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The Most Famous

WRESTLERS from Romania

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This page contains a list of the greatest Romanian Wrestlers. The pantheon dataset contains 700 Wrestlers, 6 of which were born in Romania. This makes Romania the birth place of the 27th most number of Wrestlers behind Brazil and Australia.

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Romanian Wrestlers of all time. This list of famous Romanian Wrestlers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Nicolae Martinescu

1. Nicolae Martinescu (1940 - 2013)

With an HPI of 44.08, Nicolae Martinescu is the most famous Romanian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages on wikipedia.

Nicolae Martinescu (24 February 1940 – 1 April 2013) was a Greco-Roman wrestler from Romania. He competed at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1972, placing third in 1968 and fourth in 1964. At the 1976 Olympics he served as the flag bearer for Romania at the opening ceremony. Martinescu won a European title in 1966 and five medals at the world championships between 1963 and 1974. Domestically he collected 18 Romanian national titles between 1961 and 1978.In 1972, he was awarded the title of Merited Master of Sport of the USSR. After retiring from competitions he worked at the Romanian Wrestling Federation. Martinescu died aged 73 in Bucharest. He wife is folk singer Mioara Velicu.

Photo of Lajos Keresztes

2. Lajos Keresztes (1900 - 1978)

With an HPI of 43.81, Lajos Keresztes is the 2nd most famous Romanian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Lajos Keresztes (30 April 1900 in Alsósófalva (now Ocna de Jos, Romania) – 9 August 1978 in Budapest) was a Hungarian wrestler and Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Photo of Ștefan Rusu

3. Ștefan Rusu (1956 - )

With an HPI of 42.25, Ștefan Rusu is the 3rd most famous Romanian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Ştefan Rusu (born 2 February 1956) is a retired Greco-Roman wrestler from Romania. He competed at the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics and won a silver, a gold and a bronze medal, respectively. He also won world titles in different weight divisions in 1978 and 1982 and European titles in 1978–1981 and 1985. After retiring from competitions he worked as a wrestling coach in Romania and in Turkey.

Photo of Vasile Andrei

4. Vasile Andrei (1955 - )

With an HPI of 41.37, Vasile Andrei is the 4th most famous Romanian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Vasile Andrei (born 28 July 1955) is a retired heavyweight wrestler from Romania. He competed in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1980 and a gold medal in 1984. At the 1984 Olympics he also placed sixth in freestyle wrestling, and in 1980 and 1988 served as flag bearer for Romania at the opening ceremony. At the world and European championships he won six medals in Greco-Roman wrestling between 1979 and 1987.Andrei took up wrestling at Progresul Bucuresti coached by Dumitru Pârvulescu and later moved to Steaua București. After retiring from competitions he worked as a wrestling coach, and in 2000 trained the Tunisian national team.

Photo of Alina Dumitru

5. Alina Dumitru (1982 - )

With an HPI of 34.59, Alina Dumitru is the 5th most famous Romanian Wrestler.  Her biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Alina Dumitru (Romanian pronunciation: [aˈlina duˈmitru]; born 30 August 1982) is a Romanian judoka, one-time Olympic champion and eight-time European champion. At the 2008 Summer Olympics she defeated Japanese double gold medallist Ryoko Tani, who until then had been undefeated in major international competitions for 12 years.

Photo of Corina Căprioriu

6. Corina Căprioriu (1986 - )

With an HPI of 26.28, Corina Căprioriu is the 6th most famous Romanian Wrestler.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Corina Căprioriu (Romanian pronunciation: [koˈrina kəpriˈorju]; born 18 July 1986) is a Romanian judoka. She has competed under the name Corina Ștefan since her 2016 marriage to Romanian wrestler Gheorghiță Ștefan.Căprioriu won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She lost in the final against Japan’s Kaori Matsumoto after being disqualified (hansoku) during the golden score period in the women's -57 kg weight class.She also won the bronze medal in the lightweight division at the 2011 World Judo Championships. Caprioriu was European Champion in 2010 and bronze in 2011. She booked multiple World cup titles since 2010. She managed to qualify in the final at the 2015 World Judo Championships where she met her opponent from the 2012 Summer Olympics, Kaori Matsumoto. She lost after the Japanese scored a waza-ari. She is the current World No.1 at the Women's -57 kg category.

Pantheon has 6 people classified as wrestlers born between 1900 and 1986. Of these 6, 4 (66.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living wrestlers include Ștefan Rusu, Vasile Andrei, and Alina Dumitru. The most famous deceased wrestlers include Nicolae Martinescu and Lajos Keresztes. As of April 2022, 1 new wrestlers have been added to Pantheon including Lajos Keresztes.

Living Wrestlers

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Deceased Wrestlers

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Newly Added Wrestlers (2022)

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