Maria Diaconescu (née Diți; born 16 November 1937) is a Romanian former javelin thrower. She won the silver medal in women's javelin throw at the
1962 European Athletics Championships
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...
, competed in the
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
twice, and was ranked in the world's top ten five times between 1957 and 1964.
Career
Diaconescu won her first international medals in 1957, winning gold at the Balkan Games in Athens with a throw of 52.14 m and placing second behind
Inese Jaunzeme
Inese Jaunzeme (21 May 1932 – 13 February 2011) was a Latvian javelin thrower who won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.UIE World Student Games in Moscow with 50.06 m. Jan Popper, a Czechoslovakian sports statistician, ranked her second in the world that year, behind only
Dana Zátopková
Dana Zátopková (; née Ingrová , 19 September 1922 – 13 March 2020) was a Czech javelin thrower. She won the gold medal for javelin at the 1952 Summer Olympics (only an hour after her husband, Emil Zátopek, won the 5,000 m), and the silver ...
and ahead of the previous year's number one, Jaunzeme. In 1958 Diaconescu placed seventh at the
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
, but was not ranked in the world's top ten. In 1959 she placed third behind
Elvīra Ozoliņa
Elvīra Anatoļjevna Ozoliņa (russian: Эльвира Анатольевна Озолина, born 8 October 1939) is a retired Soviet javelin thrower. In 1960 she won gold medal with an Olympic Record of 55.98 m and was awarded the Order of the ...
and
Urszula Figwer
Urszula Figwer (born 25 April 1931) is a Polish javelin thrower. She was born in Inwałd. She competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where she placed sixth in women's javelin throw. She also competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in R ...
1960 Summer Olympics
The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...
in Rome, qualifying for the final but only placing tenth.
In 1961 Diaconescu was ranked fourth in the world, her second top 10 ranking, after she placed second behind
Yelena Gorchakova
Yelena Yegorovna Gorchakova (russian: Елена Егоровна Горчакова; 17 May 1933 – 27 January 2002) was a Russian javelin thrower who won bronze medals at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment as she ...
at the second Summer Universiade with a throw of 50.64 m and threw 56.64 m, her personal best, in Sofia on July 15. In 1962 she placed second to Ozoliņa at both the
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
and the UIE World Student Games in Helsinki and was again world-ranked second. She remained in the world's top ten in 1963 and 1964; at the
1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...