Elisabeta Lipă, a retired romanian rower. She is the most decorated rower in the history of the Olympics, winning five gold, two silver and one bronze medals

Elisabeta Lipă (Romanian pronunciation: [elisaˈbeta ˈlipə]; née Oleniuc on 26 October 1964) is a retired rower and government official from Romania. She is the most decorated rower in the history of the Olympics, winning five gold, two silver and one bronze medals.^[1] She holds the record amongst rowers for the most years between gold medals, at 20 years.


Since 2004, Lipă has served in various government positions including Minister of Youth and Sport in the current cabinet under Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș. Since 2009, she has also served as the President of the Romanian Rowing Federation and the Dinamo București Sports Club.

Lipă debuted at the age of 19 at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, where she won her first gold medal in the double sculls event. She won her most recent gold medal in the eight at the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004.


She is the only person to win a gold medal in the two premiere rowing events: the single scull and the eight. She is also one of very few women to win a gold medal in both a sculling (two oars per person) and a sweep (one oar per person) event. (Canada's Kathleen Heddle and Marnie McBean accomplished the same, sculling and sweep gold medals, in 1992 and 1996.)
In 2004, she became the first female rower to compete at six Olympics. This was first done by Czech rower Jiří Pták (cox) in 1992 and equalled in 2008 by Canadian Lesley Thompson (cox), Estonian Jüri Jaanson, and Australian James Tomkins.

In 2008 she was awarded the Thomas Keller Medal at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne^[4] and became an honorary citizen of her native town Siret. As of November 2015, she is the Romanian Minister of Youth and Sport in Cioloș Cabinet.[