Yuriy Borzakovskiy

*Borzakovskiy was born at Kratovo, in the Moscow region. He was named for the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

*At the age of 10 Yuriy started to play football. He went to the sport school in his nature city Zhukovsky. Suddenly he was taken to the athletic competitions. After this event he decided to become an athlete.

*Borzakovskiy's first major international success was a victory at the 2000 European Indoor Championships when he was only 18 years old.* At the 2000 Summer Olympics he reached the 800 m final, in which he finished sixth.*In 2001 he won the World Indoor title over 800 m but decided not to participate in the World Championships in Edmonton.

*Borzakovskiy's greatest achievement was his victory in the 800 m race at the Athens Olympics in 2004. By this point, he was well known for sitting back until about the last 200 metres and then using a great kick to catch up and win, reminiscent of the tactics of U.S.A's Dave Wottle. At the Olympics he employed the same strategy, using this 'late charge' to come from behind in the last 150 meters to pass Wilson Kipketer, who was leading with only 20 metres to go, and take the victory.

*Awards:Order of Friendship - for outstanding contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high athletic achievements at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens in 2004.

Yuriy lives in Zhukovsky. He is married and has two children.

Now he is a part of the VSFO "Dynamo" (Moscow region).

Resources*http://www.peoples.ru/sport/atlete/borzakovskiy/*http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Борзаковский,_

Юрий_Михайлович*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Borzakovskiy