Arkady Vyatchanin

Arkady Arkadyevich Vyatchanin (Russian: Аркадий Аркадьевич Вятча́нин, Serbian Cyrillic: Аркадиј Аркадјевич Вјатчањин; born 4 April 1984) is a retired Russian, Serbian and American backstroke swimmer. He was born in Vorkuta, and in 1999 moved to Taganrog, Russia, where he graduated from the South Federal University. He was a member of the Russian National Team in 2000–2015; moved to Serbia in 2015^[3] and to the United States in 2017, and retired in June 2018.^[4]

Arkady Vyatchanin

Personal information
Full name	Arkady Arkadyevich Vyatchanin
Nationality	Russia  Serbia  United States
Born	(1984-04-04) 4 April 1984 (age 41) Vorkuta, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union[1]
Height	2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)[1]
Weight	91 kg (201 lb)[1]
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Backstroke
Club	Taganrog Army Club[1] Federal Protective Service[2] New York Athletic Club[1]
Coach	Lyudmila Shalyapina (aunt) Arkady Vyatchanin (father) Irina Vyatchanina (mother) Gregg Troy[2]
Medal record Representing  Russia Olympic Games 2008 Beijing 100 m backstroke 2008 Beijing 200 m backstroke World Championships (LC) 2003 Barcelona 100 m backstroke 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m medley 2005 Montreal 4×100 m medley 2007 Melbourne 4×100 m medley World Championships (SC) 2004 Indianapolis 200 m backstroke 2004 Indianapolis 4×100 m medley European Championships (LC) 2006 Budapest 100 m backstroke 2006 Budapest 200 m backstroke 2006 Budapest 4×100 m medley 2008 Eindhoven 4×100 m medley 2008 Eindhoven 200 m backstroke 2008 Eindhoven 100 m backstroke European Championships (SC) 2009 Istanbul 100 m backstroke 2006 Helsinki 100 m backstroke 2006 Helsinki 200 m backstroke 2005 Trieste 50 m backstroke 2005 Trieste 100 m backstroke 2005 Trieste 200 m backstroke

Family

Vyatchanin came from a swimming family and was initially trained by his aunt, father and mother, who were all retired competitive swimmers and professional swimming coaches. His father Arkady Sr. (1946–2014) held nine Soviet swimming titles and was a member of the Soviet team from 1965 to 1971. His mother Irina and elder sister Alla competed at the national level. Vyatchanin is married to Evgeniya.^[2]

Change of nationality

In 2013 Vyatchanin announced an intention to leave the Russian team and compete for another country saying he gave all he could to team Russia.^[5] In 2015 he obtained Serbian citizenship^[6] (name in Serbian: Arkadij Vjatčanjin), but could not complete internationally because of administrative errors in his international transfer. Hence he missed the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2017 Vyatchanin obtained American citizenship.^[7] He retired in June 2018 aiming to become a swimming coach.^[4]

See also

• World record progression 100 metres backstroke
• World record progression 200 metres backstroke