Arkady Vyatchanin

Arkady Vyatchanin is a retired backstroke swimmer who represented Russia at three Summer Olympics and later held Serbian and American citizenship. He was born on 4 April 1984 in Vorkuta, in the Komi Republic, and moved in 1999 to Taganrog, where he graduated from the South Federal University. He came from a swimming family, trained at first by his aunt, father and mother, and his father held nine Soviet swimming titles. Vyatchanin was a member of the Russian national team from 2000 to 2015. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing he won bronze in both the 100 metre and the 200 metre backstroke, and he also competed in 2004 and 2012. He announced in 2013 that he wished to compete for another country, obtained Serbian citizenship in 2015 and American citizenship in 2017, and retired in June 2018 intending to coach.