Ion Drîmbă

Ionel Alexandru "Ion " Drîmbă ( born March 18, 1942 in Timişoara, † 2006 in Brazil) was a Romanian fencer. He was gold medalist in the Olympic Games.

Life

Ion Drimba belonged to the Romanian top fencing. He was in 1964 in the saber and 1964, 1968 and 1969 to win the national championship in the foil. Drimba participated in the Summer Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where the 1968 in Mexico City. In Rome, he went to the foil 's single. He could reach the second round and was ultimately sixth. Four years later in Tokyo Dimba competed in the individual and team competitions with the foil and saber. At foil individual he finished ninth, with the team Drimba was sixth. With the sword he placed at No. 5, while he was with the team in seventh. In Mexico City, he joined only in foil competitions. With the team he was favored after she had won the victory at the World Championships of the previous years. In Olympic competition, the Romanian foil team was defeated in the semifinals just against the Soviet Union. In single ion Drimba could win the gold medal. It was the first Romanian Olympic gold medal in foil individual.

1969 Ion Drimba won bronze in the foil team at the World Championships. Then he fled during a contest travel to the West. Drimba went to Tauberbischofsheim where Emil Beck hired him as a coach. Later he worked in the USA, Brazil and Venezuela. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, he returned to Romania, but failed in an attempt to become president of the Comitetul Olimpic şi Sportiv Român. He died in 2006 in Brazil.