Who Is Kliment Kolesnikov

Kliment Kolesnikov (Климент Андреевич Колесников) is a Russian competitive swimmer who’s known for breaking multiple world junior records for the 50, 100, and 200-meter backstroke. He also broke several records for the other categories, such as 200-meter freestyle and also 100-meter IM.

His debut was during the 2017 World Aquatics Championships when the participated in three backstroke events while setting two junior world records. He set the backstroke world record for the 100-meter category back in December 2017.

International Career

The very first International championship for him was the 2016 European Junior Championships, which surprised everybody. During the event, he successfully broke the World Junior Records for the 50 and 100-meter backstroke, while also obtaining the gold medal at the same time,

He got the additional silver medal for winning second in the 400-meter mixed, and medley relay.

A year later, he got the goldies for the 50 and 200-meter backstroke during the same meet. Silver was also obtained from the 100-meter backstroke, plus a bronze during the 400-meter freestyle relay event.

2017 World Championships

The 2017 World Championships was his first senior championship. However, he started brilliantly by breaking another World Junior Record for the 200-meter backstroke category during the Russian Championships, which made him qualify to join the World Championships. His time was 1:55.49, which was the fastest.

During the World Championships event, he finished in 4th for the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 1:55.49. However, he broke his record once again during the semi-final, with his personal best of 1:55.15. Then, he went further by breaking his own record by finishing in 1:55.14, 0.08 away from gaining the bronze.

2017 SCM European Championships

The event was a strong meet for him. Right on the first day, Kolesnikov successfully finished the 200-meter backstroke in 1:48.02, setting a new World Junior and also Competition Record. During the 100-meter backstroke, he finished in 48.99, which was only 0.07 seconds from setting a new record.

Kolesnikov broke the World Junior Record once again during the 50-meter backstroke but was quickly passed by Simone Sabbioni from Italy by 0.02 seconds only.

2018 European Championships

During the 2018 European Championships, Kolesnikov competed in the 50-meter backstroke when he successfully got into a position in the final. And he successfully broke a record that has been around for almost a decade with a time of 24.00.

Continuing his step to 100-meter backstroke, he broke the world junior record once again in 52.53, granting him a gold. Later on, he competed in the 200-meter backstroke where he qualified for the prelims, but not for the semifinals.

Kolesnikov also helped his team to win the gold for the 4×100 freestyle relay, silver for the 4×100 medley relay, bronze for the mixed 4×100 free relay, and silver for the mixed 4×100 medley relay.

2018 Youth Olympic Games

During the same year, Kolesnikov continued his winning spree at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. In this event alone, he successfully obtained 7 medals, and 6 of them were gold. The golds he made were from the 50,100, and 200 backstrokes, and helping the Russian team during the relay events.

2018 World Male Swimmer of the Year

He closed the 2018 season beautifully by receiving Swammy Award for the overall World Male Swimmer of The Year Honor.

2019 World Championships

Kolesnikov started by participating in the 4×100 freestyle relay event when he helped the Russian team to win the silver medal after splitting in 47.50 during the 3rd leg. In the 100-meter backstroke event, he finished in 9th, and during the 50-meter backstroke, he came back by winning his first individual world medal by finishing third in 24.51.

And during the 4×100 medley relay, he, along with his teammates, worked together to obtain the bronze.

2021 European Championships

Again, Kolesnikov opened the match strongly by winning the 50-meter backstroke while breaking the world record in 23.80. He also participated in the 100-meter freestyle and set the Championship record in 47.37.

Other than that, he helped the Russian team to get the gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay event.

2020 Olympic Games

Kolesnikov also participated in the 2020 Olympic Games. This time, he started in the 100-meter backstroke and got into the semi-final. During the 100-meter backstroke final, he finished second after Evgeny Rylov, a fellow teammate.

Later on, he competed in the 100-meter freestyle and qualified for the prelims while breaking the European record in 47.11. In the final, Kolesnikov successfully finished in 3rd place.

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