Igor Andreyevich Berezutskiy (russian: Игорь Андреевич Березуцкий; born 7 June 1984) is a Russian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and individual medley events. He is highly regarded as Russia's top medley swimmer in the 2000s, having won numerous national and junior European titles. He is a member of Volga Swimming Club, and is trained by his long-time coach and mentor Viktor Avdeyenko.
Berezutskiy made his own swimming history at the
2002 European Junior Championships in
Linz, Austria, achieving a total of three gold medals. First, he outlasted Hungary's
László Cseh in a close race to set a junior European record of 4:19.81 in the 400 m individual medley. Second, he stroked to a personal best of 2:03.65 to claim a title over his teammate
Alexei Zatsepine
Aleksey Vladimirovich Zatsepin (also ''Alexei Zatsepine'', russian: Алексей Владимирович Зацепин; born 5 May 1984) is a Russian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and individual medley events. He is a five-time ...
by a 1.27-second margin in the 200 m individual medley. He also helped out his Russian team to break a championship record of 7:28.25 in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.
Two years later, Berezutskiy qualified for the
men's 400 m individual medley at the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
in
Athens, by breaking a Russian record and clearing a FINA A-standard entry time of 4:18.13 from the Russian Championships in
Moscow. He challenged seven other swimmers on the final heat of five, including top medal favorite
Michael Phelps of the United States. He edged out his teammate and Olympic veteran Alexey Kovrigin to take a seventh spot by 0.57 of a second in 4:23.20. Berezutskiy failed to advance into the final, as he placed twentieth overall on the first day of preliminaries.
Four months after the Olympics, Berezutskiy earned a bronze medal in the same program at the
2004 European Short Course Swimming Championships
The 8th European Short Course Swimming Championships was an international swimming meet organized by LEN, and held in Vienna, Austria, December 9–12, 2004. The meet featured teams from Europe, swimming in 38 short course events. It was held in ...
in
Vienna, Austria. He established a short-course personal best of 4:08.91, just nearly five seconds behind winner Cseh, who rivaled him two years before at the European Junior Championships.
At the
2006 FINA World Short Course Championships in
Shanghai, China, Berezutskiy won two bronze medals in the 200 (1:56.64) and 400 m individual medley (4:06.81).
In 2007, Berezutskiy announced his retirement from swimming for personal, health, and psychological reasons.
References
External links
Profile – Info Sport Russia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berezutskiy, Igor
1984 births
Living people
Olympic swimmers for Russia
Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Russian male freestyle swimmers
Russian male medley swimmers
Sportspeople from Volgograd
Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
20th-century Russian people
21st-century Russian people