Maricica Puică, née Luca, (born 29 July 1950) is a retired Romanian middle-distance runner. She is the 1984 Olympic champion in the 3,000 metres. One of the greatest female middle-distance runners of the 1980s, she also twice won the World Cross Country Championship (1982, 1984) and broke the world record for the mile in 1982.
Career Puică was born in Iași, Romania and competed at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where she finished seventh in the 1,500 m. In 1978, she placed fourth in the 3,000 m at the European Championships. In March 1982, she won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In August, she won a silver medal in the 3,000 m at the European Championships behind Svetlana Ulmasova. She also finished fourth in the 1,500 m final. A month later in September, she broke Mary Decker's world mile record of 4:18.08 with 4:17.44 in Rieti.
Puică missed the 1983 World Championships due to injury, but returned in early 1984 to win her second World Cross Country Championship title. Then in the Summer, she won the inaugural 3,000 m title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, a race remembered more for the collision of Mary Decker and Zola Budd. At those Games, she also won a bronze medal in the 1,500 m behind Italy's Gabriella Dorio and Romanian teammate Doina Melinte.
In July 1986, at the London Grand Prix, she broke Tatyana Kazankina's world 2,000 m record of 5:28.72, with a time of 5:28.69. At the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart, she won a silver medal in the 3,000 m, behind Olga Bondarenko of the Soviet Union. She was also fifth in the 1,500 m final. 1987 began with her winning a bronze medal in the 3,000 m at the World Indoor Championships in Indianapolis, finishing behind the Soviet pair of Tatyana Samolenko and Bondarenko. Later that year, aged 37, she won a silver medal in the 3000 m at the World Championships in Rome, again behind Samolenko.
Puica competed at her fourth and final Olympic Games in Seoul 1988, where she dropped out of her 3000 m heat with just 200 metres to go.
In 1989, she spoke on Romanian television in support of the revolutionaries fighting against the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
International competitions Representing 1976Olympic GamesMontreal, Canadaheats1500 m4:12.621978World Cross Country ChampionshipsGlasgow, Scotland 3rdEuropean ChampionshipsPrague, Czech Republic4th3000 m8:40.91980Olympic GamesMoscow, Russia7th1500 m4:01.261981World CupRome, Italy 2nd3000 m8:55.801982European Indoor ChampionshipsMilan, Italy 2nd3000 m8:54.26World Cross Country ChampionshipsRome, Italy 1stEuropean ChampionshipsAthens, Greece4th1500 m3:59.31 2nd3000 m8:33.331984World Cross Country ChampionshipsNew York, United States 1stOlympic GamesLos Angeles, United States 3rd1500 m4:04.15 1st3000 m8:35.961986European ChampionshipsStuttgart, Germany5th1500 m4:03.90 2nd3000 m8:35.921987World Indoor ChampionshipsIndianapolis, United States 3rd3000 m8:47.92World ChampionshipsRome, Italy 2nd3000 m8:39.451988Olympic GamesSeoul, South Koreaheats3000 mDNF1989European Indoor ChampionshipsThe Hague, Netherlands 3rd3000 m9:15.49
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