Nicu Vlad

Nicu Vlad

Personal information
Born	November 1, 1963
Medal record Men's Weightlifting Competitor for  Romania Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles -90 kg 1988 Seoul -100 kg 1996 Atlanta -108 kg World Championships 1984 Los Angeles -90 kg 1986 Sofia -100 kg 1990 Budapest -100 kg 1987 Ostrava -100 kg 1989 Athens -100 kg 1985 Sodertelje -100 kg European Championships 1985 Katowice -100 kg 1986 Karl-Marx-Stadt -100 kg 1987 Reims -100 kg 1989 Athens -100 kg 1990 Aalborg -100 kg 1996 Stavanger -108 kg Competitor for  Australia Commonwealth Games 1994 Victoria -108 kg World Championships 1994 Istanbul -108 kg

Nicolae "Nicu" Vlad (born November 1, 1963 in Piscu, Galaţi) is a retired weightlifter from Romania, who won three Olympic medals during his career. He competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984.

In 2006 he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.^[1]

RDLs

Nicu Vlad is also the reason for which the flat-backed, semi-stiff legged barbell lift (with a form similar to a deadlift) came to be known as the Romanian deadlift.^[2]

As the story goes, he was seen by some American lifters doing the deadlifts in the Olympic training hall prior to either winning a medal, setting a world record or both. Since he is Romanian, the exercise got dubbed the Romanian deadlift, and that is the name most people know the exercise by.

As the exercise does not involve lifting the weight off the ground, it is not technically a deadlift, but rather a powerful compound accessory movement that strengthens the same muscles.

References

• Sports-reference (retrieved on December 1, 2009).

1. "Weightlifting Hall of Fame". International Weightlifting Federation. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
2. Schmitz, Jim. "Jim Schmitz on the Lifts: Romanian DeadLift". IronMind. the “discovery” of the RDL was in my gym, The Sports Palace, in San Francisco in 1990 .. Nicu Vlad, of Romania .. proceeded to do this lift, a combination stiff-leg deadlift and regular deadlift, but actually neither. Someone watching asked what the exercise was he was doing. Nicu just shrugged his shoulders and said it was to make his back strong for the clean. Dragomir also said the same; it was just a lift that Nicu had developed for his back and clean. .. Someone taking notes asked what this lift was called. .. Nicu and Dragomir didn’t have a name, so I said, “Let’s call it the Romanian deadlift or RDL for short,” and every one agreed