What do all champions have in common? Superhuman effort, struggle, pain, failure and pride to carry your flag to the podium. This is also what Alexandru Novac, the European shot put champion, says: “when they sing the national anthem of Romania, it’s a dream.”

Between Medals is a campaign launched by Banca Transilvania in partnership with the Romanian Olympic Sports Committee, which aims to support the efforts of Romanian athletes.

Training high-quality athletes is a lifestyle, a different kind of struggle that cannot be abandoned: “Every day I motivate myself to go to training, to fight with myself. All my training includes training for speed, strength, endurance. There are several difficult training sessions, but when I know that there are big competitions ahead and competitions that can raise me as an athlete as high as possible, I have no option not to go to training”, – Aleksandru Novats.

Oleksandru sees his hands, which always have signs of wear, scratches or bumps, but he does not pay attention to them and says to himself as often as possible: “come on, you can”, “come on, you have to get the most valuable medal around your neck.”

When our athletes are on the podium, we also feel proud, proud to be part of something bigger, proud to be recognized. But it is never easy for them: “I wanted to give up only once, in 2018, but I pulled myself together and today I am where I am. I managed to recover, think more maturely and stop being afraid of others at competitions, – testified Aleksandra Novats.

“When I feel like I can’t do it anymore, I can still do it a little bit more,” Alexandrou says, as if summing up the life of a performing athlete.

And as for what he wants to leave behind? Pride, pride and valuable advice for a son: “Let it be better than me.”

The Romanian flag was raised to the highest height of joy and proudly carried by the athletes. They noticed the proud smiles of such success.

What was not visible was thousands of hours of training, clapping, pain in every fiber. This was visible only in the halls, on the fields in the morning, on the athletic tracks.

We admire the effort that went into these medals and support them for the next ones. We have no choice.

BT and COSR – a partnership to support the efforts of Romanian athletes.