Romanian cyclist Eduard Novak, the current Minister of Youth and Sports, won the Paralympic silver medal in the men’s C4 4000 m individual pursuit in Tokyo on Friday.
Despite a better start, Novak was defeated in the gold-medal race by Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka.
Minister Novak, aged 44, is thus bringing the first medal for Team Romania’s Paralympic delegation and the fourth in his career after the gold won at the 2012 London Games (C4 individual pursuit), silver in 2008 in Beijing (road individual time trial LC2) and another silver in London 2012 (C4 time trial)
Romania ‘s record in the history of the Paralympic Games is completed by the bronze won by judoka Alex Bologa in 2016 in the men’s 60 kg class.
Novak thus becomes not only the first minister to participate in the Olympic or Paralympic Games, but also the first sitting medal-winning minister in the history of the Games.