Leon Rotman is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n sprint canoer

Canoe racing

This article discusses canoe sprint and canoe marathon, competitive forms of canoeing and kayaking on more or less flat water. Both sports are governed by the International Canoe Federation ....

 who competed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Rotman is Jewish, and was born to a working-class Jewish family, he took up several sports in the years immediately after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and was fascinated by canoeing after seeing the famous Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 champions Jan Brzák-Felix

Jan Brzák-Felix

Jan Brzák-Felix was a Czechoslovakian slalom and sprint canoer who competed from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s...

 and Bohumil Kudrna

Bohumil Kudrna

Bohumil Kudrna was a Czechoslovakian flatwater canoer and slalom canoer who competed in the late 1940s and early 1950s...

 compete on Lake Snagov

Lake Snagov

Snagov is a lake in Snagov municipality, about 25–30 km north of Bucharest, Romania. It has a surface of only 5.75 km², but due to its elongated shape it stretches for about 12 km, northeast to southwest....

 near Bucharest in 1953. He joined the Dinamo Bucharest sports club, in the hope of getting one of the Czech-made canoes left by the two in Romania.