Serghei Mariniuc (born February 14, 1969) is a Moldovan former swimmer, who specialized in individual medley events. He represented the Unified Team and the Republic of Moldova in all three editions of the Olympic Games since 1992, and later became a top eight finalist in two individual medleys throughout his Olympic career, emerging him as the nation's most prominent swimmer. He also captured a silver medal in the 400 m individual medley at the

1993 FINA Short Course World Championships The 1st Short Course Swimming World Championships were organized by FINA and held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, December 2–5, 1993. The meet featured competition in a short course (25 meter) pool. During the championships, a total of 12 world re ...

in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. When he moved to the United States in 1993, Mariniuc trained professionally for the Santa Clara Swim Club in California until he announced his official retirement in late 2000.

Career

Early years

Mariniuc, a native of Chişinău, Moldavian SSR, started his sporting career at the age of eight under a strict Soviet swimming system. He shortly became a member of the Moldova Swim Club under his coach Luba Pohilenco, and then officially played for the Soviet Union's senior national team before its complete extinction in 1991. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Mariniuc emerged as Moldova's swimming sensation at every level of the competition. He made his official debut for the Unified Team, also known as the Commonwealth of Independent States, at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona. While he did not win a single medal, Mariniuc successfully made the final, and finished seventh in the 400 m individual medley (4:22.93). He also posted a tenth-place time of 2:03.72 in the 200 m individual medley, trailing Spain's overwhelming favorite Martin López-Zubero, the winner of the B-final, by 0.38 seconds. Returning home from the Games, Mariniuc viewed his nation as "forsaken" and "hopeless", discovering that some of the swimming pools did not have a water; others were filled with chemicals or locked. Giving up his sport to support the nation's financial scarcity, Mariniuc worked as a part-time taxi driver riding around Chişinău's urban suburbs to earn sufficient rubles, Moldova's main currency, for a living.

Journey to United States

In 1993, Mariniuc left his homeland Moldova with a thousand-dollar air fare for Santa Clara, California, where he trained and worked as an assistant club coach for the Santa Clara Swim Club. Recovering from a physical condition back in his homeland, Mariniuc pulled away from the rest of the field to claim the 800-yard freestyle title (8:19.29) at the Swim Meet of Champions in

Mission Viejo, California Mission Viejo ( ; corruption of ''Misión Vieja'', Spanish for "Old Mission") is a commuter city in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, California, United States. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities eve ...

. On that same year, Mariniuc added another coveted title in the pool to his collection at the U.S. Nationals in Austin, Texas, and later earned a silver medal for his native Moldova in the 400 m individual medley (4:11.96) at the

in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, finishing behind Canada's

Curtis Myden Curtis Allen Myden (born December 31, 1973) is a former breaststroke and medley swimmer from Canada, who competed at three consecutive Summer Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He won a total number of three medals at the Olympics, all of them ...

by 1.56 seconds.

International career

Three years since he moved to the United States, Mariniuc reached his worldwide breakthrough at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta, representing the Republic of Moldova. Nearly a month before the Games, he earned three pool titles each in the 200 m IM (2:05.03), 400 m IM (4:23.74), and 800 m freestyle (8:10.60) at the Santa Clara International Meet, representing his host swim club. At the

, Mariniuc failed again to collect a single medal in any of his events, finishing eighth in the 400 m individual medley (4:21.15), and twelfth in the 200 m individual medley (2:04.11). Two years later, at the 1998 FINA World Championships in Perth,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Mariniuc pulled off a twelfth-place effort in the 200 m individual medley with a sterling time of 2:04.58. Adding open water swimming to his program, he also placed eleventh in the

5 km 5 km may refer to: *5K run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually dis ...

(59:06.5), and twenty-first in the

25 km 25 km may refer to the following places in Russia: *, a rural locality (a crossing) in Orenburg Oblast, Russia * 25 km Zheleznoy Dorogi Monchegorsk–Olenya, a rural locality in Murmansk Oblast, Russia *, a rural locality (military barracks) in Pri ...

(5:52:28.7). Mariniuc swam only in the men's 400 m individual medley, as a 31-year-old, at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. He achieved a FINA B-standard of 4:24.17 from the U.S. National Championships in Federal Way, Washington. He challenged seven other swimmers in heat three, including Russia's 19-year-old Alexey Kovrigin and Colombia's three-time Olympian Alejandro Bermúdez. Entering the race with a top-seeded time, Mariniuc enjoyed a powerful lead in the halfway mark, but fell short on the freestyle leg to register a third-place time and a lifetime best of 4:23.57, a 1.36-second deficit from winner Kovrigin. Unlike his previous Olympics, Mariniuc failed to reach the top 8 final, as he placed twenty-second overall in the morning prelims. Shortly after the Games, Mariniuc announced his official retirement from the sport.

Life after swimming

Since he came to the United States in 1993, Mariniuc became an expert in network and systems administration, database management, website development, and security. In 1999, Mariniuc was appointed to be the pioneer and IT director of an e-learning authoring tools company, where he programmed numerous features to implement a customer support process. Mariniuc is currently the vice-president of a technology services company based in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

, where among other support projects, he assist teams to generate and manage timing systems applied in national and worldwide swimming competitions. Mariniuc currently resides in Santa Clara, California, along with his wife and former swimmer Eve Walton, and two children.

References

External links

Profile – FastLane Tek

USMS Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mariniuc, Serghei 1969 births Living people Soviet male freestyle swimmers Moldovan male medley swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Unified Team Olympic swimmers for Moldova Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Male medley swimmers Sportspeople from Chișinău Moldovan expatriate sportspeople in the United States Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Universiade medalists in swimming Universiade silver medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1987 Summer Universiade Soviet male medley swimmers