How I got interested in sport (sort of)
Since I was young, I’ve been passionate about sport, especially Formula 1. I used to play soccer, but watching it was way too monotonous— like walking through hot asphalt. As a kid, I watched nervously one of the most memorable F1 seasons in 1998. Michael Schumacher, shared his wins with the racer from the opponent team – McLaren, Mika Häkkinen.
1998 Formula 1 Season
Mikka Hakkinen performed better in the first half of the season, with four wins in the first six races. His close opponent – Michael Schumacher did better in the second half.
From the disastrous race in Canada when Hakkinen retired due to a mechanical issue. Even with this unfortunate result, the Finnish driver summed 100 points. The German sumed 86 points at the end of the season.
1999 Formula 1 Season
My friend and I regularly watched the races, especially that summer of 1999, when my dislikes started to lessen.
My friend’s mum and aunt also watched the races, even though I am not sure until this very day what drove them to watch.

It must have been the passionate Romanian F1 commentator Miki Alexandrescu or the exceptional Mikka Hakkinen.
The second one who fought to the end to keep their titles in 1998 against Michael Schumacher. The followin year – 1999 brought Eddie Irvine to fight with him.
There was only a 2-point difference between the two at the end of championship!
Did you know that the Romanian Formula 1 commentator, Miki Alexandrescu, referred to himself as Schumacher's friend during the race commentary?
We thought: “WOW, that’s quite an achievement.” But later on, we would conclude it wasn’t the case; just because he got almost unlimited access to the F1 paddock doesn’t mean he was friends with Schumacher. The German pilot was friendly with anyone, especially reporters, and probably would have talked to anyone decent.
1999 would have been the funerary stone for Mikka Hakkinen, who got only two points more than Eddie Irvine: 76-74. The finish struggled to keep up, and we all knew something would change.
2000 Formula 1 season
There were moments of uncertainty when Michael Schumacher challenged the former title holder; the rush of seeing the underdog in the winner’s ‘pants’ was a great satisfaction.
And that happened only in 2000 when Mikka Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher switched the table. The ranking of 2000 looked like an inverse ranking of 1998 F1 season almost to the point.
The adrenaline rush, the palpable tension, and the collective excitement of everybody in motorsports, challenging everybody involved, was the most satisfying thing about those days.
Otherwise, the years following the establishment of the multiple-time champion—the German Michael Schumacher—were steady.
His performance was so steady that you could make a ton of money betting in advance on his win. And you could do that even before the qualifying stage’s result or practice sessions easily.
Furthermore, Michael Schumacher would break the records of Juan Emanuel Fangio and later of Airon Senna and Alain Prost. Only later would Lewis Hamilton equalize his performance with seven titles won and a break of Schumacher’s 91 races won, winning 105.
His dominance in the sport was like a Swiss clock, ticking with precision and predictability. This predictability was everything, at least in the first echelon of the grid, almost race after race, and it was a testament to his skill and consistency. He was an invincible machine, like a Terminator.
I still remember watching races with a fellow friend in a poor house in the countryside with uncovered wood floors and making predictions.
During these moments, my young friend became more passionate about sports and later had his own sports column in the local Romanian newspaper in Sibiu, Romania. These shared experiences and discussions about sports are some of my fondest memories.
2000’s in tennis

WTA
Of course, the coming years were exciting.
The big sister of Serena Williams, – Venus Williams wins her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon against Lindsay Davenport (6–4, 7–5).
It was the second attempt for Venus Williams to win a Grand Slam after the final loss against Lindsay Davenport in Wimbledon in two sets.
It’s a period in WTA with the main stage focused almost solely on the Williams sisters: Venus Williams predominantly wins the doubles, and her little sister wins in singles.
Venus Williams lost every encounter with her sister, Serena Williams, during a Grand Slam finals for five consecutive times: the French Open in 2002, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2002, and the Australia Open and Wimbledon in 2003.
It was a fantastic period for Serena Williams, who won almost all the 20 Grand Slam finals between 2002 and 2015.
Goran Ivanišević stormed the Wimbledon tournament in 2001, winning over Patrick Rafter after reaching the finals three times—in 1992, 1994, and 1998—and failing all three times.
It was rare for an unseeded tennis player to climb and win a Grand Slam. Before him, only the sixth-time Grand Slam winner, Boris Becker, did that during the 1985 Wimbledon.
In the same period, the Swiss Roger Federer began to crawl and dethrone the multiple Grand Slam champion – the American Pete Sampras, who won their last big trophy in 2002 against Andreas Agassi at the US Open.
In 2004, a new tennis woman entered the professional world by storming Serena Williams.
The underdog in tennis was the Russian Maria Sharapova, who won a few Grand Slams in a matter of years: Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008, and two times the French Open in 2012 and 2014 editions.
Then she tried to win a few more Grand Slam finals but failed. Ironically, the US player Serena Williams closed her chances of winning two finals of the Grand Slam: the Australian and Wimbledon Grand Slams (1-3 and 1-2) in 2015.
She vanished after Australian Open 2016 doping tests when she failed to be clear on an anti-ischemic medication called Melodium.
National Hockey League era
In 2006, I turned my attention to American ice hockey, the National Hockey League, when Romanian soccer was at the top of the UEFA Champions League; the quarter-final brought Steaua and Rapid Bucuresti together in a dramatic game.
My high-school colleagues were very passionate about European soccer, and even one of our teachers was so into it that he borrowed some magazines with the odds from us because he was so interested in the English inferior soccer championships.
In Romania, soccer was a phenomenon and a way of life, especially in an age when technology was less prevalent than it is today. However, it is still exciting and intriguing, even though most people watching it focus primarily on making money.
They talked about sports, especially in Romania, where a downturn has occurred in the last decade. However, this downturn needs to reflect Romanian athletes’ talent and potential.
Except for water sports, where our team has impressive results, the swimmer David Popovici is a phenomenon in himself; there is no need to introduce him to the world.
Latest years in sport
Romania
The Romanian athletes continue to shine on the global stage. The swimmer David Popovici, a true phenomenon, has been making waves in water sports.
High diver Cătălin Preda recently brought home a bronze from Doha (January 2024), and in 2023, Antonia Macarie (16 years old) and the venerable 73-year-old Vasile Șerban showcased their strength in bodybuilding in Spain.
In the World Canoeing Championships of 2023, Romania made its mark with seven finals, and Mariana Dumitru and Ionela Cozmiuc secured bronze medals in the light category.
So valuable people, to paraphrase my dear childhood friend, Georgian, you have to be recognized for being worthwhile human beings!
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