Aleksandr Kabanov

Double Olympic gold-medal winner Aleksandr Kabanov started water polo at the age of 10. He made his début with the USSR national team in 1969, and from 1977-85 was captain of the team. At the Olympic Games, he participated in 23 matches and scored 14 goals. In 1975 and 1982 he was part of the gold-medal-winning Soviet team at the World Championships, and in 1983 was in the team that won the European Championships. Kabanov also won a Universiade gold medal in 1970 and 1973.

Following the 1984 boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, an alternative Friendship-84 competition was held in Cuba, and Kabanov won another title. After his playing career of 437 matches, he became one of the coaches of the USSR national team, and between 1994-96 and again from 2000, he was the country’s head coach. Under his leadership, the Russian national team won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, and were World Championship bronze-medalists in 1994 and 2001. Kabanov, who spent most of his life as a player and coach at the CSK VMF club, was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2001.