Loredana Toma

Loredana Elena Toma was born on May 10th, 1995, and she’s a Romanian weightlifter, two-time World Champion, and four-time European Champion. She has competed in the 58 and 63 kg categories until 2018, and in the 64 kg category starting 2018, after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the weight classes. Now, she competes in the 71 kg category. 

2014 was a significant setback for Toma. She tested positive for Stanozolol, which prevented her from competing for the next two years. Still, that didn’t stop her from pursuing her passion for weightlifting and when the ban was lifted, she returned even more determined and resilient. 

Toma has had some remarkable performances at both the World and European Championships. After she won the 2017 European Weightlifting Championships, she competed at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in the 63 kg division. She won gold medals in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total, and finished with a combined total of 237 kg – 12 kg more than the silver medalist, Lina Rivas. 

In 2022, she won the World Weightlifting Championships in the 71 kg division. She set a new world record in the snatch with a lift of 119 kg and lifted 137 kg in the clean and jerk, achieving a total of 256 kg. This exceptional performance won her another gold medal. 

She’s also won silver medals in the 58 kg category at the 2013 and 2014 European Championships and in 2017, after moving up to the 63 kg category, she won gold medals in all lifts at the European Championships, which claimed her the first European Championship title. At the European Weightlifting Championships in Romania in 2018, she once again won gold medals in all lifts with a total of 236 kg – 17 kg more than the second place winner, Irina Lepsa, and 6 kg more than the gold medalist in the next highest weight category. 

She is still very successful. In 2023, she won the European Championships in the 71 kg category with a total of 240 kg. Later that year, she participated in the 2023 IWF Grand Prix II and finished with a total of 238 kg. In 2024, Toma competed at the IWF World Cup in Paris and lifted a total of 235 kg in the 71 kg category. 

She spends 25-30 hours per week at the gym and her favorite aspect of training is the technique aspect of the competitive exercises. The jerk is her least favorite aspect and she considers Nicu Vlad to be the greatest weightlifter of all time. As far as sports other than weightlifting go, she likes ping pong.