Nickname(s) Otto Height 2.00 m (6 ft 6 ⁄2 in) Sport Swimming | Nationality Moldovan / Romanian Weight 110 kg (243 lb) Name Octavian Gutu | |
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Born 17 June 1982 (age 41) ( 1982-06-17 ) Kishinev, Moldavian SSR, USSR | ||
PROFESORUL RASPUNDE invitat OCTAVIAN GUTU
Octavian Guţu (born June 17, 1982 in Kishinev, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union) is an Olympic swimmer from Moldova who swam for his native country at the 2004 Olympics. He then joined the French team and represented Racing Club de France RCF in national (interclubs) swimming meets. In the 2006 Tours, he became an unofficial French champion in the 4x100 Freestyle relay. The same year, he won a gold medal for his Panthéon-Assas University. He has also swam internationally for Romania at the 2007 World Championship Melbourne in the 4x100 Medley Relay and classified for 8th place in the world. In 2007, he joined the Cannet66 swim club where he trained with Philippe Lucas, a famous French coach, and his young protégé Laure Manaudou (age 17 at the time) who won three Olympic medals including gold in the 400m freestyle (first ever for a French Women), silver in the 800m free, and bronze in the 100m back.
His dual swimming nationality caused problems for him in 2008, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that he could not represent Moldova at the 2008 Summer Olympics having swum for Romania at the 2007 World Championships.
Octavian is now a coach at Cote-St-Luc Aquatics in Montreal, Quebec.