking | ranking (archive) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Mihai Claudiu Covaliu (born 5 November 1977 in Brașov) is a Romanian retired sabre fencer, Olympic champion in 2000 and world champion in 2005, and coach of the Romanian men's sabre team. He is also ex-president of the Romanian Fencing Federation and, from 2016, president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee.
Personal life
Covaliu's first sport was football.[1] He began fencing at age nine,[2] after coaches from CS Tractorul Brașov presented the sport to his school.[3] His mother encouraged him to persevere despite the harsh training methods used at the time.[3] In 1998 he joined the BNR Bucharest, a club supported by the National Bank of Romania, before transferring to CS Dinamo București, of which he is still a member as of 2014.[2]
Covaliu married in 2001 Irina Draghici, a member of the women's national sabre team. They have two children.[2] He graduated in physical education from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași and holds a master's degree in sport management.[2]
Career
Covaliu underwent at CS Tractorul intensive training at the hand of several coaches and technicians, amongst which Mihai Ticușan, Gabriel Duția,
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Covaliu was eliminated 15–14 in quarter-finals by Zsolt Nemcsik of Hungary, who eventually took the silver medal. Covaliu ended up number seven in the event. At the World Championships in Leipzig the year after, he made his way comfortably to the final, which he won 15–12 against three-time Olympic champion Stanislav Pozdnyakov of Russia. He was noted for his "enthusiasm, physical shape, virtuoso technique, simple fencing".[5] He dedicated his medal to his son Vlad, born a day before the departure for Leipzig.[1]
At the 2008 Summer Olympics Covaliu reached easily the quarter-finals. He had a tight 15–13 win against Aliaksandr Buikevich of Belarus, then met Nicolas Lopez of France.[6] Despite having always beaten Lopez before, Covaliu was defeated 15–13 after leading 11–7 in the last period of the bout. He then met another Frenchman, Julien Pillet, and won 15–11 to earn the bronze medal.[6]
After Beijing Covaliu retired to become the head coach of the Romanian sabre team. Under his training, Romania won the silver medal in the
In April 2013, Covaliu was elected president of the
References
- ^ a b Daniela Ionescu (29 July 2010). "Mihai Covaliu, D'Artagnan de România". România Liberă.
- ^ a b c d e International Fencing Federation (ed.). "Covaliu, Mihai Claudiu (ROU)". Archived from the original on 6 January 2014.
- ^ a b c Daniel Remes (5 January 2014). "ProSport vă prezintă românii din Hall of Fame-ul Federaţiei Internaţionale de Scrimă. Interviu exclusiv cu Mihai Covaliu: "România va avea un nou campion olimpic la scrimă în 2016"". ProSport (in Romanian).
- ^ a b Nicu, Alexe, ed. (2002), "Federația Română de Scrimă" (PDF), Educaţiei Fizice și Sportului din România (in Romanian), vol. 1, Bucharest: Aramis, p. 1039
- ^ Jean-Marie Safra (October 2005). "The Leipzig World Championships–The crowning of legendary champions" (PDF). Escrime XXI (53): 12–15.
- ^ a b Bogdan Costea (13 August 2008). "Mihai Covaliu, bronz olimpic la sabie!". România Liberă.
- ^ Romanian Chamber of Deputies (ed.). "Decret nr.1.501 din 20 octombrie 2009 privind conferirea unor decorații".
- ^ "Mihai Covaliu, ales preşedinte al Federaţiei Române de Scrimă". agerpres.ro (in Romanian). 24 April 2013.
Links
- Mihai Claudiu Covaliu at databaseOlympics.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 November 2012)
- Mihai Covaliu at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Mihai Covaliu at Olympics.com
- Mihai Covaliu's statistics on Nahouw.net