Daniel Iuga (born November 13, 1945) is a retired Romanian-American pistol shooter and coach. He competed for Romania in the mixed free pistol 50 m event at the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics and won a silver medal in 1972. As a teenager Iuga played football and was a keen skier and kayaker, placing second in the 500 m kayak singles at the 1961 National Junior Championships. He took up sport shooting only in 1964. The same year he won a national junior title, and in 1971 set his first national record. At the 1974 World Championships he won an individual gold and a team bronze medal. He retired from competitions after the 1980 Olympics and was appointed as a national pistol shooting coach. In 1981 he defected to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

while giving an invited lecture there, and for 1.5 years worked as a consultant at a gun factory in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

. In 1983 he immigrated to the United States, with his wife Nina and daughters Laura (born c. 1975) and Ileana (born c. 1976) joining him there in April 1985. In the U.S. Iuga coached the national pistol shooting team starting in late 1983 and resigning in April 1992. In this capacity he attended the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games were held in Havana, Cuba from August 2 to August 18, 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the PASO community, with events in 33 different sports. The main stadium was the Estadio Panamericano, a mul ...

. In 1993 he went out of retirement and in 1995 won a U.S. national title. The same year he won two individual medals at the Pan American Games. He retired for good in 1999.

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* * * 1945 births Living people People from Târgu Ocna Romanian male sport shooters American male sport shooters ISSF pistol shooters Olympic shooters for Romania Shooters at the 1972 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1976 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Romania Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1995 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Romanian defectors Pan American Games medalists in shooting Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games Sportspeople from Bacău County {{Romania-Olympic-medalist-stub