Otti Roethof

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

Otti Roethof
Otti Roethof (left) and John Reeberg in 1980
Born	ca. 1950 (age 74–75) Curaçao
Style	Karate
Medal record Men's karate 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]

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.^[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.^[6]