A member of the Russian national swimming team Yevgeny Rylov, by his twenties, has a number of significant achievements, including medals at the World Cup and the Olympic Games. The son of a professional athlete first played football, but eventually found his calling on the swimming lanes of the pool.
Childhood
Evgeny Rylov was born in 1996 in Novotroitsk, in the Orenburg region. Sports genes came to him from his father, who played for the Yekaterinburg Uralmash, who once played in the major leagues. So he ended up in Novotroitsk, having got here to finish his football career in the local Nosta.
In the biography of Evgeny Rylov, swimming appeared not by chance. The boy in childhood was painful, and on the advice of doctors, his parents gave his son to swim. So from the age of six, Eugene began to train in the pool, his first coach was Inna Kokoreva.
A little later, Zhenya's mentor was Yevgeny Shishin, in whom the boy was engaged in the Novotroitsk Volga basin. For some time Evgeny Rylov combined swimming with football, but soon realized that he was more interested in watching the game than participating in it, and concentrated on swimming.
When the boy was ten years old, the whole family moved to the Moscow region, where Rylov continued training under the leadership of Gulnara Romanadze. Later, she was replaced by an old friend of Eugene, his Novotroitsky trainer Eugene Mishin, with whom they are still inseparable.
Fast junior
By the age of fifteen, Yevgeny Rylov's specialization in swimming was chosen. He focused on distances of 100 and 200 meters on his back, showing less good results on sprint 50 meters. However, if necessary, the young man could swim well and a crawl, so he spoke for the area in freestyle relay competitions.
In 2011, Evgeny Rylov begins to loudly declare himself at the domestic level. At the V Olympics for schoolchildren, he won his first awards in junior sports by a wide margin from competitors. Two years later, Zhenya set the country's youth records in the disciplines of 100 and 200 meters.
In 2014, an athlete near Moscow went to his first international tournament, which became the Junior European Swimming Championship. Here he won three golds at once, including two top relay races and one at a distance of 50 meters on his back.
Cheeky newbie
The results of the young swimmer spoke for themselves, and his mentors decided that the hope of Russian swimming Evgeny Rylov no longer makes sense to stay in juniors.
In 2015, he was selected to participate in the championship in water sports, held in Kazan. In the disciplines of 100 and 200 meters on the back, such venerable athletes as the Australian Mitch Larkin, Japanese Irie, Pole Kavecki set the tone.
No one expected yesterday's junior that he could at least cling to a place in the top eight. However, with each swim, Eugene improved his results and sensationally made his way to the finals of the two hundred meters with the best time.
One of the weaknesses of the young swimmer was a slow start, the first fifty meters he sailed worse than his competitors. Based on this, he relied on a quick finish, which very often worked in previous competitions. Approximately in the same vein, the newly-appointed leader of the Russian swimming team Yevgeny Rylov was going to act in the final of the World Cup.
Everything happened as planned by Zhenya. Only a little he failed the third segment of fifty meters, giving, however, an excellent finishing spurt. The first place was confidently taken by the Australian athlete Mitch Larkin, who was ahead of competitors by almost a second.
However, a fierce battle unfolded for a place in the top three winners. Pole Radoslav Kavecki ahead of Rylov by just 0.05 seconds, becoming a silver medalist. Eugene himself, in turn, was just one touch ahead of the Japanese Irie, winning his first bronze medal in the World Cup.
Rio
The winner of the swimming championship of the planet Evgeny Rylov went to the 2016 Olympics in the status of one of the favorites. By this time, he had made serious progress, significantly improving his personal achievements. As in Kazan, the main feats of Eugene at the Olympic Games were related to his performance at a distance of 200 meters on his back. The same Mitch Larkin was considered the favorite, however, a strong American Ryan Murphy, who was the leader of the US team, came to Rio.
As a result, the whole struggle unfolded between the three athletes listed above. This time, the American became stronger, ahead of the second winner by 0.35 seconds.
The second was Mitch Larkin, again ahead of Rylov. But if the Australian won in Kazan with a clear advantage, then here he was ahead of the Russians by just one touch, which cost only 0.01 seconds. A swimmer near Moscow set a European record and was generally pleased with his result, which he improved by almost a second in a year.
Before the finale
At the last Russian swimming championship, Evgeny Rylov competed practically only with himself, simultaneously updating his European records, and won all three disciplines: 50 meters, 100 meters and 200 meters.
The athlete went to the world championship in Budapest with one task - victory. July 28, 2017, he brilliantly sailed a distance of 200 meters, ahead of the American Murphy, and brought the country's men's national team the first medal of world championships since 2003.