Maria Vicol

Maria Vicol
On the 1960 Summer Olympics podium (right)
Personal information
Full name	Maria Taitiș-Vicol
Born	(1935-10-17)17 October 1935 Bucharest, Romania
Died	13 March 2015(2015-03-13) (aged 79)
Weapon(s)	Foil
Hand	right-handed
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb)
Medal record Women's Fencing Competitor for the  Romania Olympic Games Bronze Rome 1960 Foil Bronze Mexico 1968 Team foil World Championships Gold Havana 1969 Team foil Silver Paris 1965 Team foil Silver Ankara 1970 Team foil Bronze Turin 1961 Team foil

Maria Vicol (née Taitiș, 17 October 1935 – 13 March 2015) was a Romanian foil fencer, Olympic bronze medalist in 1960 and an Olympic team bronze medalist in 1968.^[1]

Career

Vicol fenced at Progresul Bucharest, where she was trained by Angelo Pellegrini.^[2] In April 1956 she won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Luxembourg, the first Romanian fencing medal in a major competition. She received a bronze medal in the individual foil at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[3] She was part of the same generation as Olga Szabo, Ana Pascu, Ecaterina Stahl, Ileana Jenei, and Suzana Ardeleanu, with whom she won several team medals in the World Championships: bronze at the 1961 World Fencing Championships in Turin, silver at the 1965 World Fencing Championships in Paris and the 1970 World Fencing Championships in Ankara and gold at the 1969 World Fencing Championships in Havana.^[2] She also took an Olympic team bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico.^[4]

She began teaching fencing from 1968 at CS Cutezătorii, then CSS1 Bucharest, where she discovered future Olympic champion Laura Badea.^[2] She was also an international referee.

She married rugbyman Florin Vicol. On 13 March 2015, Vicol died at the age of 79.^[5]

References