Career
He competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1984. Nicu Vlad is also the reason for which the flat-backed, semi-stiff legged barbell lift (with a form similar to a deadlift) came to be known as the Romanian deadlift. As the story goes, he was seen by some American lifters doing the deadlifts in the Olympic training hall prior to either winning a medal, setting a world record or both.
Since he is Romanian, the exercise got dubbed the Romanian deadlift, and that is the name most people know the exercise by.
As the exercise does not involve lifting the weight off the ground, it is not technically a deadlift, but rather a powerful compound accessory movement that strengthens the same muscles.