The great Russian Swimmer, Evgeny Sadovyi, will return to the pool in Barcelona after more than 20 years since swimming in the 1992 Olympic Games. This time, however, he will not be in the pool. As was caught by one of our eagle-eyed readers, KethM, Sadovyi will be poolside with the 35 other officials selected to judge the World Championship Meet.
In 1992, Sadovyi won three gold medals in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 4x200m freestyle relay. He also broke two world records in the 400m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay.
His time in the 200m freestyle was 1:46.70 and his time in the 400m freestyle was 3:45.00. Even today, his 400m freestyle would stand as the third fastest in 2013. As we’ve seen global times explode, that sort of longevity of history is impressive. Sadovyi was a member of “The Unified Team” which consisted of 12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics.
Sadovyi is most recognized for his win in the 400m freestyle. He upset the world record holder from Australia, Kieren Perkins, breaking Perkins’ record by 1.47 seconds and touching out him out for the win by .16 seconds, in the infancy of the Australian greats career. The pair both were well under that World Record, which Perkins would end up breaking at the World Championships two years later, making this at the time one of the more impressive head-to-head slugfests in swimming history.
Our own Mel Stewart was another one of the stars of those games, winning the gold medal in the 200 fly individually, as a part of the American 400 medley relay, and took a bronze in the 800 free relay behind Sadovyi’s winning anchor leg.
“I watched every stroke of that race,” Mel said of the race 20 years ago. “The 400 free at the ’92 Games was one of those races where your jaw goes slack at the speed, at the splits. You’re certain they can’t hold on, that the piano will fall any second. The Unified Team, so new, was a riding a high and it seemed the entire world was pulling for Sadovyi. He is a swimming legend, and Perkins owes Sadovyi some credit for pushing him to new levels at the begining of his distance reign.”
The pool won’t be the same as the one used for the Olympics (swimming this year is in the Palau Saint Jordi), but there’s a certain special congruity to returning to the place where he first made a name for himself and really helped push the concept of the new era of Soviet-Russian identity forward with his success in the pool.
That race against Perkins was amazing. Anyone has youtube link to that 400 free barcelona?
from reading the articles and skimming the comments, I see this is truly someone who loves the sport. I question if our (American) super start, Michael phelps can be truly considered an ambassador to the sport the way some of these greats mentioned above, such as Evgeny, the other Russian who swam masters a few years back, our very own mel stewart, et all. it seems far more likely 20 years down the road we’ll still see franklin, lochte, ledecky, vanderkay, berens, and the host of other swimmers who frequent social media and actually use their accounts, respond to fans, travel the country promoting various aspects of our sport. I mean phelps is great, but people like the subject of… Read more »
Beautifully said!
Mike Phelps has been retired for less than a year and you’re already questioning him? He done more for swimming than any American in history.
Give him a break, let him enjoy being retired from the sport and check back in 20 years to see if he meets your standards for being an “ambassador”.
Good grief…………
we also ought to remember the top times this year came from people in jammers and caps while sadovyi was swimming in a brief and goggles
Good point. I wonder what he could have done in jammers.
Sadovy came out of nowhere and tore it up in Barcelona. I had never heard of him, but the internet did not exist for regular users at that time. Then as fast as he appeared, he was gone from swimming.
I remember hearing about shoulder problems or something similar. He was similar to a one hit wonder.
Anyone have any info on what ended his career? He was only 19 years old in 1992.
Yes. Heart problems.
Russians have a different level of cardiology but he was advised not to continue.
I was amazed at the power Evgeny could generate when he was so darn thin! Such a great competitor. After his Barcelona golds, he was never the same. But what he did accomplish was unique in that the entire Unified Team never lost their focus after the dissolution of the country, the USSR. Hats off to a great great champion.
Sadovyi was 1.87 with only 73kg at his prime!
He was skinny, but he was very fast too! You don’t need to be muscular to swim fast. There are a lot of skinny, fast swimmers. Some of the top Japanese men are very thin.
Too bad his career ended prematurely, he would have gotten even faster. He was still a kid.
When Anthony Ervin was younger, he was as skinny as a pencil, but is to this day the fastest swimmer I have ever seen in person.
!
I swam against one of his former teammates in several masters meets. At the age of 37, Vlad Pyschnenko was still FAST. I think I remember him going 1:53 in the 200m freestyle at FINA World Masters Championships at Stanford in 2006.
I actually went 1:52.8 @ that race 😉
He’s my coach, and yes, he can still kick butt.
One of the best Russian swimmer of all times ! I remember his victories back in 92′ Olympics .