Aleksandr Maltsev

Aleksandr Evgenyevich Maltsev (Russian: Александр Евгеньевич Мальцев) (born 22 June 1995) is a Russian competitor in Mixed Duet synchronized swimming. together with Darina Valitova, He won a gold medal in the inaugural mixed duet competition at the 2015 World Championships. With partner Mikhaela Kalancha, He won gold at the inaugural mixed duet competition at the 2016 European Championships.

Personal life

Aleksandr is taking up tourism at the Russian State University of Physical Culture & Sports.

Career

Maltsev was enrolled by his mother in a synchronized swimming group at a local sports school. At the time, they accepted everyone, boys and girls. At age of 10, Maltsev was selected for the St. Petersburg municipal team and at 14, he began training with Russia's female synchronized swimmers. Despite being the only male synchronized swimmer in the national team, Maltsev continued to pursue his career even with attempts to divert his attention to water polo and diving, He continued to train his favorite sport even though many people did not understand or support his desires.

In 2014, FINA officially approved of adding mixed-gender events in Synchronized swimming and diving under its banner after a vote at the Extraordinary Congress in Doha Qatar. Maltsev began pairing up with Darina Valitova. They competed at the Italian Open Test for mixed duet where they took the gold medal.

At the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Valitova/Maltsev represented Russia at the inaugural Mixed Duet in synchronized swimming, after leading the preliminaries in Mixed Duet technical, they finished second in the finals losing just 0.2122 points to Americans Bill May and Christina Jones. They avenged their loss by winning the gold in Mixed Duet free with a score of 91.7333 points ahead of Lum/May.

Maltsev partnered with Mikhaela Kalancha at the 2016 European Championships; where they won gold in mixed free and technical routines respectively.