Otti Roethof

Otti Roethof
Otti Roethof (left) and John Reeberg in 1980
Born	ca. 1950 (age 65–66) Curaçao
Style	Karate
Medal record Representing  Netherlands World Championship 1977 Long Beach Kumite −80 kg 1977 Long Beach Kumite team 1980 Madrid Kumite −80 kg 1980 Madrid Kumite team 1984 Maastricht Kumite −80 kg European Championship 1976 Iran Kumite −80 kg 1978 Geneva Kumite −80 kg 1979 Helsinki Kumite −80 kg 1979 Helsinki Kumite team 1984 Paris Kumite −80 kg World Games 1981 Santa Clara Kumite −80 kg[1]

Otti Roethof (born ca. 1950)^[2] is a former Dutch karateka.

Roethof was born on Curaçao and moved with his family to Suriname at the age of 10.^[3] In the early 70s he moved to the Netherlands, where he lived in Amsterdam. Between 1977 and 1984 he won multiple Karate medals at the European and World Karate Championships. before ^[4] In 1977 in Tokyo he became the first non-Japanese world champion.^[3][5] In 1984 he published the book Karate: een handboek voor trainer, coach en karateka (ISBN 90-6076-192-8). In 1985 he became coach of the Dutch national karate team. At his last world championships in 1986 he comes in fourth.^[6]

Roethof ran several sport schools and owned a sports retail shop in the 1990s. He was involved in drug-related criminal activities in the Netherlands and lost his business in 2001.^[6]

References