Ion Oncescu (born April 25, 1978, in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

) is a professional

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n armwrestler, a multiple time world and European champion for both the left and the right hand. He was inducted in March 2011 in the World's Hall of Fame "The 50 Greatest Armwrestlers In History".

Biography

In his youth at the age of 12 he made plans to run out of

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

and started an intensive training program that included daily

jogging Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...

and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

so that he could be ready, by the age of 17, for any obstacle that could emerge during his intended flight from the country. His first contact with sports took place at

FC Dinamo București FC Dinamo București, commonly known as Dinamo București () or simply Dinamo, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest that competes in the Liga I. Founded in 1948 as the team of the Ministry of Inter ...

where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

at a youth level, but he soon found

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

more interesting and started to train under the guidance of Florin Segărceanu. Ion Oncescu won his first national arm wrestling title when he was 18 years old and since then has been undisputed champion despite starting specific

arm wrestling Arm wrestling (also spelled "armwrestling") is a sport in which two participants, facing each other with their bent elbows placed on a flat surface (usually a table) and hands firmly gripped, each attempt to "pin" their opponent's hand by forcing ...

training in 2005, nine years after his debut. He graduated the Journalism faculty and the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies

International Business International business refers to the trade of goods and service goods, services, technology, capital and/or knowledge across national borders and at a global or transnational scale. It includes all commercial activities that promote the transfer o ...

and

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

profile. He became a first time world champion at the XXIXth World Armwrestling Championships held in

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

in October 2007. For the left arm Oncescu had to engage in 10 matches, and of his opponents five of them were past world champions. In the second round he surprisingly lost against the

n champion Stoyan Golemanov, but recovered and reached the final against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n Dzambolat Tsoriev, who was undefeated at that time. Ion Oncescu won 2–0 and became world champion for the first time in his career. The next day he had to compete for the right arm championship, and was engaged in eight matches and reached the final where he met the same Dzambolat Tsoriev. Oncescu lost the first match but won the other two and became world champion for the right arm and for the whole tournament world undisputed champion, receiving US$23,000 in prize money. Ion Oncescu won his third and fourth world title at the World Armwrestling Championships held in

Kelowna Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan, Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia Interior, southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He had to engage in 20 matches, 10 for the left arm and 10 for the right arm on his way to his two world titles. In 2009 shot down 100 opponents. In 2010 shot down 300 opponents. On 20 February 2011 event "Oncescu vs. 500" at Băneasa Shopping City and live on Sport.ro shot down 500 opponents (including:

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the worl ...

fighter Tolea Ciumac;

weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

champion Ninel Miculescu;

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger a ...

player Virgil Stănescu;

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the practice of Resistance training, progressive resistance exercise to build, control, and develop one's skeletal muscle, muscles via muscle hypertrophy, hypertrophy. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to a ...

and

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

national champion Daniel Racoveanu). On February 12, 2012 at Sun Plaza Bucharest, after a contest of almost 8 hours with 1000 opponents, Oncescu set a new World Record, which was certified by Guinness World Records representative, beating all the 1000 participants (even 1024 until stop contest). The show was televised live on sport.ro TV channel.

World and European arm wrestling championships

References

External links

Profile at worldofarmwrestling.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oncescu, Ion 1978 births Male arm wrestlers Romanian arm wrestlers Living people Sportspeople from Bucharest