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 László Cseh (; born 3 December 1985) is a retired Hungarian competitive swimmer and six-time Olympic medalist. He is a 33-time European Champion. His father, László Cseh Sr., also represented Hungary at the Olympics in swimming. In 2020 ...

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 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 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, by breaking a Russian record and clearing a FINA A-standard entry time of 4:18.13 from the Russian Championships in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. He challenged seven other swimmers on the final heat of five, including top medal favorite

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold med ...

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 i ...

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. 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 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 ...

, 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