Maxim Opalev

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Medal record
Maxim Opalev
Men's Canoeing
Competitor for Russia
Olympic Games
Silver	2000 Sydney	C1 500 m
Bronze	2004 Athens	C1 500 m

Maxim Alexandrovich Opalev (Russian: Максим Александрович Опалев; born 4 April 1979 in Volgograd) is an athlete from Russia, who competes in flatwater canoeing. Opalev participated in two Summer Olympics (2000 and 2004), and came home with a medal each time. He is a current (2006) World and European champion.

Opalev's potential was evident when he won two gold medals as a sixteen-year-old at the 1995 World Junior Championships in Yamanashi, Japan. Competing against opponents two years older than hinself he won the C2 1000m title (with Konstantin Fomichev) as well as the C4 500m gold. At the next edition of the world junior championships, in Lahti, Finland, in 1997, Opalev won the individual (C1) 1000m title.

As a senior Opalev has had outstanding success at the canoeing World Championships. Of the paddlers currently active, his record of eleven World Championship gold medals is bettered only by Hungary's György Kolonics - seven years his senior. He won the C-1 500m world title four years running (1998-2002).

He won a silver medal in the C-1 500m at the 2000 Olympics. Four years later at the Canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics he won his initial heat of the men's 500 metres individual canoe, qualifying directly for the finals. In the final, he finished third, edging out Aliaksandr Zhukouski of Belarus by 0.136 seconds to win the bronze medal.

Opalev holds the C1 500 m world record of 1:45.654 (Szeged, Hungary, 2002).

In July 2006, at Račice (Czech Republic), he became European C1 200 m and 500 m champion for the fourth consecutive time.

Opalev's most recent world title success came at the 2006 World Championships in Szeged, where he reclaimed the C1 500 m title.

Opalev is 186 cm (6'1") tall and weighs 95 kg (209 lbs).