Simion Ismailciuc

Simion Ismailciuc (born July 13th,1930 in Chilia Veche, Tulcea County, Romania, died 1986 in Snagov, Ilfov county, Romania) was a Romanian canoeist and Olympic champion.

Early life

Born to an ethnic Ukrainian family of fishermen from the Danube Delta, he started fishing and paddling in a fisherman’s boat at the age of 6. During the second world war he worked as an apprentice sailor on various types of river patrolboats, along with other boys in the area. After the war, he joined the Communist-inspired “Youth building sites” at Salva-Vişeu and Bumbeşti-Livezeni, after which he did his compulsory military service.While working and while in the military, he learned to play rugby and was quite talented at it.

porting career

After being de-mobilised, he joined Dinamo Bucharest’s rugby team, where he played for a few months. Dinamo’s canoeing coach Radu Huţan, hearing about his fisherman and paddling past, persuaded him to switch to canoeing, to which Ismailciuc would devote the rest of his life.His outstanding talent, exceptional working capacity and his life experience soon turned him into Huţan’s genuine, albeit unpaid, assistant coach. Fascinated by Ismailciuc’s Danube Delta stories, Huţan sent him on various scouting missions there, resulting in a series of talented youngsters from that area (of various ethnic backgrounds) rising rather quickly to canoeing glory (a trend which would continue over the following decades).As for Ismailciuc himself, realising he could not match fellow Dinamo canoeist Leon Rotman’s times in the singles events, he looked for a partner among the young people he had selected, and he chose Dumitru Alexe. The two of them would compete in the C2 events in the 1956 Summer Olympics.Some liver complaints by Ismailciuc prevented them being placed higher than 7th in the C2-10000 m event. However, they competed brilliantly in the C2-1000 m event,in which they won Olympic gold. They went on to become European champions in Gent, Belgium (1957) in the C2-10000 m event (they won silver in the C2-1000 m event). It should be noted that the bronze medal in C2-10000 was won by two of Ismailciuc’s protégés (Ichim Lipalit-Lavrente Calinov), as one country was entitled to 2 entries in each event. Ismailciuc and Alexe also became World champions on 1000 m (Prague,1958).Deserted by Alexe (who had decided to quit sports and return to his previous job), Ismailciuc tried his luck in single canoeing and during the Olympic year 1960, he was already credited with better results than reigning Olympic champion Leon Rotman. However, Romanian coaches were unable to decide between the two, so both were part of the Romanian Olympic delegation in Rome. The on-site test races on Lake Albano showed Rotman was faster and so he was entered in the Olympic competition,while Ismailciuc remained a spectator. This persuaded the latter to retire.

Later life

Simion Ismailciuc then coached for Dinamo Bucharest up to his old age retirement and, for the rest of his life, remained a valuable advisor to numerous Romanian world class canoeists and coaches. He died in 1986 in the house he had built for himself on the shore of Lake Snagov near Bucharest.

ources

* Cu sportivii români la Melbourne, Editura UCFS, Bucharest,1957
* Horia Alexandrescu, Aur olimpic românesc, Editura Sport-Turism, Bucureşti, 1979

External links

[http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiac_canoe History of Romanian Kayak and Canoeing on the FRKC website (ro icon)] [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/is/simion-ismailciuc-1.html Simion Ismailciuc at sports-reference.com] [http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp 1956 Canoe/Kayak Flatwater medalists on the IOC website]