Aleksandr Evgenyevich Maltsev (russian: Александр Евгеньевич Мальцев, born 22 June 1995) is a 4-time world champion and 6-time European champion in

artistic swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming) or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by FINA (the ''Fédératio ...

(mixed duet) and a founder of men's

in Russia. Aleksandr is the most titled male artistic swimmer in the world. He is recognized as the best male artistic swimmer in the world by the International Swimming Federation (

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

) (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) and as the best male artistic swimmer in Europe by the European Swimming League (

LEN Len or LEN may refer to: People and fictional characters * Len (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lén, a character from Irish mythology * Alex Len (born 1993), Ukrainian basketball player * Mr. Len, American hip hop DJ *Le ...

) (2019, 2021).

Career

Maltsev was enrolled by his mother in a

synchronized swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming) or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by FINA (the ''Fédérati ...

group at a local sports school in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

when he was 7. At the time, they accepted everyone, boys and girls. At age of 10, Maltsev was selected for the

municipal team and at 15, he was training with Russia's female synchronized swimmers for the first time. Despite being the only male synchronized swimmer in the national team, Maltsev continued to pursue his career even with attempts to divert his attention to

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

. He continued to train his favorite sport even though many people did not understand or support his desires. In 2014,

officially approved of adding mixed-gender events in

and

under its banner after a vote at the Extraordinary Congress in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

(

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

). Maltsev began pairing up with

Darina Valitova Darina Ryashidovna Valitova (russian: Дарина Ряшидовна Валитова; born 9 February 1997) is a Russian competitor in Solo and Mixed Duet synchronized swimming. Together with Aleksandr Maltsev, she won a gold medal in the inaugu ...

. They competed at the Italian Open Test in Mixed Duet free where they took gold medals. At the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

, Maltsev/Valitova represented

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

at the inaugural Mixed Duet in synchronized swimming, after leading the preliminaries in Mixed Duet technical, they finished second in the finals losing just 0.2122 points to Americans Bill May and

Christina Jones Christina Noelle Jones (born September 17, 1987, in Missoula, Montana) is an American competitor in synchronized swimming. She grew up in Fremont, California and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jones swam with Andrea Nott in the duet event at th ...

. They avenged their loss by winning the gold in Mixed Duet free with a score of 91.7333 points ahead of

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

/ Lum. Maltsev partnered with

Mikhaela Kalancha Mikhaela Olegovna Kalancha ( Russian: Михаэла Олеговна Каланча, born 5 July 1994) is a Moldovan-born Russian competitor in synchronised swimming. Career Kalancha won a gold medal at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships and ...

at the 2016 European Championships; where they won gold in mixed free and technical routines. In November 2016, the Maltsev/ Kalancha pair performed the newly composed Swan Lake at the 11th FINA Synchronized Swimming World Trophy in

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yan ...

(

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) and won the title in 92.6000 points. The next year, they took part in the

2017 World Aquatics Championships The 17th FINA World Championships ( hu, 2017-es úszó-világbajnokság) were held in Budapest, Hungary from 14 to 30 July 2017.

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, and won gold and silver in the mixed free and technical routines respectively. In 2018, he began partnering with Mayya Gurbanberdieva. Their duet took gold medals in free routine of two steps of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series 2018 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Syros Island Syros ( el, Σύρος ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and it has 21,507 inhabitants (2011 census). The largest towns are Ermoupoli, A ...

. At the

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburgh hosting the diving events and Gleneagles ...

there they won gold in mixed free and technical routines. In 2019, the Maltsev/ Gurbanberdieva duet won the Superfinal of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series, winning 10 gold medals in technical and free duets at the steps of this series (

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

). A month later, in

Gwangju Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

Maltsev and Gurbanberdieva won 2 gold medals at the same World Championships for the first time in the history of mixed duets, performing with the technical routine "Tango" and the free one "Sing, Sing, Sing".

Education

He graduated from the

Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (SCOLIPE) (russian: Российский государственный университет физической культуры, спорта, молодёжи и тур ...

. In 2017, he received a bachelor's degree in Physical culture. In 2019, he received a master's degree in Sports.

Awards and titles

*Honored Master of Sports of Russia. *The best male artistic swimmer in the world (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) by the

. *The best male artistic swimmer in Europe (2019, 2021) by the

References

External links

* * * *
Aleksandr Maltsev
at The-Sports.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Maltsev, Aleksandr 1995 births Living people Russian synchronized swimmers Male synchronized swimmers World Aquatics Championships medalists in synchronised swimming Synchronized swimmers at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships Synchronized swimmers at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships Artistic swimmers at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships European Aquatics Championships medalists in synchronised swimming Swimmers from Saint Petersburg