Florin Georgian Mironcic

Florin Georgian Mironcic (born May 4, 1981 in Brăila) is an athlete from Romania flatwater canoer and current (2006) European champion.

In his first season as a Romanian senior international he finished eighth in the Canadian canoe C1 500m final at the 2003 world championships at Gainesville, USA.

At the 2004 Olympics he again represented Romania in the C1 500m. He placed third in his initial heat of the 500 metre with a time of 1:51.568, qualifying for the semifinals. In the semifinal, he finished eighth at 1:53.957 and did not advance to the final.

In 2005 he won the first major medals of his career. At the European championships he won the bronze medal as a member of Romania's C4 1000m team. This was followed by a World Championship silver in Zagreb, Croatia, in the same event.

in 2006 Mironcic established himself as one of top canoe sprinters in the world by winning the individual C1 1000m gold medal at the European Championships, held in Račice, Czech Republic. His victory over Andreas Dittmer ended the German favourite's run of four straight European titles. In the 500m individual final Mironcic came second to Russia's Maxim Opalev. He also entered two team events and won a gold medal as part of Romania's C4 500m crew.

Just a month later, the Romanian team under-performed badly at the 2006 World Championships in Hungary and Mironcic was no exception, finishing only seventh in both the C1 events (500m and 1000m). He did win a C4 bronze medal but even this was a disappointment as Romania lost their C4 500m crown, finishing almost two seconds behind the Belarusian winners.

Mironcic, dubbed "Uriaşul Blond" ("The Blond Giant"), is a member of the Dinamo Bucharest club. He is 1.92 m (6'4") tall and weighs 95 kg (209 lbs).

References

* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mi/florin-mironcic-1.html sports-reference]