http://www.fina-budapest2017.com/en/news/336/vladimir-morozov-forward-to-the-first-individual-gold-world-medal

Vladimir Morozov: Forward to the first individual gold World-medal

2017.03.05. 14:58 CET

One of the most succesful and best Russian swimmer closed the previous year in a perfect way: after he had won the World Cup series, he collected four gold medals at the short course World Championships in Windsor. Though he gained all of them in relay events (overall he has eight golds from short course WC), he got two silver medals from Canada, in 50m and 100m freestyle. Although he was already in London 2012 and he is capable of outstanding results, he has still no gold medal from World Championships or – neither in relay. This negative series can be broken in Budapest. He has stated in the beginning of March that he plans to focus on 50m freesytle in 2017.

Can you imagine more painful thing than to make a mistake in front of your own crowd, in the semi-final of the „king category” of , during the World Championships thus miss out the final? Vladimir Morozov had to experience this situation two years ago in Kazan…

At the 16th World Championships he had swam the third best time in the heats of 100m freestyle behind Chinese and Australian Cameron McEvoy, unfortunately after it he was disqualified from the semi final, his dream couldn’t come true in Kazan Arena (the event was won by the Chinese swimmer who wrote history that day).

Vladimir Morozov also swam in other events in Kazan: in 50m freestyle his fate was decided with an other special scenario. In the semi final, his time was the third one, the same as Anthony Erwin’s result from the other semi final, incidentally the eighth. The shoot out swimming had to decide the last final position between them, Vladimir Morozov finally beat the American rival. In the final the Russian swimmer finished at the fourth place behind French Florent Manadou, and representative Bruno Fratus.

He also had a sense of achievement in Kazan as the Russian team won a silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay event (his teammates were , and Alexandr Sukhorov). He tried himself in 50m backstroke also in Kazan – demonstrating his versatility – and finished on the seventh position in the final, which meant he could collect a great applause again from the home crowd. Photo credit: kazan2015.com/R-sport Mia Rossiya Segodnya

Home crowd – it is not quite right about him because Vlad moved to the United States when he was 14, in 2006.

„I didn’t know English other than ’My name is Vladimir and I swim. That’s it” – he said about the first days in the United States.

He moved to the other side of the ocean with his mother, they settled in Torrance, California and soon afterwards he competed for the Swim Torrance Club.

Back in his childhood – back in – he played basketball, volleyball and loved boxing which wasn’t liked by his mother and Vlad’s eyesight was not so perfect. He chose swimming but he was still in love with all sports, particularly surfing.

He began his economics studies at University of Southern California and soon he became one of the most prestigious athletes of the university. He collected several glories for The Trojans. He was honoured the best college swimmer of the year in 2010 by the Swimming World Magazine as he beat the American record in 50m and 100m freestyle. He also reached the NCAA and US Open record time in 100m freestyle tilting Cesar Cielho’s time.

He was member of the Russian relay team in London 2012 and while in the medley relay event they reached only the 12th place in the freestyle relay, they could stand up to the podium as the bronze medallists (with Nikita Lobintsev, and Andrey Grechin). That year closed well for him collecting seven medals in the short course European Championships, including 100m freestyle and 100m individual medley. Moreover, he also had two gold medals (50 and 100m freestyle) from the World Championships which was held in Istanbul.

Somehow, he managed to be better in short course events, like in 2013. In the World Championships in Barcelona, he earned the silver medal (the best individual result so far) in 50m freestyle behind Cesar Cielho and the bronze one with the relay team (with the same roster then in London). But in Herning, during the Short Course European Championships he could listen the Russian anthem seven times (he won his every events, 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m medley and four relays).

By the way, two present short course World Records are still held by him: last year in Berlin he swam 50.30 in 100m individual medley while in 4x50m freestyle relay the Russian team reached 1:22.60 in Doha, in 2014.

World Record in Berlin, in 2016:

Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic Games was not particularly succesful for him, he finished at the fourth place. In the semi final of 50m freestyle he finished at the fourth place and it was not enough for the final. And Russian relay team gained the fourth place in both final (4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley relay) which means he left the Games without a medal.

But he made up for himself at the end of the year winning the overall World Cup series at first:

„My first WR, my first World Cup and the first World Cup win for Russian swimming. Thank you FINA for such an opportunity, thank you to all the organizing committees and countries for receiving us, thank you to my teammates and to my competition for the races, and thank you to everyone for the support!” – he posted in his Facebook page in November.

And in Windsor he coloured his season with the mentioned four golds and two silvers.

And we can surely announce that Vlad will be in a good form this year. Why are we so sure? In the beginning of March during the the first stage of 2017 Arena Pro Swim Series, Vladimir Morozov swam 22.09 in 50m freestyle in Indianapolis. One of his biggest rival and buddy, Nathan Adrian did the same so the two guys went head-to-head into the wall. Third place was reached by Bruno Fratus (22.23).

„Was good. Much better than I expected. And happy to tight with Nathan, we have been racing for a long time since college. So always glad to race with him. I thinked up more focusing for 50m in this season. In the last three-four years I focused the 100m and it had never worked out. So I try the 50” – he said for the SwimSwam magazine.

Vladimir Morozov Born in Novosibirsk, Russia in the 16 of June in 1992. Best results: Olympic bronze medallist (4x100m freestyle relay, 2012 London), silver medallist of World Championships (50m freestle, 2013 Barcelona; 4x100 freestyle relay, 2015 Kazan), bronze medallist of World Championships (4x100m freestyle relay, 2013 Barcelona), 8 times World Champion in short course WC (2012 Istanbul, 2014 Doha, 2016 Windsor), 6 times silver medallist of short course WC (2012 Istanbul, 2014 Doha, 2016 Windsor), European Champion (50m freestyle, Berlin 2014), 2 times silver medallist of European Championships (4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay, 2014 Berlin), 7 times European Champion in short course EC (2012 Chartres, 2013 Herning), winner of World Cup series (2013, 2016)