Dmitriy Balandin

Dmitriy Igorevich Balandin (born 4 April 1995) is a retired Kazakh breaststroke swimmer. He won the 200 m breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as the 50, 100 and 200 m breaststroke events at the 2014 Asian Games.

Career
Balandin currently holds two Kazakh records in the 100 and 200 m breaststroke, and also set a historic milestone for his nation by striking the breaststroke triple at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Balandin won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke, setting up new national record with 2:07.46. This was his first Olympic medal, and Kazakhstan's first-ever medal in a swimming event.

Balandin emerged as an unexpected medal contender at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, where he competed in all breaststroke events. In the men's 200 m breaststroke, Balandin moved from a top seed in the prelims to stun the entire crowd and crush the twelve-year-old meet record set by Japanese swimmer and four-time Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima in a time of 2:07.67 for the gold medal, jumping him into third in the world rankings. The following day, in the men's 100 m breaststroke, Balandin threw down a Kazakh record in 59.92 to pick up his second gold of the meet. Additionally, he raced his stretch to overhaul a minute barrier for the first time in Asian Games history. On the final day of swimming, Balandin completed a remarkable meet with another Games record of 27.78 for his third straight gold of the meet in the 50 m breaststroke.

Recognition
In 2016, a new pool was opened and named after Dmitry Balandin at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Alma-Ata.

In 2016, Dmitry Balandin was chosen as one of the nominees in the "proposed candidates" category of the national project «El Tulgasy» (Name of the Motherland) The idea of the project was to select the most significant citizens of Kazakhstan whose names are now associated with the achievements of the country. More than 350,000 people voted in this project, and Balandin was voted into 3rd place in his category.