As one of the best sprint canoeists of the 1970s Vasile Dîba won multiple titles, including becoming the first Romanian to win gold in kayaking at the Olympics. Dîba began his sporting career in 1970 and quickly went on to represent the national team. His first major international success came at the 1974 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Mexico City where he won gold in the K1 500 metres and the K1 4×500 metres (with Atanasie Sciotnic, Mihai Zafiu, and the non-Olympian Ernst Pavel). At the next championships in 1975 in Beograd he won silver in the K1 500 metres and the K1 4×500 metres, this time with Zaifu, Ion Dragulschi, and Nicuşor Eşanu in the latter event. He completed his medal haul at the World Championships with three more individual golds, two in 1977 in Sofia, and one in 1978 in Beograd.
Dîba competed in the K1 500 metres and the K1 1,00 metres at the 1976 Montréal Olympics, winning gold and bronze, respectively. His gold in Montréal made him the first sprint canoeist from Romania to become an Olympic champion. Four years later he competed in the same two events at the 1980 Moskva Olympics, winning bronze in the K1 500 metres and silver in the K1 1,00 metres. Dîba just missed out on a medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when he finished fourth in the K1 500 metres, just behind Bernard Brégeon of France. In 2023 a sports hall in the village of Jurilovca was named in his honour.
Romania