Rise of an East Bloc Maverick

By Lloyd Garrison

Rumania finds splendor in solitude

For a country smaller than Oregon and with slightly fewer people (23 million) than California, Rumania was a major presence at the Olympics. The land of plentiful wine and comely gymnasts accounted for more medals than any country except the U.S. and West Germany. That would be reason enough to cause dancing in the streets of Bucharest. Yet Rumania's strong showing was even more welcome because it justified a decision to show up at all, disregarding the Soviet-sponsored boycott. If that were not sufficiently gratifying, the roaring ovation that greeted the team's entry into the Coliseum on opening day would have been enough to make any absent Warsaw Pact Olympian envious. More than any other visiting athletes, except perhaps the Chinese, the Rumanians in Los Angeles were America's favorite foreigners.

During the women's gymnastics, the crowd responded to the pyrotechnics of Ecaterina Szabo's team with a decibel level nearly as high as that accorded the U.S.'s own Mary Lou Retton. The spectators even booed marks they did not consider high enough for the East bloc visitors. Such evenhandedness was not lost on those Rumanians who had competed in 1980 in Moscow, where Soviet crowds applauded loudly for their own performers but were at best lukewarm to other competitors, even when they excelled.

The cheers were just as loud for the Rumanian weight lifters, who won more medals (eight) than any other country in the house. "I have participated in many competitions, and this is the warmest I've seen," said Rumanian Weight-Lifting Coach Stefan Achim. For their part, Rumanians were just as friendly. Some roamed with relish through Disneyland and Hollywood's movie studios. Others accepted invitations to private homes in Los Angeles, where they relaxed around the pool and chatted with neighbors who dropped by to greet them.

Though they expected to profit athletically from the absence of their East bloc colleagues, the Rumanians more than tripled the number of medals they won in Moscow in 1980, a feat that could not wholly be explained by the bloc's absence. "It's not our biggest Olympic team, but it's our best," said Team Spokesman Alex Lazarescu of the 127 athletes dispatched to Los Angeles, down from the 237 at the Moscow Games. "Quality, not quantity this time." Rumanian women blitzed the rowing events, for instance, winning five of six gold and taking the silver in the sixth. Such concentration of talent reflects a national policy of channeling the best coaching, the brightest prospects and the most money into a few well-chosen events, notably gymnastics, rowing, weight lifting, wrestling and, more recently, track and field.

In the land that gave the world Nadia Comaneci in 1976, sports authorities still appear to favor the development of women gymnasts at the expense of men. Only two male gymnasts appeared in Los Angeles, and neither placed in the top 20. Rumanian women have shown sharp improvement in track and field. They finished first and third in the 800 meters and first in the long jump. Most glowing of all, Maricica Puica, 34, won a startling victory in the women's 3,000-meter race followed by a bronze in the 1,500 meters.

Although the Games were largely blacked out elsewhere in Eastern Europe, a television feed was sent by satellite to an unnamed West European country, where videotapes were spirited each day to Bucharest. Rumanian state television broadcast five hours of competition a night, with Rumanian-language voice-overs added at the studio in Bucharest. Not surprisingly, the broadcasts focused on home-team triumphs, though the awesome medal harvest of U.S. athletes was I duly noted. Rumanian commentators said nothing about the Soviet boycott.

Rumania's show of independence from Moscow was nothing new. While maintaining tight control over internal critics, President Nicolae Ceausescu has a history of quietly differing with Moscow on foreign policy issues. He has maintained cordial ties with Peking, kept an embassy in Israel after Moscow broke relations with that country in 1967, and refused to let his troops join in the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The decision to send a team to Los Angeles had direct political benefits for Ceausescu. Government broadcasters boasted that victorious Rumanians had "dedicated" their victories to their President, or were inspired by this month's 40th anniversary of Rumania's liberation from fascism. Moreover, with an ailing economy and a mountain of foreign debt, most of it owed to the West, there was no harm in projecting Rumania in the U.S. as a friendly and unorthodox Communist state worthy of special Western treatment.

As for Rumania's athletes, politics was not the issue. Ivan Patzaichin, who at 34 has competed in five Olympics and won 30 medals in international competitions as a rower for Rumania, graciously summed up what the Games meant for most of his teammates. "My souvenirs," said Patzaichin, "will be the athletes I've met, the friends I've seen, the people of Santa Barbara, the views of the Pacific Ocean." Not to mention gold and silver medals. --By Lloyd Garrison. Reportedby Benjamin W. CateandBJ. Phillips/Los Angeles

With reporting by Benjamin W. Cate, BJ. Phillips