Stanford men’s swimmer Andrei Minakov, a redshirt freshman, took home seven medals at the 2021 FINA World Swimming Championship in Abu Dhabi. Minakov, competing for the Russian National Team, won three gold, one silver and three bronze medals. Team Russia earned a total of 15 medals at the event, which took place from Dec. 16 until Tuesday Dec. 21.

In his first event, the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay, Minakov competed with teammates Kliment Kolesnikov, Vladislav Grinev and Aleksandr Shchegolev to win a gold medal with a time of 3:03.45. The following day, he brought home another gold medal in the mixed 4×50-meter freestyle relay together with Daniil Markov, Arina Surkova and Rozaliya Nasretdinova — achieving a fast finish of 1:28.97. 

These wins were followed by a bronze medal in the men’s 100-meter butterfly with a time of 00:49.21, silver in the men’s 4×50-meter freestyle relay with a 1:23.75 time and, while competing with Kolesnikov, Kirill Strelnikov and Vladimir Morozov, a gold medal in the men’s 4×50-meter medley relay with a time of 1:30.51. In his last event, the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay, Kolesnikov, Danil Semianinov, Aleksandr Shchegolev and Minakov finished strong with a time of 3:20.65 for the bronze medal. 

Minakov was also a 2020 Olympian, participating in the 100-meter free, 100-meter fly, 400-meter medley relay and 400-meter free relay for the Russian Olympic Committee. The Stanford swimmer came in fourth in both the 100-meter fly and the 400-meter medley relay at the Tokyo Olympics.