Larisa Ilchenko
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Larisa Dmitriyevna Ilchenko (; born 18 November 1988) is a Russian long-distance swimmer. She won eight world titles and a gold medal at the
2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
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Biography

Ilchenko dominated long distance swimming since her first World Championships in Dubai, 2004, where, aged just 16 won by over 30 seconds. The following year in Montreal, she had a much tougher time as the veterans pushed her under and held her up, but still won with a final sprint. This was the pattern of all her subsequent victories, battling her way through the pack before sprinting clear at the end. She doubled up in Napoli 2006 to become both the 5 km and 10 km open water world champion. She won both 5 km and 10 km events at the 2007 and 2008 World Championships too. The American magazine
Swimming World } ''Swimming World'' is a US-based quarterly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'' (kn ...
named her open water swimmer of the year in 2006, 2007 and 2008. She won the gold medal at the
2008 Beijing The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...
Olympics in the swimming 10 km, using her trademark closing kick after being behind the leaders for 9,900 meters of the 10,000-meter swim. For this and other achievements, she was awarded the
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 ...
in 2009. After sustaining an injury in 2009 and
hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...
at the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Championships, she de facto retired. In August 2012 she married a Russian swimmer
Sergey Perunin Sergey Perunin (; born 19 July 1988) is a Russian swimmer who won a silver medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships. Next year he won a gold medal in the same event at the 2010 European Aquatics Championshi ...
.Olympic Champion Larisa Ilchenko Marries Sergey Perunin
openwaterswimming.com (2012-08-26)
In September 2012 she was inducted to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. And in 2016 she was inducted to the
International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...
.


International medals

She won 10 medals at the
World Open Water Swimming Championships The FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, or more commonly "Open Water Worlds", was a bi-annual FINA (now World Aquatics) championship for open water swimming held in even years from 2000 to 2010, inclusive. Race distances were 5, 10, and 2 ...
.


See also

* World Open Water Championships - Multiple medalists


References


External links


Article from the Washington Post on LarisaSecond Time Open Water Swimmer of the year10k SevilleBeijing Olympic PreviewBBC Video of last 5 minutes of Beijing 10kBeijing Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilchenko, Larisa 1988 births Living people Russian female long-distance swimmers Olympic swimmers for Russia Olympic gold medalists for Russia Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers from Volgograd World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming Olympic gold medalists in swimming 21st-century Russian sportswomen