Mikhail Yevgenyevich Astashov (russian: Михаил Евгеньевич Асташов; born 16 October 1988) is a Russian Paralympic

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

and road cyclist, as well as a

paratriathlete Para triathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability. The sport is governed by World Triathlon (TRI) (formerly known as ITU), and was first held as a Paralympics, Paralympic event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio ...

. He is a two-time Paralympic champion.

Biography

Astashov was born 16 October 1988 in the village of Khandagay. When he was a few days old, he was taken away from his parents, after physicians and aid workers urged them to send him to a baby house, wondering, why they need such a child without hands and feet and assuring them, he won't live long anyway. When he was five he was sent to an orphanage. The time which he spent in the orphanage was positive; Astashov learned all the regular tasks, including walking. Beside that, he practiced different kind of sports, the first one being badminton, which he had to abandon due to lack of support in Ulan-Ude. Then he tried swimming and table tennis, collecting success there, before switching to athletics, which he replaced with paratriathlon (swimming, cycling and walking). He stayed in the orphanage until the age of 18, when he started off searching his family which he eventually found; his mother and father, as well as two brothers were proud and happy to see him return to the family. Astashov enrolled at the East-Siberian Institute for Culture. Apart from being a successful cyclist, he is a junior national champion in badminton, multitude national champion and record holder in swimming and athletics, a 2016 World Paratriathlon silver medalist. However, all his results were not noticed in Russia, and he did not gain a license for the Paralympics. Searching for financial support, he met

Anton Shipulin Anton Vladimirovich Shipulin (russian: Антон Владимирович Шипулин; born 21 August 1987) is a retired Russian biathlete and politician serving as the member of the State Duma since 2019. Sport career Absolute champion of E ...

, former biathlete and current

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

deputy, in 2019. Shipulin found a solution to collect the needed money for the

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

. But to qualify he should achieve good enough results to qualify for the Paralympics; this happened after he won podium places in several national and world championships and cups. Moreover, he also had the chance to take part in the triathlon competition, but the class in which he competes, PTS2, is not a sanctionized category in the Paralympics. At the Summer Paralympics, held in Tokyo in August 2021, Astashov won gold in the 2020 individual pursuit C1 event, setting a World Record in the qualifying round and overlapping Tristen Chernove in the final. He also finished fourth in the time trial C1–3 event. However, in the road time trial event he again finished first.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astashov, Mikhail Living people 1988 births Paralympic gold medalists for Russia Paralympic medalists in cycling Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Cyclists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Paratriathletes Russian triathletes Paralympic swimmers for Russia Russian male cyclists Paralympic gold medalists for the Russian Paralympic Committee athletes Sportspeople from Buryatia