Uvis Kalniņš (born October 24, 1993, in

Valmiera Valmiera (; german: link=no, Wolmar; pl, Wolmar see other names) is the largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020 – 24 879. It is a state cit ...

) is a former Latvian swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. He won a bronze medal in the men's 100 m freestyle at the

2011 European Junior Swimming Championships The 2011 European Junior Swimming Championships were held from 6–10 July 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. The Championships were organized by Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN), the European Swimming League, and were held in a 50-meter pool. Per LEN ru ...

Belgrade, Serbia Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mill ...

, with a time of 50.18 seconds. Kalniņš is also a member of the swimming team for the

Missouri State Bears The Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears are the athletic teams representing Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State University). Missouri State's athletics programs date back to 1908. Missouri State competes in the NCAA Div ...

, and an undergraduate student at Missouri State University in

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

. Kalniņš qualified for the men's 100 m freestyle, as a member of the Latvian swimming team, at the 2012 Summer Olympics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, by eclipsing a FINA B-standard time of 50.18 seconds from the European Junior Championships. He challenged seven other swimmers on the fourth heat, including British-born Paraguayan swimmer

Benjamin Hockin Benjamin Hockin Brusquetti (born 27 September 1986) is an Olympic freestyle swimmer, who has swum international for both Great Britain and Paraguay (his father is British, his mother is Paraguayan). Hockin represented Great Britain at the 2008 ...

. Kalniņš raced to second place, and dipped under a 50-second barrier by a quarter of a second (0.25) behind Turkey's

Kemal Arda Gürdal Kemal Arda Gürdal (born 2 July 1990) is a Turkish freestyle swimmer. At the 2012 European Aquatics Championships held in Debrecen, Hungary, he set a new national record in 100 m freestyle with 49.64, and equaled the national record in 200 m f ...

, in his personal best of 49.96. Kalniņš failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirtieth overall in the preliminaries. At the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in

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 ...

, Kalniņš competed in the

100 100 or one hundred ( Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

and 200 m freestyle but failed to advance past the heats, finishing with times of 50.51 and 1:51.91 respectively.

Career best times

Long course (50-meter pool)

References

External links

Profile – Missouri State Bears
1993 births Living people Latvian male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Latvia Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics People from Valmiera Missouri State Bears swimmers Expatriate swimmers in the United States Competitors at the 2015 Summer Universiade {{Latvia-swimming-bio-stub