Florin Popescu

Medal record
Men's canoe sprint
Olympic Games
Gold 2000 Sydney C-2 1000 m
Bronze 2000 Sydney C-2 500 m
World Championships
Gold 1995 Duisburg C-4 1000 m
Gold 1997 Dartmouth C-4 1000 m
Gold 2001 Poznań C-4 500 m
Gold 2002 Seville C-4 500 m
Gold 2003 Gainesville C-2 1000 m
Gold 2003 Gainesville C-4 500 m
Gold 2005 Zagreb C-4 500 m
Silver 1994 Mexico City C-4 500 m
Silver 1994 Mexico City C-4 1000 m
Silver 1995 Duisburg C-4 500 m
Silver 1997 Dartmouth C-4 500 m
Silver 1998 Szeged C-2 1000 m
Silver 1998 Szeged C-4 500 m
Silver 1999 Milan C-4 500 m
Silver 2002 Seville C-2 500 m
Silver 2003 Gainesville C-2 500 m
Bronze 1999 Milan C-4 200 m
Bronze 2001 Poznań C-2 500 m
Bronze 2003 Gainesville C-4 200 m

Florin Popescu (born August 30, 1974 in Iancu Jianu, Olt) is a Romanian sprint canoer who competed from the mid 1990s to 2005. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won two Olympic medals at Sydney in 2000 with teammate Mitică Pricop (gold: C-2 1000 m, bronze: C-2 500 m). He won a total of seven world championship gold medals (and nineteen total) as well as seven European championship golds, making him the most successful Romanian paddler of modern times.

Injury forced Popescu to retire at the end of the 2005 season after winning his seventh world title (C-4 500 m) at the World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Popescu is 183 cm (6'0") tall and raced at 79 kg (174 lbs). He lists his interests as football, motor racing and handball. He was voted Romanian Sportsman of the Year in 1993.

References

1936: Czechoslovakia (Vladimír Syrovátka, Jan Brzák-Felix) • 1948: Czechoslovakia (Jan Brzák-Felix, Bohumil Kudrna) • 1952: Denmark (Bent Peder Rasch, Finn Haunstoft) • 1956: Romania (Alexe Dumitru, Simion Ismailciuc) • 1960: Soviet Union (Leonid Geishtor, Sergei Makarenko) • 1964: Soviet Union (Andrei Khimich, Stepan Oshchepkov) • 1968: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin, Serghei Covaliov) • 1972: Soviet Union (Vladas Česiūnas, Yuri Lobanov) • 1976: Soviet Union (Serhei Petrenko, Aleksandr Vinogradov) • 1980 – 1984: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin, Toma Simionov) • 1988: Soviet Union (Viktor Reneysky, Nicolae Juravschi) • 1992: Germany (Ulrich Papke, Ingo Spelly) • 1996: Germany (Gunar Kirchbach, Andreas Dittmer) • 2000: Romania (Mitică Pricop, Florin Popescu) • 2004: Germany (Christian Gille, Tomasz Wylenzek) • 2008: Belarus (Andrei Bahdanovich, Aliaksandr Bahdanovich)
1938: Germany (Rupert Weinstabl & Karl Proisl) * 1950: Czechoslovakia (Jan Brzák-Felix & Bohumil Kudrna) * 1954: Austria (Kurt Liebhart & Engelbert Lulla) * 1958: Romania (Alexe Dumitru & Simion Ismailciuc) * 1963: Romania (Achim Sidorov & Alexe Iacovici) * 1966: Romania (Vicol Calabiciov & Serghei Covaliov) * 1970: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin & Serghei Covaliov) * 1971: Hungary (Tamás Wichmann & Gyula Petrikovics) * 1973: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin & Serghei Covaliov) * 1974: Soviet Union (Vladas Česiūnas & Yuri Lobanov) * 1975: Hungary (Gábor Arva & Péter Povázsay) * 1977: Soviet Union (Vasyl Yurchenko & Yuri Lobanov) * 1978: Hungary (Tamás Buday & Oszkár Frey) * 1979: Soviet Union (Vasyl Yurchenko & Yuri Lobanov) * 1981: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin & Toma Simionov) * 1982: Hungary (János Sarsui Kis & Gyula Hajdu) * 1983: Romania (Ivan Patzaichin & Toma Simionov) * 1985: East Germany (Olaf Heukrodt & Alexander Schuck) * 1986: Hungary (János Sarsui Kis & István Vaskuti) * 1987: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin & Valeriy Veshko) * 1989: Denmark (Christian Frederiksen & Arne Nielsson) * 1990: East Germany (Ulrich Papke & Ingo Spelly) * 1991: Germany (Ulrich Papke & Ingo Spelly) * 1993: Denmark (Christian Frederiksen & Arne Nielsson) * 1994: Germany (Andreas Dittmer & Gunar Kirchbach) * 1995: Hungary (György Kolonics & Csaba Horváth) * 1997: Germany (Gunar Kirchbach & Matthias Röder) * 1998: Russia (Aleksandr Kovalyov & Aleksandr Kostoglod) * 1999: Russia (Aleksandr Kovalyov & Aleksandr Kostoglod) * 2001: Poland (Marcin Kobierski & Michał Śliwiński) * 2002: Poland (Marcin Kobierski & Michał Śliwiński) * 2003: Romania (Silviu Simioncencu & Florin Popescu) * 2005: Germany (Christian Gille & Tomasz Wylenzek) * 2006: Hungary (György Kozmann & György Kolonics) * 2007: Germany (Christian Gille & Tomasz Wylenzek) * 2009: Germany (Erik Leue & Tomasz Wylenzek) * 2010: Romania (Alexandru Dumitrescu & Victor Mihalachi) * 2011: Germany (Stefan Holtz & Tomasz Wylenzek)
1989: Soviet Union (Viktor Reneysky, Nicolae Juravschi, Yuriy Gurin, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1990: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1991: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1993: Hungary (Ervin Hoffmann, Attila Szabó, Gáspár Boldizsár & Ferenc Novák) * 1994: Hungary (Ervin Hoffmann, Attila Szabó, Gáspár Boldizsár & Ferenc Novák) * 1995: Hungary (Ervin Hoffmann, Attila Szabó, György Kolonics, & Csaba Horváth) * 1997: Hungary (György Kolonics, Csaba Horváth, Csaba Hüttner, & László Szuszkó) * 1998: Hungary (György Kolonics, Csaba Horváth, Csaba Hüttner, & László Szuszkó) * 1999: Russia (Roman Kruglyakov, Vladimir Ladocha, Konstantin Fomichev, & Andrey Kabanov) * 2001: Romania (Iosif Anisim, Florin Popescu, Mikhail Vartolemei, & Ionel Averian) * 2002: Romania (Mikhail Vartolemei, Ionel Averian, Mitică Pricop, & Florin Popescu) * 2003: Romania (Silviu Simioncencu, Florin Popescu, Mitică Pricop, & Petre Condrat) * 2005: Romania (Loredan Popa, Silviu Simioncencu, Florin Popescu, & Josif Chirila) * 2006: Belarus (Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, Konstantin Shcharbak, & Aleksandr Vauchetskiy) * 2007: Hungary (Péter Balázs, Gábor Horváth, Márton Joób, & Pál Sarudi)
1989: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1990: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1991: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1993: Hungary (Imre Pulai, György Kolonics, Tibor Takács, & Csaba Horváth) * 1994: Hungary (Imre Pulai, György Kolonics, Tibor Takács, & Csaba Horváth) * 1995: Romania (Marcel Glavan, Cosmin Pasca, Antonel Borsan, & Florin Popescu) * 1997: Romania (Marcel Glavan, Cosmin Pasca, Antonel Borsan, & Florin Popescu) * 1998: Hungary (Csaba Horváth, Béla Belicza, Csaba Hüttner, & László Szuszkó) * 1999: Russia (Ignat Kovalev, Konstantin Fomichev, Aleskey Volkinskiy, & Andrey Kabanov) * 2001: Hungary (György Zala, György Kozmann, Béla Belicza, & Gábor Ivan) * 2002: Poland (Andrzej Jezierski, Adam Ginter, Michał Gajownik, & Roman Rykiewicz) * 2003: Hungary (Csaba Hüttner, Márton Joób, Imre Pulai, & Ferenc Novák) * 2005: Poland (Wojciech Tyszyński, Michał Śliwiński, Andrzej Jezierski, & Michał Gajownik) * 2006: Germany (Robert Nuck, Stephan Breuing, Stefan Holtz, & Thomas Lück) * 2007: Romania (Josif Chirila, Andrei Cuculici, Silviu Simoncenco, & Loredan Popa) * 2009: Belarus (Dzianis Harazha, Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy) * 2010: Belarus ( Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, Dzianis Harazha, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy) * 2011: Belarus ( Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, Dzianis Harazha, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy)