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Two days after the 2021 Paralympics opening ceremony, Carol-Eduard Novak arrived on the Izu Velodrome 130 kilometers southwest from the Tokyo Olympic Stadium round midday to heat up for his first self-discipline, the C4-5 1000-meter time trial.
In the course of the warm-up, a photographer whistled via his enamel to draw Novak’s consideration, and after the competitors the place he completed eleventh, Novak met this reporter within the blended zone.
“The time is my private greatest, so this can be a good outcome for me,” Novak unhappy.
He was glad, already looking forward to his favourite occasion, the 4000-meter particular person pursuit, the following day, the place he would go on to win a silver medal.
What makes this much more attention-grabbing is that Novak just isn’t solely a Paralympian, but additionally a high authorities official in his house nation of Romania. Novak’s official title is Minister of Youth and Sports activities, and he helps oversee Romania’s nationwide sports activities packages.
Since late 2020, the tasks of overseeing Romania’s sports activities ministry have taken up quite a lot of Novak’s time — a lot, the truth is, that the 45-year-old determined to vary his coaching focus.
“This yr, I put away all of the street races. I had solely little or no time to coach, so I focussed on my particular program, observe and time trial,” he stated. “No stage races, nothing. It was slightly bit troublesome after twenty years as a result of you’ve got your routine, you begin within the spring, do the street races, now I needed to swap all of it, no races, solely coaching. However I really feel this was the proper alternative.”
Born in Miercurea Ciuc, Novak – recognized to everybody merely as Edi – is an attention-grabbing character in additional methods than one. His hometown the place he nonetheless lives along with his spouse and three kids additionally goes by the Hungarian identify Csíkszereda, and he himself has the identify Novák Károly Eduárd (in Hungarian naming customized, the household identify comes first). Csíkszereda is without doubt one of the facilities of the Szeklerland, house to the Székely or Szekler group, a Hungarian-speaking minority that varieties the bulk inhabitants within the northern a part of Transylvania.
Already having been elected president of the Romanian biking federation FRC since 2013, Novak entered the best reaches of presidency late final yr. After the Romanian parliamentary elections, the Hungarian minority’s get together RMDSz/UDMR was in coalition talks with the center-right PNL and the right-wing USR-PLUS.
Throughout these talks, Novak registered his curiosity to develop into sports activities minister:
“It occurred in a single week. I despatched a message to the president of our get together, and after they came upon that I’m , they stated, if we get this ministry within the negotiations, you’re the minister,” Novak stated in a December interview. “It was my very own need that drove it. Politics in Romania are very fragile, and for the game it is very important have time. In six months, you can not do something, possibly you may change a brand. To implement a venture correctly takes two to a few years and quite a lot of dedication.”
One such venture is the ambition of constructing a velodrome in Romania. As of now, the nation has no lined velodrome, and its observe cyclists, together with Novak himself, should journey to Plovdiv in Bulgaria to get observe time.
In his youth, Novak was an avid velocity skater, profitable 25 nationwide titles within the junior classes, and he additionally performed ice hockey. In 1996, at age 20, his proper foot was significantly injured in a automobile accident whereas touring to a world velocity skating occasion. Due to improper medical remedy, Novak’s decrease leg grew to become contaminated, and it needed to be amputated beneath the knee.
After a two-year restoration, Novak took up biking at an newbie degree whereas finding out regulation on the College of Bucharest. Then, he started working as a lawyer full-time and coaching within the early mornings and late evenings. Concentrating absolutely on biking from 2001 onward, Novak completed runner-up within the Romanian time trial championships in 2002 and 2003 in a area of able-bodied cyclists. He then certified for his first Paralympics, Athens 2004, the place he completed fourth in each the street race and the street time trial.
In Beijing 2008, Novak was Romania’s flag bearer on the Paralympics opening ceremony, and he gained the silver medal within the street time trial. 4 years later, he was once more carrying the Romanian flag on the London Paralympics In the course of the 2012 Paralympics he set a world document within the particular person pursuit to qualify for the gold medal finals, the place he beat Jiří Ježek, a six-time Paralympic gold medalist from the Czech Republic, to win Romanian’s first Paralympic gold medal.
After ending exterior the medals on the 2016 Paralympics, Novak determined to change focus.
“In Rio, I used to be in the perfect type of my life and completed ninth within the street race,” he stated. “On the Paralympics, our street race is along with the C5 class. The prosthetic on my decrease proper leg is 2 kilograms of rotating ‘lifeless weight’, that makes it very exhausting in opposition to C5 riders who’ve two functioning legs. It’s a must to specialize, and I made a decision to focus on the observe occasions and on the person time trial on the street.”
Novak’s background with workforce administration goes again to 2004 when he began an elite biking workforce to compete in nationwide and UCI races with able-bodied cyclists. One of many riders that joined him was his Paracycling rival Ježek. Sponsored by a Romanian mineral water model, the Tușnad Biking Crew achieved UCI Continental Crew standing in 2009, and the workforce competed in a calendar of two.2 races in Jap Europe, and likewise in China. Renamed Crew Novak from 2018, the workforce misplaced its UCI Continental standing in Could 2021, however continues to race in Jap European 2.2 races.
The workforce attracted primarily Romanian and Hungarian riders, but additionally signed overseas expertise: Riders from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Russia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Spain, and France, but additionally from Australia, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia raced for the workforce all through its twelve-year historical past. Amongst these riders are fellow paracyclists Wermeser Zsombor (Hungary) and Yehor Dementyev (Ukraine), each individuals within the Tokyo Paralympics.
Along with the mayor of Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc, Novak launched the two.2 Tour of Szeklerland in 2008 that has since develop into a set occasion on the Jap European calendar. In 2009 and 2018, he reached the rostrum of the Romanian ITT championships, and in June 2012, two months earlier than his gold medal journey in London, Novak was third within the Romanian street race championships.
In 2018, the federation secured help from the Romanian sports activities ministry to revive the Tour of Romania that had been on a four-year hiatus. For 2019, the 100-year anniversary of the unification of Romania, the race moved as much as 2.1 standing, becoming a member of the Sibiu Biking Tour to develop into the second Romanian stage race on this class.
Regardless of his work in selling sport, Novak has retained his love of competitors. In the course of the Tokyo Paralympics on the Fuji Speedway, Novak completed eighth within the C4 particular person time trial, then deserted the C4-5 street race after one lap of the extraordinarily difficult course.
“Within the street race, once more we had been mixed with the C5 class, and I’m alone in opposition to three Frenchmen, three Italians … it’s a lottery. That’s the reason I targeted on the observe and ITT occasions,” he stated.