Nikolai JURAVSCHI

Soviets Nikolae Juravschi and Victor Reneischi were the best canoeing pair at the end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s. At their first international tournament, the 1988 Olympics, Juravschi and Reneischi won golds in both C-2 500 and C-2 1,000. They together also won eight World titles (in 1989-90 in C-2 500, in 1989-91 in C-4 500 and 1989-91 in C4 1,000), two World Championships silvers (in 1991 and 1995 in C-2 500) and one bronze (in 1991 in C-2 1,000). Despite those successes, the pair was not selected for the 1992 Olympics by the Unified Team. Instead, Juravschi was invited to the Romanian 1992 Olympic team, and with new partner Gheorghe Andriev reached the finals of both the C-2 500 and C-2 1,000, finishing in the unfortunate fourth position in both races. After the 1992 Olympics and the fall of Soviet Union, the pair fell apart, as Juravschi started to represent his native Moldova and Reneischi returned to his native Belarus. They were not very successful after separating, so in 1995, Juravschi persuaded his former partner to join up again and represent his home country Moldova. Their comeback was successful, as they won silver in the C-2 500 metres at the 1995 World Championships and repeated that feat at the 1996 Olympics, where they won the first ever Olympic medal for the newly independent Moldova. After the 1996 Olympics, Juravschi retired from sports and has worked as the president of Moldovan Canoe-Kayak Federation. Since 2001, he has also been the president of the Moldovan Olympic Committee.