Jani Sievinen

Jani Sievinen
Personal information
Surname:	Jani Nikanor Sievinen
Nation:	Finland
Swimming style (s) :	Layers, backs
Birthday:	March 31, 1974
Place of birth:	Vihti
Size:	1.81 m
Medal table

Jani Nikanor Sievinen ( pronunciation ^{? / I} ; born March 31, 1974 in Vihti ) is a former Finnish swimmer . Together with Antti Kasvio , he was the most successful Finnish swimmer in the 1990s.

Career

Due to his versatility, Sievinen was able to celebrate great successes, especially on the individual distances.

Overall, he took part in four Summer Olympics from 1992 to 2004. In 1992 in Barcelona he could only reach the final over the 200 meter medley, where he stayed 28 hundredths of a second behind the Hungarian Attila Czene and thus missed the bronze medal. He missed the final in 13th place over the 100 meter butterfly course. He started with all Finnish relays, but never finished twelfth with this one.

In the early 1990s he also set numerous new world and European records. For example, at a swimming event in Hyvinkää, Finland, he improved the 50-meter back short course European record to 00: 24.81 min. But he also improved the short course world and European records over 200 meters several times during this time. This could only be finally improved in 2004 by George Bovell (world record) and in 2005 by László Cseh . Between 1993 and 1997 Sievinen also held the 400 meter short course world and European record for five years.

He swam his only long track world record with his world championship title over 200 meters at the swimming world championships in Rome in 1994 . But this remained in place for nine years before the American Michael Phelps improved it in 2003. The European record could only be improved 13 years later, at the 2007 Swimming World Championships by László Cseh.

In 1996, at the Olympic Games , he won his first and only Olympic medal with a silver medal in the 200 meter medley. As in 1992, Attila Czene stayed before him. Over 400 meters medley and 200 meters freestyle, he did not get beyond the heat and was ultimately 17th. With the Finnish 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay, he finished twelfth.

At the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney in 2000 , he reached the finals on his parade route, the 200 meter medley, but finished eighth. In the 400 meter medley he only came in 27th overall.

Four years later at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens , he did not get beyond 20th place on the 200 meter medley course.

Between 1999 and 2003 he was four times short course world champion , three times short course European champion and once European champion on the long course. Especially the year 2002 stands out, in which he won the title over the 200 meter individual medley at the 2002 Short Course World Championships in Moscow , the 2002 European Swimming Championships in Berlin and the 2002 European Short Course Championships in Riesa and the 100 meter medley in Riesa could win.

resignation

At the home European short course championships in Helsinki in 2006 , the five-time world and twelve-time European champion ended his 16-year career with a fifth place over the 100 meter layer distance.

Web links

• Jani Sievinen's website (English, Finnish)
• Jani Sievinen in the Swimrankings.net database (English)
• Jani Sievinen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )