Lazar Baroga (Romania): Tokyo, 1964
History in Color:
October 16, 1964, Tokyo, Japan – 27-year old middle heavyweight Lazar Baroga of Sibiu, Romania competes in the 90kg weight class at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Lazar Baroga (1937-2000) was one of the top contenders in the middle heavyweight class in the 1960s. Baroga was a 2x Olympian and competed for his country at two Summer Olympica – in Rome in 1960 and in Tokyo in 1964. In Tokyo (shown on the cover History in Color photo) Baroga finished on the 5th place and clean-and-jerked the second highest weight (180kg).
Lazar Baroga was a milestone athlete in the history of Romanian weightlifting. At the 1960 European Championships in Milan, he won a bronze medal in the 90kg class and it was the first ever medal won by Romanian weightlifters at the European and World championships.