Yevgeny Yuryevich Drattsev (also Evgeny Drattsev, russian: Евгений Юрьевич Дратцев; born 24 January 1983) is a Russian swimmer, who specialized in open water marathon. He is considered one of the fastest professional open water swimmers in the world, finishing near the top of

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 ...

World Cup races for the 10 km marathon. He also won two medals (silver and bronze) for the 5 and 10 km open water marathon at the 2007 FINA World Championships in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

Biography

Drattsev qualified for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

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 ...

, after placing fifth from the

FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships The FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, or more commonly "Open Water Worlds", was a bi-annual FINA championship for open water swimming held in even years from 2000 to 2010, inclusive. Race distances were 5, 10, and 25 kilometers (also kno ...

Seville, Spain Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. He swam in the first ever men's 10 km open water marathon, against a field of 24 other competitors, including former pool swimmers

Petar Stoychev Petar Stoychev ( bg, Петър Стойчев; born 24 October 1976 in Momchilgrad) is a Bulgarian swimmer who is one of the most successful long distance marathon swimmers in history. He is one of the greatest marathon swimmers of all time an ...

of Bulgaria and Thomas Lurz of Germany, and his teammate Vladimir Dyatchin. Drattsev finished the race in fifth place, with a time of 1:52:08.9, approximately seventeen seconds behind winner

Maarten van der Weijden Maarten van der Weijden (born 31 March 1981) is a Dutch long distance and marathon swimmer born in Alkmaar., beijing2008.cn In 2019 Van der Weijden swam the Elfstedentocht for charity. He raised more than €6.1 million. Swimming career Van d ...

of the Netherlands. At the

2009 FINA World Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships ( it, Campionati mondiali di nuoto 2009) or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines ...

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

, Drattsev displayed a poor performance in the open water marathon, when he finished fifth in the 5 km, and twelfth in the 10 km. The following year, he recaptured his success by winning two silver medals for the same categories at the

2010 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships 200px The 6th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships was being held July 15–23, 2010 in Lac Saint-Jean near Roberval, Quebec, Canada. The championships featured 3 race distances: 5-kilometre (5K), 10-kilometre (10K) and 25-kilometre (2 ...

Roberval, Quebec Roberval is a city on the south-western shore of Lac Saint-Jean in the Le Domaine-du-Roy Regional County Municipality of Quebec, Canada. With a population of 9,840 in the Canada 2021 Census, it is the fourth largest city on this lake after Alma, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He also reinforced his lead in the FINA 10 km Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, by reaching the top position in all eight meets of the series, including his first-place finish in Santos,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Drattsev continued his medal streak in the 10 km marathon by claiming the bronze at the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Balatonfüred,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, with a time of 1:54:26.6. In 2011, Drattsev won the gold medal at the third stage of FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix in Viedma,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, with a time of 2:33:07, three seconds ahead his teammate

Sergey Bolshakov Sergey Bolshakov (born 6 June 1988, Izhevsk) is a Russian professional swimmer, specialising in Open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and river ...

(2:33:10). Drattsev eventually qualified for the

FINA World Championships The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events a ...

Shanghai, China Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, where he won the bronze medal in the men's 5 km marathon, with a time of 56:18.5, approximately one second behind Greece's

Spyridon Gianniotis Spyridon "Spyros" Gianniotis (; born 19 February 1980) is a Greek competitive swimmer who specialises in long-distance and open-water freestyle events. He is an Olympic silver medalist, two-time World Champion, World Cup gold medalist, and two ...

. He also achieved a fifth-place finish in the team trials, along with his fellow open water swimmers Sergey Bolshakov and Ekaterina Seliverstova. In 2012, Drattsev decided to withdraw from the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier, held in Setubal, Portugal, to focus on his competitive career for the FINA 10 km Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit. Although he did not win a single meet of these series, Drattsev was able to capture two bronze medals in Viedma, Argentina (second stage) and in

Eilat, Israel Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jorda ...

(third stage).

References

External links

NBC Olympics Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drattsev, Evgeny 1983 births Living people Russian male swimmers Male long-distance swimmers Olympic swimmers for Russia Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming Sportspeople from Yaroslavl 20th-century Russian people 21st-century Russian people