Aleksei Grishin

Grishin reached first place at the first stop of the 1999–2000 circuit in Mount Buller, Victoria on 11 September 1999. The next day he finished in first place again. In the remaining events of the circuit that year, he finished in second place and third place once each, achieving second in aerials competition and third overall.[5]

In the 2000–2001 World Cup circuit, he finished with one first place and one third place in seven races.[9][10][11] In between the World Cup competitions, he won gold at the 2001 World Ski Championships in Whistler-Blackcomb.[12]

He began the 2001–2002 World Cup ski season with an eighth-place finish at Mount Buller.[13] He placed fourth and second at Mont Tremblant, Canada, followed by first and third place at Lake Placid in January 2002.[5] He finished second in the standings after six World Cup events.[14]

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he finished first with 251.76 points in the qualification round and advanced to the finals.[15] He placed third overall in the finals, earning him a bronze medal.[16] His bronze medal was the only medal won by Belarus at that Olympics.[3] He was chosen to be the flag bearer for Belarus at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.[1]

Grishin began the 2002–2003 World Cup competition with a second-place finish on the first day of competition at Mount Buller, and tenth place on the second day. He finished no higher than ninth place in the four subsequent races in January 2003.[5] He attempted to defend his World Ski Championships title at the 2003 event in Deer Valley, falling just under two points behind Dimitri Arkhipov of Russia.[17] Returning to the World Cup competition, he finished with a second, tenth, and fourth place, respectively, in the remaining three races.[5] He finished fifth in the aerials standings after nine races.[18]

In the 2003–2004 World Cup, Grishin had a first-place finish at Mont Tremblant and second-place finish at Lake Placid in January 2004.[5] He had one more podium finish, a first place in Harbin in February. After 12 races, he was third in the aerials standings.[19]

In the 2004–2005 World Cup season, Grishin started four races, finishing no higher than eleventh place,[5] including the fourth race where he finished at 28th place (out of 35 competitors) on the first day at Lake Placid in January.[20] On the second day at Lake Placid, he improved and finished in sixth place.[21] In the next four races, he had two third-place finishes. He finished in eighth place after 12 races.[22] In other races, he won a gold medal at the European Cup in Arosa, Switzerland, in December 2004 and a bronze medal in the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2005 in March at Ruka, Finland.[5]

At the beginning of the 2005–2006 skiing season, Grishin had a third-place finish on the second day at Mount Buller, followed by an eighth and fifth-place finish at Changchun. He finished with a 27th, 20th, and 15th place in the three World Cup races leading up to the 2006 Winter Olympics.[5]

At this Olympics, he finished fourth in the qualifiers[23] and advanced to the finals. After jump 1 in the finals, he was placed fifth. Jump 2 elevated his standing to fourth place overall, but behind his fellow countryman Dmitri Dashinski who finished with a silver medal.[24]

Grishin finished this skiing season with a second place at the event in Davos, Switzerland,[5] but did not participate in the final event held two weeks later at Apex Mountain Resort, Canada.[25] He finished 10th in the standings after 11 events.[25]

Grishin had only one podium finish (third place) in the 2006–2007 World Cup season, finishing 14th after six races.[26] He finished 15th at the 2007 Freestyle World Ski Championships competition.[5]

Grishin failed to reach the podium in any of the 2007–2008 World Cup races, including two DNS (did not start) in the first two races of the season at Lianhua Mountain in China.[5] After eight World Cup races, he finished 19th in the aerials standings.[27]

In the 2008–2009 circuit, Grishin started with a first-place finish at Adventure Mountain in Changchun, China, but failed to reach the podium in the remaining five races.[5] His final standing, after six races, was fifth place.[28]

Grishin at the 2010 Winter Olympics

He placed 16th place at the 2009 Freestyle World Ski Championships.[29]

Grishin reached the podium only once (in the Calgary race in January 2010) in the World Cup races leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics. He participated at the Nor-Am Cup, finishing in tenth and third place.[5]

In the qualification round of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Grishin finished seventh with 234.27 points.[30] In the first jump of the finals, he scored 120.58 points and placed second. Grishin scored 127.83 points in his second jump for a total score of 248.41 points.[31] Grishin beat the runner-up by 1.2 points in the finals,[31] becoming the first athlete to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics for Belarus.[1]

Grishin did not appear in the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 World Cup races. He also did not appear in the World Ski Championships in 2011.[5] He re-joined for the 2012–2013 World Cup but failed to finish higher than fifth place in seven races. He finished in 15th place in the aerials standing.[32] In the following year's World Cup, he had two third-place finishes.[5] After five races, he finished fourth in the discipline standings.[33] He also competed in the 2013 World Ski Championships. He finished 13th and did not qualify for the finals.[34]

He was the flag bearer for Belarus for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.[1] In the first qualification round, he finished 20th place (second last).[35] Placing ninth in the second qualification round, he was unable to advance to the finals.[36] He retired from the sport after this event.[5]