| Vadim Alekseyev | |
| National Team: | Soviet Union, Israel |
| Birth Date: | 11 April 1970 |
| Birth Place: | Almaty, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union |
| Strokes: | breaststroke |
Vadim Alekseyev (Hebrew: ודים אלכסייב, Russian: Вадим Алексеев ; born April 11, 1970[1]) is a retired Olympic breaststroke swimmer who competed for first the Soviet Union, then Israel.[2] [3] Alexeev was born in Almaty, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union. He is Jewish, and immigrated to Israel in 1992.[4] He speaks Russian.
Alekseyev held Soviet and Israeli records in the 1990s.
He won the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke races at the 1986 European Junior Championships.
At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, he took sixth in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:16.7. In 1989 he set the Soviet record in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:02.11); it was the third-fastest time in the world that year. That year he was one of the two fastest swimmers in Europe.[5] In 1990, he won a silver medal at the Goodwill Games in the 100-meter breastroke.[6]
At the 1994 World Championship, he set the Israeli record in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:15.47).[7] In 1995, he set the Israeli record in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:02.52).
At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, he swam for Israel.[8] There, he swam the four-man 4x100 meter medley with Yoav Bruck, Eitan Urbach, and Dan Kutler.[9] The team reached the final, taking eighth place.
At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Tom Be'eri beat Alekseyev's prior Israeli record in the men's 100-meter breaststroke by one-tenth of a second (at 1:02.42).[10]