Semyon Belits-Geiman
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Semyon Viktorovich Belits-Geiman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Soviet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union | 16 February 1945||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 161 lb (73 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Dynamo Moscow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Semyon Viktorovich Belits-Geiman (Russian: Семён Викторович Белиц-Гейман; born 16 February 1945) is a former Soviet freestyle swimmer.[1] He set a world record in the 800 m freestyle, and won two Olympic medals.
Early life
Belits-Geiman is
Swimming career
Belits-Geiman began swimming when he was eight.[3] He was affiliated with the Moscow club Dynamo, and became a member of the Soviet swimming team in 1962.[3][7] He competed at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and finished in seventh place in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and eighth in the 400 meter freestyle.[7]
At the 1965 Summer Universiade, he won the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle and three silver medals in the 1,500 m and relay races.[3] In 1965, his time in the 1,500 m was the second-fastest in the world (17:01.90).[3][8]
In 1966, he won the gold medal against three of the best American freestyle swimmers in a US vs USSR competition in Moscow.[3] That year at the European championships, he won gold medals in the 1,500 m freestyle (16:58.5) and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay (8:00.2) and a silver medal in the 400 m freestyle (4:13.2; behind German Frank Wiegand, and ahead of Frenchman Alain Mosconi).[3][9] In 1966, he was ranked number three in the world in the 1,500-meter freestyle.[3]
On 8 March 1966, he set a world record in the 800 m freestyle, at 8:47.4, in Budapest.[1][10][11][12] That was 4.1 seconds faster than the former record set by Australian Murray Rose in 1962.[5][13]
At the
He won a silver medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City in the 4×100 freestyle relay (3:34.2), swimming the lead leg, and a bronze medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay (8:01.6), swimming the second leg.[1][2][3] In the 4 × 200 m relay, one of his teammates was Vladimir Bure.[3] He also swam two individual freestyle events, finishing seventh in the 200 m freestyle, and ninth in the 400 m race.[3] He broke 67 Soviet national freestyle records.[3] In 1974, he was named president of the Moscow Swim Federation and vice president of the Soviet Union Federation.[3]
Post-swimming career
Later in his life he competed in
Beginning in the early 1980s, he developed training programs for
Accolades
In 2017, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[16]
Personal
He met his wife, Russian ice dancing coach and former competitive ice dancer Natalia Dubova, when he covered one of her competitions as a sportswriter.[14][15] In 1999, they moved to Stamford, Connecticut.[17]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 9781903900871. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ ISBN 9780881259698. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Belits-Geiman, Semyon". Jewsinsports.org. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Jewish Olympic Medalists". Jewishsports.net. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b "A Roundup Of The Sports Information Of The Week". Sports Illustrated. 15 August 1966. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Белиц-Гейман Семен". Ussr-swimming.ru. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Semyon Belits-Geyman". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b Ralph Hickok (16 January 2010). "World University Games Men's Swimming Medalists". HickokSports.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ Todor Krastev (18 December 2010). "Swimming 11th European Championship 1966 Utrecht (NED)". Todor66.com. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Suited for Swimming". Boys' Life. July 1967. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Aussie Bests Swim Mark". Spokane Daily Chronicle. 16 January 1967. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Burton Sets 2 World Marks". The Telegraph-Herald. 31 August 1967. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Rose's Swim Record Falls to Russian". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 August 1966. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b Judy Wells (30 April 2000). "Famed skating coach takes to the ice with local talent". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ a b "Australian Dancers Flourish Under Dubova". Golden Skate. 1 November 2003. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Ervin, Korzits, Selinger among newest inductees in Jewish Hall of Fame". 19 June 2017.
- ^ Harold Davis (20 September 2009). "From Russia with love: Olympic champ and wife still live sporting life in Stamford". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
External links
- USSR Swimming profile (in Russian)
- Semyon Belits-Geiman at World Aquatics
- Semyon Belits-Geiman at Olympics.com
- Semyon Belits-Geiman at Olympedia