Vali Preda Swims First Olympic Race
August 09, 2008 | Swimming & Diving
Aug. 9, 2008
In head coach Arthur Albiero's Olympic diary, he chronicles U of L's Vali Preda's first Olympic race in Beijing. Albiero is on the Romanian coaching staff as Preda swims for his native country.
From Arthur:
All is well here in Beijing....amazing facilities, incredible environment, just a phenomenal experience.
Vali Preda swam a very good race in the 100-breaststroke prelims. His final time 1:01.77 (28.58 split) was just .11 off of his Romanian National record finishing 31st overall. He was seeded 39th going into prelims. He represented his native Romania and the University of Louisville with great poise.
"It was a good start for Vali...not his best, but very good. He showed tremendous speed being out at the 50 (faster than he ever has), but unfortunately a small mistake at the turn was the difference. Regardless, I was very pleased by the way he handled his first race in his very first Olympics. We came to play and that was clear. He still has the 200-breast and the 400-Medley Relay events. He was slightly disappointed, but as I reminded him, he is an OLYMPIAN! He represented his native Romania and the University of Louisville with great pride and poise".
Senior Captain Adam Madarassy (Hungary) will compete in the 100-Meter Butterfly and Senior Andrei Radzionau (Belarus) will swim the 50-Meter Freestyle, both events on Wednesday.
