Dmitriy Balandin wins Kazakhstan’s first swimming medal in Olympics
By Brad Weiss
Dmitriy Balandin did something no other Kazakhstani swimmer has done in the history of the Olympics.
It seems like every Olympics, someone does something that has never been done before. On Wednesday night, an unlikely hero emerged from the pool in the men’s 200m breaststroke. Dmitriy Balandin became the first-ever Kazakhstani swimmer to win a medal in the Olympics.
Balandin had to beat a loaded field, that included Japan’s Ippei Watanabe, who had the slowest time in the semifinal. Two Americans were also supposed to challenge for the gold, as Joshua Pretnot and Kevin Cordes came into the final riding high. Cordes won silver at the world championships in 2015, and Pretnot had the third-best time heading into the final.
Pretnot ended up taking the silver medal in the event, with Anton Chupkov of Russia finished third. Watanabe finished sixth in the event, which was one spot behind fellow countryman Yasuhiro Koseki.
Balandin is an incredible swimmer in the breaststroke, and at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, he swept all three breaststroke events. The 21-year old holds two Kazakh records in the 100 and 200m breaststroke. However, there was no bigger moment in his swimming career than taking home the gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and he is now a national hero in Kazakhstan.
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During the 2012 London Olympics, Daniel Gyurta set an Olympic and World Record in the event with a time of 2:07.28. Balandin came very close to that on Wednesday, posting a time of 2:07.46.