Olesya Vladykina

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Yuriyevna and the family name is Vladikina.

Olesya Vladikina

File:Olesya Vladikina.jpeg Olesya Vladikina
Personal information
Full name	Olesya Yuriyevna Vladykina
Nationality	Russia
Born	(1988-02-14) February 14, 1988 Moscow, Soviet Union
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	58 kg (128 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Breaststroke Freestyle
Medal record Athletics 2008 Beijing 100 metre breaststroke - SB8 2012 London 100 metre breaststroke - SB8 2012 London 200 metre individual medley - SM8 IPC World Championships 2010 Eindhoven 100m breaststroke SB8 2010 Eindhoven 200m medley SM8 2010 Eindhoven 50m freestylre S8 2010 Eindhoven 4x100 m medley 34pts IPC World Championships (25m) 2009 Rio de Janeiro 4x100 m medley 34pts IPC European Championships 2009 Reykjavik 200 m medley SM8 2009 Reykjavík 100m breaststroke SB8 2009 Reykjavik 4×100 m medley relay 34pts

Olesya Yuriyevna Vladykina (Rus. Оле́ся Ю́рьевна Влады́кина) (born 14 February 1988) is a Paralympic swimmer from Russia competing mainly in category SB8 events.

Olesya competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and won a gold medal. She finished fourth in the 200 metres (660 ft) individual medley and set a new world record in the 100m breastroke on her way to winning the gold medal.

Career

She started learning professional swimming at Young People's Olympic Reserve Sports School 47 and practiced professionally for 10 years until her entrance to Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, when she concentrated on her studies, leaving active swimming for a year until her injury.

She lost her left arm when she and some friends were in Thailand on holiday and their touring bus capsized; she also suffered the loss of her best friend, fellow athlete Alexandra, in the crash. She resumed training a mere month after she was released from the hospital, and only five months later she won the Beijing Paralympic final.

Interesting facts

When she returned to her swimming coach after the injury, he himself tried swimming with an arm behind his back, found it unusually difficult, and promised to introduce this mode of training to his other charges.