Vadim Yaroshchuk () (born April 2, 1966) is a former

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

and

medley Medley or Medleys may refer to: Sports *Medley swimming, races requiring multiple swimming styles * Medley relay races at track meets Music *Medley (music), multiple pieces strung together People *Medley (surname), list of people with this nam ...

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He won two bronze medals at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Seoul, South Korea Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, including for the 200m medley, for which he had placed second in the preliminary heats, and as a member of the 4×100 medley relay.

Career

During his competitive swimming career, Yaroshchuk earned a reputation as one of the world's fastest

swimmers, which was reflected in his commanding early lead during the butterfly leg (first 50 meters) of the 200-meter individual medley at the 1988 Olympics. Although he maintained his lead into the final 50 meters of the race, Yaroshchuk was ultimately overtaken by then-world record holder

Tamás Darnyi Tamás Darnyi (born 3 June 1967 in Budapest) is a Hungarian retired male swimmer. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest medley swimmers in history. He won four gold medals at two Olympic Games (1988 and 1992) and was unbeaten in th ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

) and

Patrick Kühl Patrick Kühl (born 26 March 1968 in Güstrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is a former medley swimmer from East Germany, who won the silver medal in the 200 m individual medley for the GDR at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. See ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

).1988 Olympic Games - Swimming - Men's 200 Meter Individual Medley - Tamas Darnyi HUN
@

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Retrieved 4 August 2024. Yaroshchuk won a second

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

at the 1988 Olympics as a member of the Soviet 4x100 medley relay team, along with

Igor Polyansky Igor Nikolaevich Polianski () (born 20 March 1967 in Novosibirsk) is a former backstroke swimmer from the USSR. Polianski trained at Dynamo in Novosibirsk. In 1986, he became the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. From ...

, Dmitry Volkov, and

Gennadiy Prigoda Gennadiy Sergeyevich Prigoda (; born 2 May 1965) is a former freestyle swimmer from Russia, who competed twice at the Summer Olympics first for the Soviet Union in 1988, and then for the Unified Team in 1992. The sprinter won four Olympic me ...

References

databaseOlympics
1966 births Living people Soviet male medley swimmers Soviet male butterfly swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Soviet Union Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union Place of birth missing (living people) Olympic bronze medalists in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics {{Russia-swimming-bio-stub