Marin Dan, former great Romanian handball player and world champion in 1974, recalled, at the age of 77, a delicate episode in his career, related to the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972. He also spoke about Nicolae Ceaușescu’s reaction after that tournament.
Romania was then coming after a resounding success at the 1970 World Championship, and the expectations for the Olympic competition were huge. The objective set was clear, namely, the gold medal. Despite the ambitions and promises made before departure, the national men’s handball team failed to fulfill its mission and returned home with bronze.
Directly participating in the Olympic tournament, Marin Dan described the tension and pressure felt by the players, explaining that Romanian sports officials had guaranteed the political leadership a new triumph. The fact that this objective was not achieved caused the deep dissatisfaction of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
“Now, after so many years, I feel very good, even though so many years have passed. There were several happenings there. Of course we were favourites, we had won the last world championship in Paris. I am talking about how we prepared for the Olympic Games. We came with a company, with some results, we were the world champions in Paris.
“You’re going to make crosses at all the churches!”
A program was made, I suspect, politics also got involved, we would find that out later, because Ceaușescu called the heads of sports from that time and told them, when they were asked what medals were expected and where, handball was set for the gold medal. Ceaușescu understood that this was a promise, that Romania would win the gold. We lose the final to qualify for the final, with the Yugoslavs, who were our godfathers.
When I came from the Olympics, everyone was upset. I spoke more directly about what I felt and said that the time will come when, for a bronze medal, you will make crosses at all the churches and pray for this performance to be repeated. We lost only one game, by one goal, after a dubious 7 meters!”said Marin Dan, according to iamsport.ro.
Romania at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games
Romania’s path to the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 started excellently. The national handball team dominated the preliminary group, finishing in first place with maximum points after clear wins against Spain, Norway and the Federal Republic of Germany.
In the next phase of the competition, the Romanian team achieved an important success against Hungary, score 20-14, but lost the duel with Yugoslavia on the limit, 13-14. This failure sent the tricolor national team to the match for the third place, where it managed to impose itself in front of the German Democratic Republic, score 19-16, thus obtaining the bronze medal.
