Aleksey Akatyev

Aleksey Akatyev (also Alexei Akatiev or Алексей Акатьев) (born 7 August 1974) is a pool and marathon swimmer and coach from Russia who was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2009.

Swimming Career Highlights[edit]

He competed for Russia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
He was the first Russian to transition from a world-class pool swimmer to a world-class marathon swimmer. *After competing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in two events, he won the 5 km and 25 km races at the 1998 FINA World Swimming Championships.
He later established an open water school in Russia and served as the Russian national open water swim coach.
At the 2000 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, he not only coached the team (including the Russian 5 km gold medalist and 25 km gold medalist), but also swam to a bronze medal in the 25 km, just over a minute slower than the swimmer he was coaching.
He won the following medals at the FINA World Championships:
- 1994 25 km bronze
- 1998 5 km gold in Perth, Australia finishing in 55:18.6
- 1998 25 km gold in Perth, Australia finishing in 5 hours 5 minutes 42.1 seconds
- 1998 5 km team silver
- 2000 25 km bronze
He won the following medals at the LEN European Championships:
- 1995 5 km gold
- 1995 25 km gold
- 1996 5 km gold
- 1996 25 km gold
- 1999 5 km silver
- 1999 25 km gold.
He won the following medals on the FINA World Cup Series:
- 1999 30 km gold in Lake Ohrid (Macedonia)
- 2000 25 km gold in Bled (Slovenia)
- 2000 30 km bronze in Lake Ohrid (Macedonia)