Ravil Nachaev (also ''Ravil Nagayev'', rus, Равиль Начаев; born June 17, 1974 in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

) is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle and butterfly events. He is a three-time Olympian (1996, 2000, and 2004), and a gold medalist in the 50 m freestyle at the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

. Nachaev made his official debut, as a 22-year-old, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. He failed to reach the top 16 final in any of his individual events, finishing forty-fifth in the

50 m freestyle 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

(23.12), and forty-eighth in the

100 m butterfly 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

(56.61). He also placed seventeenth, as a member of the Uzbekistan team, in the 4×100 m freestyle relay (3:28.33). At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney, Nachaev competed as a member of the Uzbekistan team in the 4×100 m freestyle relay, along with

Oleg Tsvetkovskiy Oleg Nikolayevich Tsvetkovskiy ( uz, Олег Николаевич Цветковский; born May 27, 1970) is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in sprint and middle-distance freestyle events. He represented Uzbekistan in two editions of ...

Petr Vasiliev Petr Vasiliev (also ''Pyotr Vasiliev'', uz, Пётр Васильев; born April 21, 1981) is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle events. He is a two-time Olympian (2000 and 2004), and a top 16 finalist in the 200 m freestyle ...

, and

Oleg Pukhnatiy Oleg Pukhnatiy ( uz, Олег Пухнатй; born June 10, 1975) is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and individual medley events. He is a three-time Olympian (1996, 2000, and 2004), and a top 16 finalist at the 2002 Asian G ...

. Although he swam the anchor leg in heat one, his team had been disqualified due to an early relay takeoff by Pukhnatiy. On the sixth day of the Games, Nachaev swam his two individual events, with only 90 minutes in between. First, he posted a lifetime best of 23.12 to lead the fifth heat of the

. More than an hour later, in the

, Nachaev stormed the entire field to another triumph in heat three by 0.04 seconds, with a time of 55.21. Despite winning the heats in just a single day, he failed to advance into the semifinals in any of his individual events, finishing thirtieth in the 50 m freestyle, and thirty-fourth in the 100 m butterfly. Nachaev later emerged as Uzbekistan's top swimmer, when he shared the gold with South Korea's Kim Min-suk in the

, a matching time of 22.86 seconds, at the

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea ...

. Nachaev shortened his program at the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

, when he swam only for the third time in the

. He achieved a FINA B-standard of 23.49 from the Kazakhstan Open Championships in

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...

. Nachaev registered a time of 23.23 to lead the fifth heat again, since he had previously done before in Sydney four years earlier. Nachaev failed to reach the semifinals for his third and final Olympic stint, placing thirty-sixth in the preliminaries.

References

External links

NBC 2008 Olympics profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nachaev, Ravil 1974 births Living people Uzbekistani male butterfly swimmers Olympic swimmers of Uzbekistan Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1998 Asian Games Swimmers at the 2002 Asian Games Swimmers at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in swimming Uzbekistani male freestyle swimmers Sportspeople from Tashkent Asian Games gold medalists for Uzbekistan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games