Nicolae Linca (1 January

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

– 27 June

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

) was a

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 ...

n amateur

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

. After winning bronze medals at the 1953 and 1955 European championships, he became Romania's first Olympic champion in boxing at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

. Fighting with a broken finger, he won against

Fred Tiedt Frederick Tiedt (16 October 1935 – 15 June 1999, born in Dublin, Ireland) was an amateur and professional boxer. Amateur career Tiedt won a silver medal for Ireland at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia in the welterweight ...

in a 3:2 split decision. Today, he remains the only Romanian boxer to win gold at the Olympics. His amateur record upon retirement was 281-25. After competing as an amateur, Linca turned to coaching in the sport. By the 1990s he was living in poverty and suffering from

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

s, which led to his deaths at the age of 79. In 2005 he was awarded the Sports Merit Order of First Class.

Highlights

References

External links

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1949 Romanian National Championships
1929 births 2008 deaths Olympic boxers for Romania Olympic gold medalists for Romania Boxers at the 1956 Summer Olympics People from Blaj Boxers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in boxing Romanian male boxers Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Welterweight boxers Sportspeople from Alba County {{Romania-boxing-bio-stub