Sergey Viktorovich Koplyakov (; born 23 January 1959) is a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian swimmer who won two gold medals competing for the

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at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

. Sergey Koplyakov moved into top ranks of world swimming in 1979, coming behind

Vladimir Salnikov Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov (; born 21 May 1960) is a Russian former freestyle swimmer who set 12 world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500 metre events. Nicknamed the "Tsar of the Pool", "Monster of the Waves" and "Leningrad Express", he was the ...

, Andrey Krylov and Volodymyr Raskatov, enabling the Soviet Union to fully compete in male freestyle with American champions in the late 1970s. In sports history, Koplyakov will be the swimmer who ended 15 years of American domination in the 200 m freestyle and the first man who bested the time of 1:50 (on 7 April 1979 he achieved 1:49.83 in

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). Born in

Orsha Orsha (; , ; ) is a city in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the fork of the Dnieper, Dnieper River and Arshytsa River, and it serves as the administrative center of Orsha District. As of 2025, it has a population of 101,662. History ...

, Belarus' 11th-largest city, Koplyakov debuted in 1974, at the age of 15. He won the 200 m juniors in a people's tournament in 1969. From

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he went to

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, one of the pilot centers of the new Soviet swimming and was selected in 1976 for the Montreal Olympic Games, where he won a silver medal in the 4×200 m. His best time in 200 m that year was 1:53.37. In 1977 he was very discreet, only got a fifth place in the 200 m of the European Championships. In 1978, in the

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

World Championships, he finished third in the 200 m, behind two Americans with a time of 1:51.33 (new European record). He achieved high recognition in 1978, beating on 7 April the 200 m world record, during the first split of one 4×200 m relay in a

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/USSR meeting; after that he won the 100 m in 51.46 and the 200 m of the Europe Cup (

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) in August and finally the 200 m of the

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in September with 1:50.13, showing himself as one of the most serious opponents for the American swimmers.

References

YouTube heat 200 m freestyle Olympic Games -80

Sergey Koplyakov's biography and interview

External links

* * * * 1959 births Living people Sportspeople from Orsha Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Belarusian male freestyle swimmers Russian male freestyle swimmers Soviet male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Soviet Union Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union World record setters in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in swimming Olympic silver medalists in swimming 20th-century Russian sportsmen 20th-century Belarusian sportsmen {{Belarus-swimming-bio-stub

See also

References

External links