Igor Chervynskiy (42, Ukraine, World Aquatic bio, @igorchervynskiy) competed in three Olympics, racing the 1500m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics at the age of 22. The next year, he switched from the pool to the open water. It was a successful transformation as he ended up qualifying for the 10 km marathon swim at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics and competing in at least 62 professional marathon swims around the world between up until the age of 42.

After his last open water race in Setúbal, Portugal at the December 2024 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup, where he placed 27th at the age of 42, he resurfaced recently.

But it was not good news.

According to his fellow Olympic competitor and friend Yasu Hirai, OLY of Japan, he was injured during the war in Ukraine. It was an injury to his leg.

Sergiy Fesenko reported, “A drone dropped a grenade right under his leg. It happened during their attempt to reclaim some of the lost trench positions in front line.”

2008 Beijing Olympics 10K Marathon Swim Results

Gold: Maarten van der Weijden (Netherlands) 1:51:51.6
Silver: David Davies (Great Britain) 1:51:53.1
Bronze: Thomas Lurz (Germany) 1:51:53.6
4. Valerio Cleri (Italy) 1:52:07.5
5. Evgeny Drattsev (Russia) 1:52:08.9
6. Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria) 1:52:09.1
7. Brian Ryckeman (Belgium) 1:52:10.7
8. Mark Warkentin (United States) 1:52:13.0
9. Chad Ho (South Africa) 1:52:13.1
10. Erwin Leon Maldonado Savera (Venezuela) 1:52:13.6
11. Ky Hurst (Australia) 1:52:13.7
12. Igor Chervynskiy (Ukraine) 1:52:14.7
13. Francisco Jose Hervas (Spain) 1:52:16.
14. Allan do Carmo (Brazil) 1:52:16.6
15. Gilles Rondy (France) 1:52:16.7
16. Spyridon Gianniotis (Greece) 1:52:20.4
17. Rostislav Vitek (Czech Republic) 1:52:41.8
18. Luis Escobar (Mexico) 1:53:47.9
19. Saleh Mohammad (Syria) 1:54:37.7
20. Mohamed Elzanaty (Egypt) 1:55:17.0
21. Damian Blaum (Argentina) 1:55:48.6
22. Arseniy Lavrentyev (Portugal) 2:03:39.6
23. Xin Tong (China 2:09:13.4
DNF Csaba Gercsak (Hungary)
DSQ Vladimir Dyatchin (Russia)

2012 London Olympics 10K Marathon Swim Results

1. Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia – 1:49:55.1
2. Thomas Lurz of Germany – 1:49:58.5
3. Richard Weinberger of Canada – 1:50:00.3
4. Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece – 1:50:05.3
5. Daniel Fogg of Great Britain – 1:50:37.3
6. Sergey Bolshakov of Russia – 1:50:40.1
7. Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia – 1:50:42.8
8. Andreas Waschburger of Germany – 1:50:44.4
9. Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria – 1:50:46.2
10. Alex Meyer of the USA – 1:50:48.2
11. Julien Sauvage of France – 1:50:51.3
12. Troyden Prinsloo of South Africa – 1:50:52.9
13. Erwin Maldonado of Venezuela – 1:50:52.9
14. Igor Chervynskiy of Ukraine – 1:50:56.9
15. Yasunari Hirai of Japan – 1:51:20.1
16. Brian Ryckeman of Belgium – 1:51:27.1
17. Valerio Cleri of Italy – 1:51:29.5
18. Csaba Gercsak of Hungary – 1:51:30.9
19. Arseniy Lavrentyev of Portugal – 1:51:37.2
20. Ky Hurst of Australia – 1:51:41.3
21. Ivan Enderica Ochoa of Ecuador – 1:52:28.6
22. Yuriy Kudinov of Kazakhstan – 1:52:59.0
23. Francisco Jose Hervas of Spain – 1:53:27.8
24. Mazen Aziz Metwaly of Egypt – 1:54:33.2
25. Benjamin Schulte of Guam – 2:03:35.1

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