Dumitru Pârvulescu

Olympic medal record
Men's Wrestling
	1960 Rome	Flyweight
	1964 Tokyo	Flyweight

Dumitru Pârvulescu (or, in older spelling, Pîrvulescu; June 14, 1933 in Lugoj, Timiş County — 2006 in Bucharest) was a Romanian Greco-Roman style wrestler and Olympic champion.

Sporting career

He took up wrestling at a very young age, with the “Vulturii” club in Lugoj. During his career he would also represent the following clubs: “Ştiinţa” Bucharest, “Steagul Roşu” Braşov and (for the most part) Steaua Bucharest. His international debut was in an international tournament in East Berlin (1951) where he finished second. His Olympic debut (Helsinki 1952) was less successful (2 defeats, 9th place). He narrowly missed the podium in the World Championship in Naples, 1953 (4th place, losing only to World champion Ahmet Bilek of Turkey). He also finished 4th in the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne,and then 6th in the World Championship in Budapest, 1958. Many were sceptic about how he would fare at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome. However, after victories against wrestlers from the US, Japan and Yugoslavia and a draw against the Soviet representative, Pârvulescu found himself facing one of the hosts’sporting heroes, the deaf wrestler Ignazio Fabbra, one of the undisputed stars of the 52 kg category, in the gold medal bout. The Romanian’s intelligent tactics secured him a narrow points victory and the Olympic title. Pârvulescu went on to win silver in the World Championship in Yokohama, 1961 and bronze in the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Losing to Gheorghe Berceanu in the Romanian championship finally persuaded him to retire “from the mat” and become a coach.

Coaching career

Dumitru Pârvulescu coached for Steaua Bucharest and subsequently for L.C. “Vulcan” Bucharest. In addition, he was often commissioned by the Romanian wrestling Federation to select talented youngsters from various parts of the country. Pârvulescu was credited with coaching World champion and Olympic silver medalist Constantin Alexandru and with discovering a young talent who would become 1984 Olympic champion in the 100 kg category Vasile Andrei. He was also a mentor and confident of World and Olympic 48 kg champion Gheorghe Berceanu.

Distinctions

In 2004, the Romanian Presidency awarded Pârvulescu and other former Olympians the National “Faithful Service” Order, the highest civilian distinction in Romania.

References

Ilie Goga, Jocurile Olimpice de la Tokyo, Editura Stadion, Bucureşti, 1964. Horia Alexandrescu, Aur olimpic românesc, Editura Sport-Turism, Bucureşti, 1979

External links

• http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp 1960 Olympic medal winners in Greco-Roman wrestling (on the IOC website)
• http://www.gov-sport.ro/unlimitpages.asp?id=767 Dumitru Pârvulescu obituary on the Romanian National Sports Agency website (ro icon)