Marin Robu has never won an international weightlifting meet. But he's about to get his chance, and on his home turf, too.
- Remind Me: Robu has lifted on an international stage 18 times in 3 weight classes over the past 7 years, including a controversial fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics last summer.
The 2025 European Weightlifting Championships are in Chisinau, Moldova, this year. Robu leads the pack of 89-kilogram athletes competing on Apr. 18.
After working harder than perhaps anyone else in his category to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, only to find himself off the podium, Robu is back, better than ever, and on the cusp of claiming his first international gold medal.
Catch Up: 2025 European Weightlifting Championships Results
Marin Robu | 2025 European Weightlifting Championships
Robu debuted in 17th place at the World Weightlifting Championships in 2019. Fast forward to Worlds in Manama, Bahrain, last year, and he'd won his second bronze medal (2021, 2024).
- From the Expert: Weightlifting House founder Seb Ostrowicz has said that Robu, one of his favorite weightlifters, displays "asymmetrical and clunky" technique. Robu's right ankle isn't nearly as flexible as his left, causing a distinct twist when he squats. "It's far from what you'd call a technical model," Seb adds, "but it's what makes him interesting."
Throughout the qualification period for Paris, Robu floated on the perimeter of the podium, his progress obstructed by athletes like Li Dayin (CHN), Karlos Nasar (BUL), and Antonino Pizzolato (ITA):
- 2022 World Weightlifting Championships: 351 (161/190) | 4th*
- 2023 European Weightlifting Championships: 364 (166/198) | 3rd
- 2023 World Weightlifting Championships: 370 (173/197) | 6th
- 2024 European Weightlifting Championships: 378 (171/207) | 3rd
- 2024 IWF World Cup: 0 (165/X) | DNF
- 2024 Olympics: 383 (175/208) | 4th
- 2024 World Weightlifting Championships: 379 (173/206) | 3rd
Editor's Note: Robu competed in the Men's 81-kilogram category at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships. Every performance afterward has been in the Men's 89s.
"I'm quite motivated to bring an Olympic medal home while I'm still young," Robu, 25, told us shortly before the European Weightlifting Championships kicked off.
Robu has quietly worked himself to the bone pursuing the podium, adding kilograms to the scale and to his total along the way.
- Onward & Upward: Robu finished a modest eighth in the 73-kilogram division at Tokyo 2020; months later, he was up in the Men's 81s at Worlds, and then threw himself into the Paris-recognized Men's 89s at the European Championships in Feb. 2023.
In Paris, Robu was all but assured to win his first Olympic medal as the Men's 89-kilogram event wound down. But a controversial decision by the referees awarded a good lift to Italy's Pizzolato, banishing Robu from the podium.
Robu beat his drum on social media in the weeks following Paris and the Moldovan federation even appealed to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport. As of spring 2025, the court hasn't publicly announced a decision.
- By the Numbers: Weightlifting trails only Athletics, 52 to 54, in number of Olympic medals stripped from initial winners. Half of all rescinded weightlifting medals from the Olympic Games are bronze.
Robu doesn't plan on being in this position — off the podium or immersed in any sort of controversy around his performance — again.
"I understand now that I can't be motivated by medals forever," Robu told us. "Every training session, I try to get better."
"Work always beats talent, so I work."
You can watch Robu at work in the Men's 89-kilogram at the 2025 European Weightlifting Championships event on Apr. 18 on Weightlifting House TV.
