Dmitry Sautin is a Russian diver who achieved great success between the 1990s and early 2000s. He won numerous medals at the Olympics and World Championships, including gold medals in individual and synchronized diving. Sautin overcame injuries and challenges to become the first diver to win medals in all four diving events at a single Olympics in 2000. He established new standards of excellence in diving and demonstrated a remarkable competitive spirit and work ethic.

2.  He was born on March 15, 1974 in
Voronezh. Father - Sautin Ivan Petrovich (
1934 born.) . Mother - Sautina Anna M. (
1939 born.) .
 Dmitry Sautin is called the king of diving
, a symbol of the sport. Today, he is at an
age when his skills and years can say - he's
a true professional. Meanwhile, 20 years
ago, no one could have predicted that an
athlete can achieve such a unique success.
 Dmitry childhood was physically strong
, could easily catch up on the bar and keep
the area for a long time , but was
extremely inflexible and could not swim .
So it seems paradoxical that your way to
the top in the sport he started jumping in
the water section , which in 1981 gained
children's sports school coach Voronezh
Tatiana Starodubtseva . It is known to her
alone , as she had guessed the future of a
great master in a storm of gates , a
potential " client" inspection of juvenile
offenders.

3.  It may seem that way in the sport Dmitry Sautin
strewn among the roses . Indeed , it is very early to
draw the attention of the country's leading experts .
Many marveled at his jumping technique . Especially
admired all his perfectly vertical entry into the water
. So much so that in the years after it is nicknamed
"guy with the lead in the head ." This is despite the
fact that he, a young man of small stature , it was
sometimes difficult to distinguish on the tower.
According Honored Master of Sports, Olympic
champion in diving , and now one of the leading
sports journalists in the country Helena
Vaytsehovsky , those years Dmitry execute arbitrary
always jumping with a 10- meter tower , and
mandatory - to 5 -meter . He has not yet learned to
fly , but it spun wildly in the air. Some experts
believed that such jumps will not bring it up to the
good. However, the skill of the young athlete
growing before our eyes , his performances became
more stable, and soon he became a head and
shoulders above their peers.
 Paradoxically, the first international competition for
Dmitry Sautin finished yet begun. During the
gathering of children's team before the match USSR GDR in Dnepropetrovsk coaches paid attention to it
and decided to send it to the European Cup .
However, for the start he was not allowed : hurry no
one paid attention to the rules of international
competition levels that defined the age limit for
adult teams in 13 years.
 A steep climb Dmitry Sautin on sports ladder began
in 1991, when he barely got into the national
team, winning once on the 10-meter tower and the
European Cup in 2nd place at the European
Championships in Athens.

4.  Young Voronezh rapidly gaining points on the
international orbit. 1992 was marked by victories in
the European Cup in Milan , 3rd place on the
trampoline in the Barcelona Olympics . European
Championship 1993 in the English city of Sheffield
athlete has brought gold for the 10-meter tower and
silver in the 3- meter springboard .
 But the really fantastic character and his will to win
Dmitry Sautin revealed all at the World
Championships in Rome in 1994 . Then no one
seriously expected the Russian victory. Then jump
into the water already in full sway Chinese athletes .
However, some of the jumps Dmitry were as good as
the quality of performance and style is so
indistinguishable from the best " Chinese " options
that coaches and spectators immediately playfully
reinterpreted surname Russians the Chinese manner
with the accent on the last syllable : Syau -ting .
Second place Sautina on 3- meter springboard ,
where he lost nearly 10 points, the Chinese Yu
Chzhuochenyu was perceived almost with glee : the
day before Dmitry departed from among the finalists
at odnometrovom projectile . At the same tower
reigned Chinese Song Shuey , defeated his
countryman Xiong Ni, which , in turn, to compete
with the four-time Olympic champion Gregory
Louganis . The leader of a Russian team could not
even get to the final in this kind of competition. After
the third of five random jumps he was only 22 place
(!) , While , as for reaching the final required to enter
the number of the twelve . But at the last moment
he was going , he performed two remaining jump
perfectly well, got to the finals, and even in the final
jump to get ahead of Song Shueya on the crown of
the last tower at 4 points.

5.  The following year, 1995, was the first Russian athlete at
the European Championships in Vienna (Austria).
 After the World Cup at Dmitry Sautin started having
problems with his wrist . To protect themselves from
similar injuries from jumping from the tower could not be
anyone else . Constant load on the hand when entering
the water invariably leads to a sprain - so familiar that the
pain just do not pay attention. Brush the entire swathe to
fix , it is impossible: broken clean entry into the water . If
there are more serious injury , each jump is torture. The
carpal joint is inflamed by Dmitry so that the wrist fistula
formed . Jump headfirst hurt even with the rim . The
survey found that in the joint pinch nerves started strong
inflammation of the tendons .
 In the 1995 World Cup in Atlanta Sautin won a first in the
history of Russian and Russian diving victory at the 3meter springboard . However, the jump from the tower
because of the sore hand , he could not stand up properly
in the rack , but still jumped and took 7th place . In the
time left before the Olympic Games, a long-term
treatment is not out of the question : the operation
would have disqualified Dmitry down at least for a few
months, which would call into question his participation
in the Olympic Games . Some even advised to stop
jumping from the tower. However Sautina it was
unacceptable. Also in Atlanta, he was approached by a
professor of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania ,
USA ) Simon Slabunov ( in Soviet times, he was a
psychologist of the USSR team in diving , and after moving
to the United States began to work in the field of
psychology and sports medicine ) to the proposal for at
the expense of the American side of a special month
course of treatment. Dmitry agreed, and it paid off . He
was not only able to continue training, but in the future
quite successfully performed in jumping from the tower.
Subsequently, the question of why Americans took so
hard to treat, and even at his own expense , in fact rival
his own jumper Mark Lenzi , the answer was: " Sautin
does not belong to one country , it belongs to the world."

6.  The most amazing thing : despite the injury, close to
Sautina in the Olympic season in 1996 so no one
could . Before the Games in Atlanta, the newspaper
USA Today published an article " Russian Robot" ,
meaning a deliberate invincibility world . American
journalists was easier to think so : in this case, the
defeat of their athletes looked not so offensive .
Reaction to the " robot " by the United States has
had a tumultuous jumpers : Sautin in their circles for
several years had a different , respectful nickname "The MAN " ( The man ) .
 In Atlanta, the first final jump Sautin played a
Chinese Tian Liang 4 points , lost to them in the
mandatory program , and 0.12 came forward. After
the second attempt, the gap was already at 10.68 .
After another round - 30.24 , then - 49.05 . This
margin was making any further resistance Sautina
meaningless. At a press conference Olympic
champion almost did not. He did not feel anything no joy of victory or fatigue. The only pain ...
 In 1997 Dmitry Sautin won another gold at the World
Championships in Seville Spain , and at the World
Championships in 1998 in Perth, Australia for the
first time in his life he won the absolute primacy .
Particularly impressive was his victory in the tower :
Dmitry defeated his nearest rival Tian Liang on 90
points and nearly 40 points topped the unofficial
record of a decade ago , set by American Louganis ,
gaining 750.99 points. During the free skate Russian
athlete 11 times received the highest rating - "top
ten" . And set another unofficial record : thefirst
jumper in the world, who managed to score in one
of the jumps more than 100 points. And this is after
a major operation on the hand , left over right after
returning from Atlanta.

7.  At the European Championships 1999 in Istanbul Dmitry Sautin
won gold in the 10 -meter-high tower , and in 2000 at the
European Championships in Helsinki, won 1st place in the pole
tower , ski jumping and synchronized diving towers, 2nd place in synchronized diving from a springboard .
 For half a year before the Olympic Games synchronized jumps
were first included in the Olympic tournament . In the coaching
staff Sautina ( Evangulov AG and TA Starodubtseva ) just got a
question: whether Dmitry participate in this kind of
competition ? There was a well-founded belief that his style is
so unique that it will pick a partner is not easy. However,
decided to risk than hitherto unprecedented created a
precedent in diving : to Sautina no athlete in the world at any
one competitions did not participate in all four types of
programs.
 The result exceeded all expectations Sautin won medals in all
four apparatuses : gold - in synchronized diving tower , a silver in synchronized diving, springboard and two bronze - in ski
jumping and jumping from the tower.
 Many predicted the winning athlete in the 3- meter
springboard . Indeed , Dmitry was in the lead in this type of
program to the last jump. However, it is the latter failed , super
complicated jump, which he learned shortly before the event.
The trick and the trouble lay in the fact that the rules could not
be changed before the approved program : it could be
simplified jump, as is done , for example, in figure skating. But
no one is supposed to be leading that Sautin , so the request to
simplify the program jumps did not apply .
 One way or another , but his performance at the Sydney
Olympics - a real world record in diving . The uniqueness of this
achievement is reinforced by the fact that in the synchronized
diving tower and jumping from Dmitri were two different
partner!
 Before the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan Dmitry
Sautin has further strengthened its program . In this case, if
before the Olympics had to convince him that he needed to
jump with four shells , now coaches tried to convince him
otherwise : to focus only on two of the least traumatic individual and synchronized diving from a springboard . As a
result, Dmitry brilliantly made a 3- meter springboard , adding
to its unique collection of awards another gold medal champion
.