Valentin Preda

Who is Valentin Preda?

Valentin "Vali" Preda is a Romanian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He is a multiple-time Romanian record holder in the breaststroke, and medley relays. Preda is a former member of the swimming team for the Louisville Cardinals, and a graduate of exercise science at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.

Preda qualified for two swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:02.16 from the from the European Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. On the first night of the Games, Preda challenged seven other swimmers on the fifth heat of the 100 m breaststroke, including two-time Olympians Mike Brown of Canada and Sofiane Daid of Algeria. He raced to a third-place tie with Sweden's Jonas Andersson in his personal best of 1:01.77, just 0.11 of a second off his Romanian record. Preda failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-first overall in the preliminaries.

Nearly a week later, Preda teamed up with Răzvan Florea, Ioan Gherghel, and Norbert Trandafir in the 4×100 m medley relay. Swimming the breaststroke leg, Preda recorded a split of 1:01.41, and the Romanian team finished the heats in thirteenth overall, breaking a new national record of 3:38.00.