Romanian and international water polo is mourning the death of Anatolie Grintescu. Dedicated to the game for almost his whole life, the president of the Romanian Water Polo Federation and former international player passed away at the age of 74. He died on Monday morning in a Bucharest hospital after a visibly deteriorating health condition in recent past and will be buried on Thursday.
Grintescu was born on 1 August 1939 at Chișinău, which was still part of Romania in those days. He got involved in water polo as player of Dinamo Bucharest and was invited to the national team pretty soon. Grintescu played 176 international matches for Romania and scored 85 goals. He made two Olympic appearances as player in 1960 and 1964.
Grintescu took over the Romanian national team in the 1970s as head coach and led the Tricolori to three Olympic appearances in 1972, 1976 and 1980. His name is also connected with the biggest result of Romanian water polo when the team finished fourth at the 1976 Olympic Games, missing the bronze medal after a close head-to-head clash to the Netherlands.
After his long career in the water and on the pool deck he was in charge of the game again as general secretary of the Romanian Water Polo Federation for 18 years and became president in 2008. In recent past he was known to many players as member of the LEN TWCP, acting at many water polo events as LEN delegate since the 1990s.
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