Evgeny Rylov

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rylov (Евгений Михайлович Рылов; born 23 September 1996) is a Russian competitive swimmer and Olympic champion specializing in backstroke events.

This was the first long course world championships gold medal won by a Russian male swimmer in an individual event since 2003.

For the 4×100 metre medley relay on the final day of swimming competition, he split a 52.89 for the backstroke leg of the relay in the final to contribute to a bronze medal-win in a Russian record time of 3:29.76 with finals relay teammates Kirill Prigoda (breaststroke), Aleksandr Popkov (butterfly), and Vladimir Morozov (freestyle).

He won three gold medals at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and a bronze medal at his senior international debut at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan.

Rylov first established himself on the world scene at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, where he achieved a total of four medals, three golds and one silver, and broke two world junior records.

In the 100 metre backstroke, Rylov shared the top prize with Italy's Simone Sabbioni in a matching time of 54.24 seconds.

On 20 August, he put up a sterling effort of 25.09 seconds to crush the world junior record and pick up his second gold of the meet in the 50 metre backstroke, touching out Greece's Apostolos Christou by 0.35 of a second.

Less than an hour later, Rylov and his teammates Anton Chupkov, Aleksandr Sadovnikov, and Filipp Shopin led throughout the race to capture the 4×100 metre medley relay title in a world junior record-breaking time of 3:38.02.

On the final night of the Games, Rylov added a silver to his medal tally, this time in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:57.08, losing the title and his chance of breaking another record to China's Li Guangyuan by 14-hundredths of a second.

Additionally, he helped achieve a fourth-place finish in the 4×100 metre mixed freestyle relay on the first day of competition in 3:32.15 and a fourth-place finish on the third day of competition in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay in 3:25.01.

When Russia hosted the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Rylov charged his way to round out the podium with a third-place and Russian record time of 1:54.60 in the 200 metre backstroke.

Earlier in the Championships, he posted a time of 53.23 seconds to place seventh in the final of the 100 metre backstroke, finishing 0.57 seconds behind the bronze medalist in the event Matt Grevers of the United States.

He also placed fifth in the 4×100 metre medley relay, contributing a split of 53.21 seconds for the backstroke leg to help achieve a finals relay time of 3:30.90.

He also won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a gold medal at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, both were in the 200 metre backstroke event.

At the Russian Championships in April 2016, Rylov broke the European record in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:54.21.

Approximately four months later, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he broke the European record again with a time of 1:53.97 and won the bronze medal in the 200 metre backstroke.

In the 100 metre backstroke, he placed sixth in the final with a time of 52.74 seconds.

For the 4×100 metre medley relay, he split a 52.90 for the backstroke leg of the relay to help achieve a fourth-place finish in 3:31.30 with finals relay teammates Anton Chupkov (breaststroke), Aleksandr Sadovnikov (butterfly), and Vladimir Morozov (freestyle).

At 2017 Russian Championships in April, he lowered his own 200 metre backstroke European record for the third time with a time of 1:53.81 before tying the Russian record in the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 24.52 seconds less than one hour later.

At the World Aquatics Championships, held in July 2017 at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Rylov broke his own European record once again in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:53.61, winning the gold medal and defeating the silver medalist in the event, and 2016 Olympic champion in the event, Ryan Murphy of the United States by 0.60 seconds in the process.

In 2018, at the 2018 World Short Course Championships, he won gold medals in the 200 metre backstroke and 50 metre backstroke.

At the 2018 European Aquatics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland in August, Rylov won the gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke with a European record and Championships record time of 1:53.36.

He won his first gold medal of the Championships five days earlier in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, leading-off the relay in 48.62 seconds to help finish first in 3:12.23.

For the 100 metre backstroke, he won the silver medal with a time of 52.74 seconds in the final, finishing 0.21 seconds behind gold medalist in the event Kliment Kolesnikov, also of Russia.

In the 4×100 metre medley relay, he swam a 52.66 for the backstroke portion of the relay in the preliminary heats before being substituted out for Kliment Kolesnikov in the final and winning a silver medal for his efforts when the finals relay finished second in 3:32.03.

On the first day of competition at the 2018 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China in December, Rylov won a silver medal in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, swimming a 46.09 for the lead-off leg of the relay in the prelims heats before being substituted out for Vladislav Grinev in the final, where the finals relay placed second with a 3:03.11.

The second day, he won a bronze medal as part of the 4×50 metre mixed freestyle relay, contributing a lead-off split time of 21.21 seconds in the prelims heats to help qualify the relay to the final ranking second, where it when on to finish in third-place with a 1:28.73.

In the 4×50 metre mixed medley relay the following day, he swam a 23.18 for the backstroke leg of the relay in the prelims heats, was substituted out and Kliment Kolesnikov substituted in for the finals relay, and won a bronze medal when the finals relay placed third in 1:37.33.

Day four of competition, Rylov anchored the 4×50 metre freestyle relay in the final to help achieve a silver medal victory in a new Russian record time of 1:22.22, splitting a time of 20.37 seconds, which was the third-fastest split time in the final heat behind Ryan Held of the United States, who split a 20.25, and Chad le Clos of South Africa, who split a 20.31.

Later in the same session, he won the gold medal in the 50 metre backstroke with a Russian record time of 22.58 seconds.

His time moved him up in rankings to the second-fastest performer in the event all-time, only behind world record holder Florent Manaudou.

In the final of the 4×50 metre medley relay the following day, he swam the fastest freestyle leg in the field with a time of 20.22 seconds, helping win the gold medal with a finals relay time of 1:30.54.

On the sixth and final day, he won the gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 1:47.02, finishing 0.32 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Ryan Murphy, and 1.23 seconds ahead of the bronze medalists, Radosław Kawęcki and Mitch Larkin.

At the 2019 World Championships, he won a gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke, silver medal in the 100 metre backstroke, and silver medal in the 50 metre backstroke.

At the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July 2019, he defended the World Championships title in the 200 metre backstroke.

He won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke and 200 metre backstroke at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Rylov's father Mikhail Rylov is a former footballer, who now serves as a coach.

In childhood he tried playing association football, but chose instead swimming.

He is a staff police sergeant of the Moscow Oblast Police of the town district of Lobnya.

He competes for the Moscow Oblast region in Russian competitions.