Cambei Mihaela-Valentina

Mihaela Valentina Cambei was born on November 18th, 2002, and she is a Romanian weightlifter. She’s already made significant strides in the sport. Cambei won the gold medal in the women’s 49 kg event at both the 2023 and 2024 European Weightlifting Championships. She’s known for her consistent performances and lifts that break records. She is one of Romania’s top athletes and was named the top female weightlifter of 2023 by IWF. She uses kinesiology tapes in the colors of the Romanian flag to support her muscles and promote her country during competitions. 

Her career started with big achievements in both youth and junior competitions. In 2018, she won the bronze medal in the 48 kg event at the Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She continued to excel and has won silver medals in the women’s junior 49 kg event at the 2019 European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships in Bucharest, Romania. In 2021, she won a bronze medal in the women’s 49 kg event at the European Weightlifting Championships in Moscow, Russia, and a silver medal at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. 

In 2022, Cambei won the gold medal in the women’s 49 kg event at the European Junior & U23 Championships in Durrës, Albania. She also got a silver medal in the snatch event at the World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia. Her success continued in 2023 when she won gold medals in the snatch and clean and jerk events at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia. Later that year, she won a bronze medal in the snatch at the World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

In 2024, she showed her strength and determination when she won a gold medal at the European Weightlifting Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and got a silver medal at the IWF World Cup in Paris in the 55 kg category. Her best lifts are the 91 kg snatch and a 110 kg clean and jerk, totaling 201 kg.