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Romanian sport needs an overhaul, beginning with mass sport and all the way to high-performance sport, President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday, during the ceremony for the decoration of former rowing champion Ivan Patzaichin with the National Order of the 'Star of Romania' in the rank of Knight.
''From here, from Cotroceni, I intend to get involved in what the organization of Romanian sport means. It is obvious that we, as a society, the governments, have made mistakes in the management of Romanian sport. Grassroots sport needs to be promoted, we need to further sport in schools, and high-performance sport obviously needs to be promoted, but in a modern manner, not as it has been done in a period when the conditions were quite different. I am convinced that the federations' manner of working must be changed and modernized, the way the ministry works with the federations, the way the state supports high-performance athletes, all of this must be rethought. We operate according to an anachronistic model that simply cannot continue,'' the President said at the Cotroceni Palace.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are just around the corner and President Klaus Iohannis hopes that the Romanian athletes will deliver on this occasion.
In connection with Mirel Radoi's appointment as head coach of Romania's national football team in lieu of Cosmin Contra, the President only remarked that "it would be good to see some encouraging results there too.
