Maricica Puică (née Luca on 29 July 1950) is a retired

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

. She is the 1984 Olympic champion in the 3000 metres. One of the greatest female middle-distance runners of the 1980s, she also twice won the

World Cross Country Championship World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

(1982, 1984) and broke the world record for the mile in 1982.

Career

Puicǎ was born in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

and competed at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where she finished seventh in the 1500 m. In 1978, she placed fourth in the 3000 m at the European Championships. In March 1982, she won the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

. In August, she won a silver medal in the 3000 m at the European Championships behind

Svetlana Ulmasova Svetlana Ulmasova (russian: Светпана Упьмасова; born 4 February 1953, died 6 April 2009) was a long-distance runner from the Soviet Union and a former world record A world record is usually the best global and most important pe ...

. She also finished fourth in the 1500 m final. A month later in September, she broke

Mary Decker Mary Teresa Slaney (formerly Tabb, née Decker, born August 4, 1958) is a retired American middle-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and was the world re ...

's world mile record of 4:18.08 with 4:17.44 in Rieti. Puicǎ missed the 1983 World Championships due to injury, but returned in early 1984 to win her second World Cross Country Championship title. Then in the Summer, she won the inaugural 3000 m title at the

1984 Los Angeles Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

, a race remembered more for the collision of

and

Zola Budd Zola Budd (also known as Zola Pieterse; born 26 May 1966) is a South African middle-distance and long-distance runner. She competed at the 1984 Olympic Games for Great Britain and the 1992 Olympic Games for South Africa, both times in the 30 ...

. At those Games, she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 m behind Italy's

Gabriella Dorio Gabriella Dorio (born 27 June 1957 in Veggiano, Veneto) is an Italian former athlete and Olympic gold winner. She won two medals, at senior level, at the International athletics competitions. Biography She first participated in the 1976 Summer Ol ...

and Romanian teammate

Doina Melinte Doina Ofelia Melinte (; née Beșliu on 27 December 1956) is a retired Romanians, Romanian middle-distance runner. She competed at four Olympics (1980–92), and won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver medal in the 1500 metres in 1984. S ...

.Maricica Puică
Sports Reference In July 1986, at the London Grand Prix, she broke

Tatyana Kazankina Tatyana Vasilyevna Kazankina (russian: Татья́на Васи́льевна Каза́нкина; born 17 December 1951 in Petrovsk, Saratov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet/Russian former runner who set ...

's world 2000 m record of 5:28.72, with a time of 5:28.69. At the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart, she won a silver medal in the 3000 m, behind

Olga Bondarenko Olga Petrovna Bondarenko (née Krentser, russian: О́льга Петро́вна Бондаре́нко-Кренцер;Tatyana Samolenko Tetyana Apaycheva (née Khamitova, Divorced Samolenko and Dorovskykh, ua, Тетяна Володимирівна Апайчева, née Хамітова, born 12 August 1961) is a Ukrainian retired middle-distance runner who represented the Sov ...

and Bondarenko. Later that year, aged 37, she won a silver medal in the 3000 m at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in Rome, again behind Samolenko. Puica competed at her fourth and final Olympic Games in

Seoul 1988 The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, where she dropped out of her 3000 m heat with just 200 metres to go. In 1989, she spoke on Romanian television in support of the revolutionaries fighting against the regime of

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also *Nicolai (disambiguation) *Nicolao Nicolao is an Italian given name and a surname. It may refer to the following: Given name *Nicolao Civitali ...

. (However Nicolae Ceauşescu ignored the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, in contrast to the other East European countries.)

International competitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puica, Maricica 1950 births Living people Sportspeople from Iași Romanian female middle-distance runners Olympic athletes of Romania Olympic gold medalists for Romania Olympic bronze medalists for Romania Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Romania World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Cross Country Championships winners World record holders in masters athletics World record setters in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Romanian female cross country runners Universiade bronze medalists for Romania World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists Medalists at the 1977 Summer Universiade