Yet he managed to finish the race,[10] paddling with a piece of the floor board that he removed from the inside of his canoe, and was included in the repechage.

[12] Patzaichin spent his entire career with Dinamo, first as a trainee and competitor, paddling 4,000–5,000 km per year in his prime,[4] and then as a coach.

[4] Besides canoeing, he also founded the association Ivan Patzachin – Mila 23 and launched the national project Rowmania aiming to promote heritage tourism and other outdoor activities.

[4][8][13] He was involved in an animation project in 2020, dubbing into Romanian the character Scroop in the Disney movie Treasure Planet.

[14] Ivan Patzaichin died on 5 September, aged 71, in Bucharest, after having been hospitalized for three months with lung cancer.