Aleksander Leonidovich Lesun (; born 1 July 1988) is a Belarusian-born naturalized Russian

modern pentathlete The modern pentathlon is an Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, laser pistol shooting, and cross country running. The sport wa ...

. He is a multiple-time medalist at the World and European Championships, and was a top-ranked male modern pentathlete in the world by the

Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne The International Modern Pentathlon Union (''Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne),'' commonly known by the acronym UIPM, has been the international governing body of modern pentathlon since its foundation in London in 1948. Its headquar ...

(UIPM).

Career

Lesun started out his sporting career as a swimmer, before switching to modern pentathlon at the very young age. He first competed at the European and World Junior Championships in 2008, and had achieved five top-ten finishes. In late 2009, Lesun moved to Russia from Belarus, and obtained a dual citizenship and a Russian passport. Lesun returned to the international scene in early 2010, and was formally admitted to the national team. He competed at the World Championships in Chengdu, China, where he won two medals, one for the individual and one for the team relay. He also added his first ever gold medal at the 2010 World Cup in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. In 2012, Lesun emerged as Russia's best medal prospect, and a top favorite to win gold at his first Olympics. He had broken his streak of silver medal finishes in his 2011 breakthrough season and also beat the former world and defending Olympic champion Moiseev to win his first individual gold medal at the 2012 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Following his triumph, Lesun qualified for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, along with Moiseev, to compete in the men's event, which included a first-ever combined running and shooting segment. During the competition, Lesun made a strong showing in the fencing segment, tying in second place with China's Cao Zhongrong for a score of twenty-five victories, but struggled to maintain his position in the entire event, with disappointing scores in freestyle swimming and horse riding. At the combined running and shooting discipline, Lesun progressed into the event in third place, until he was surpassed by Hungary's

Ádám Marosi Ádám Marosi (born 26 July 1984) is a Hungarian Modern pentathlete. Career Marosi won the 2009 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in London. He also won the gold at the Modern Pentathlon World Cup 2010 held in Medway, GB. He competed in ...

to win the bronze medal, dropping him out of the podium to a fourth-place finish, with a score of 5,764 points. In 2016, he won the gold medal at the

Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

with a total of 1479 points, which was an Olympic record at the time. At the 2017 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Lesun suffered a back injury in the fencing segment, leaving him without a medal in the individual competition. However, he won bronze with his team. He resigned from the Russian team following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, opting to return to Belarus.

Awards

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...

(2016)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesun, Aleksander Belarusian male modern pentathletes Russian male modern pentathletes 1988 births Living people Olympic modern pentathletes for Russia Modern pentathletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Minsk World Modern Pentathlon Championships medalists Belarusian emigrants to Russia Russian people of Belarusian descent Naturalized citizens of Russia Modern pentathletes at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Russia Olympic medalists in modern pentathlon 21st-century Russian sportsmen