Volleyball legends – Artamonova, Tetyukhin lead the way with six Olympic appearances

The countdown to the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics continues – and as we prepare to witness the actions of the world’s top athletes in the Japanese capital, we can take a moment to celebrate some outstanding legends of the sport as well. Sergey Tetyukhin and Evgeniya Artamonova, both from Russia, are the only Volleyball players to have competed at the Olympics as many as six times!  

Artamonova, later in her career known as Estes, did so from 1992 to 2012, claiming three silver medals in the process, while representing the CIS and Russia. Tetyukhin, who retired from competitive sport only a couple of years ago, made his Olympic debut at Atlanta in 1996, not yet 21 years old, and eventually achieved immortal glory in 2012 – when Russia came back from two sets down to edge Brazil in a truly epic final at Earls Court in London.

The Russian outside hitter played a leading role also in January of 2016, helping Russia secure their participation in the Rio Olympics via the European continental qualifier held in Berlin, Germany. However, Tetyukhin and his much younger teammates failed to make the podium in Brazil – and Sergey eventually retired from the sport with a still impressive personal tally including one gold (2012), one silver (2000) and two bronze medals (2004, 2008) from his six Olympic appearances to go with an endless list of individual and team accolades.

It is the dream of every athlete to compete at the Olympics at least once – so Artamonova’s and Tetyukhin’s longevity and ability to perform at the highest level for a time span covering as many as six Olympic Games is truly unique. One may argue that coming from Russia, they had more opportunities to achieve such a feat than those available to a player from any other country – however, knowing the depth, competitiveness and quality of Russian Volleyball, their achievement is actually even more remarkable.

Apart from Artamonova and Tetyukhin, only five other players have been able to compete at five Olympics. These are all equally legendary names, since the list includes the likes of Brazilian setters Fofão and Mauricio Lima, Italy’s Andrea Giani, USA’s Danielle Scott-Arruda and Reinder Nummerdor of the Netherlands – who represented his country at five consecutive Olympics, twice in Volleyball (2000, 2004) and three times in Beach Volleyball (2008, 2012, 2016), but without winning a medal.

For the record, Canada’s Ian Millar is the athlete with the most appearances at the Olympics (10 in equestrian) – followed by Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl and Soviet/Latvian shooter Afanasijs Kuzmins with nine apiece. If we focus on team sports only, five athletes can match the achievement of Artamonova and Tetyukhin of competing at as many as six Olympics. These are Spanish water polo player Manuel Estiarte, Finnish ice hockey stars Teemu Selänne and Raimo Helminen, Brazil’s Formiga in football and Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser – who featured at five Olympics in ice hockey and once in softball.