Arkady Vyatchanin


Arkady Arkadyevich Vyatchanin is a retired Russian, Serbian and American backstroke swimmer. He was born in Vorkuta, and in 1999 moved to Taganrog, Russia, where he graduated from the South Federal University. He was a member of the Russian National Team in 2000–2015; moved to Serbia in 2015 and to the United States in 2017, and retired in June 2018.

Family

Vyatchanin came from a swimming family and was initially trained by his aunt, father and mother, who were all retired competitive swimmers and professional swimming coaches. His father :ru:Вятчанин, Аркадий Фёдорович|Arkady Sr. held nine Soviet swimming titles and was a member of the Soviet team from 1965 to 1971. His mother Irina and elder sister Alla competed at the national level. Vyatchanin is married to Evgeniya.

Change of nationality

In 2013 Vyatchanin announced an intention to leave the Russian team and compete for another country saying he gave all he could to team Russia. In 2015 he obtained Serbian citizenship, but could not complete internationally because of administrative errors in his international transfer. Hence he missed the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2017 Vyatchanin obtained American citizenship. He retired in June 2018 aiming to become a swimming coach.