Ravil Nachaev

Ravil Nachaev

Personal information
Full name	Ravil Nachaev
National team	Uzbekistan
Born	(1974-06-17) 17 June 1974 Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle, butterfly
Medal record Men's swimming Representing Uzbekistan Asian Games 2002 Busan 50 m freestyle Afro-Asian Games 2003 Hyderabad 50 m freestyle Asian Indoor Games 2005 Bangkok 50 m freestyle 2005 Bangkok 100 m freestyle 2005 Bangkok 4×100 m freestyle 2005 Bangkok 4×100 m medley 2005 Bangkok 4×50 m freestyle 2005 Bangkok 50 m butterfly 2005 Bangkok 100 m butterfly Asian Championships 1996 Bangkok 4×100 m freestyle 2006 Singapore 4×100 m freestyle 2000 Busan 100 m butterfly 2006 Singapore 50 m freestyle

Ravil Nachaev (also Ravil Nagayev, Russian: Равиль Начаев; born June 17, 1974 in Tashkent) is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle and butterfly events. He is a three-time Olympian (1996, 2000, and 2004), and a gold medalist in the 50 m freestyle at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.

Nachaev made his official debut, as a 22-year-old, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He failed to reach the top 16 final in any of his individual events, finishing forty-fifth in the 50 m freestyle (23.12), and forty-eighth in the 100 m butterfly (56.61). He also placed seventeenth, as a member of the Uzbekistan team, in the 4×100 m freestyle relay (3:28.33).

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Nachaev competed as a member of the Uzbekistan team in the 4×100 m freestyle relay, along with Oleg Tsvetkovskiy, Petr Vasiliev, and Oleg Pukhnatiy. Although he swam the anchor leg in heat one, his team had been disqualified due to an early relay takeoff by Pukhnatiy. On the sixth day of the Games, Nachaev swam his two individual events, with only 90 minutes in between. First, he posted a lifetime best of 23.12 to lead the fifth heat of the 50 m freestyle. More than an hour later, in the 100 m butterfly, Nachaev stormed the entire field to another triumph in heat three by 0.04 seconds, with a time of 55.21. Despite of winning the heats in just a single day, he failed to advance into the semifinals in any of his individual events, finishing thirtieth in the 50 m freestyle, and thirty-fourth in the 100 m butterfly.

Nachaev later emerged as Uzbekistan's top swimmer, when he shared the gold with South Korea's Kim Min-suk in the 50 m freestyle, a matching time of 22.86 seconds, at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan.

Nachaev shortened his program at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, when he swam only for the third time in the 50 m freestyle. He achieved a FINA B-standard of 23.49 from the Kazakhstan Open Championships in Almaty. Nachaev registered a time of 23.23 to lead the fifth heat again, since he had previously done before in Sydney four years earlier. Nachaev failed to reach the semifinals for his third and final Olympic stint, placing thirty-sixth in the preliminaries.

External links

• NBC Olympics Profile