10. Oleg Stoyanovsky and Vyacheslav Krasilnikov (beach volleyball)
In beach volleyball, the Russians walked around for a long time around the gold medals of the most prestigious tournaments, but did not reach the first places. Everything changed in October 2018, when an experienced player Vyacheslav Stoyanovsky teamed up with young Oleg Stoyanovsky, and this formed the strongest couple in beach volleyball.
The Russians immediately began to do well. Already in the first week of 2019, they won the stage of the World Tour in The Hague, and in April they were already the best in the tournament in China. At the World Championships in Hamburg, Stoyanovsky and Krasilnikov arrived among the favorites and fully justified this status by winning the first gold medals for Russia. At the end of the year, they won the finals of the World Tour, which also previously seemed impossible for Russian beach people.
9. Artyom Dziuba (football)
In 2019, footballer Artyom Dzuba was successful in both the club and the national team. In May, for the first time in his career, he tried on the gold medals of the Russian championship together with Zenit, becoming the undeniably best in his team. He finished the season in the RPL with eight goals and ten assists, taking third place in points for performance.
Perhaps even stronger Dziuba pleased the fans in the matches for the national team. In the Euro 2020 qualifying tournament, he scored nine goals for his opponents. During this time, the striker rose in the historical ranking of the national team scorers from sixth to third place. From the first it is now separated by only six goals. Nine goals of Dziuba also allowed him to enter the top six scorers of Euro 2020 qualification.
8. Alexander Bolshunov (skiing)
Skier Alexander Bolshunov in the season 2018/19, and especially in his second half, presented a lot of arguments to be considered one of the best skiers of our time. At the world championships in Seefeld, he took part in all six races, which in itself is an achievement. In four of them, Bolshunov won silver medals - in the team sprint, skiathlon, relay and 50 marathon. Apart from him, none of the men went up so many times on the podium.
Bolshunov made up for the shortage of gold right after the end of the competition by winning the Oslo marathon at the World Cup stage. In total, he excelled five times during the season, thanks to which he took second place in the overall standings - no one has competed better than Russian skiers in the modern era. And in the distance standings, Bolshunov became the best at all, repeating the achievement of Alexander Legkov.
7. Nikita Kucherov (hockey)
For a long time, Alexander Mogilny’s record for points scored for the season in the NHL was considered one of the eternal for Russian hockey. 26 years ago, he scored 127 points, and since then no one has come close to such an indicator. This continued until Nikita Kucherov got down to business. In the 2018/19 season, he scored an incredible 128 points in 82 matches for Tampa Bay Lightning. Kucherov at the same time repeated Jaromir Jagr's record for transfers for the season for flank strikers, distributing 87 passes to partners. At the end of the season, the Russian became the owner of three NHL prizes - the best hockey player according to players and journalists, as well as the best scorer of the regular season.
In the Stanley Cup, Tampa Bay took off in the first round, so that Kucherov was able to go with the Russian team to the World Cup and there again showed his phenomenal skills. The striker scored six goals and gave ten assists, taking second place in the scorer race. Together with the Kucherov team, he won the bronze medal for the second time.
6. Evgeny Rylov (swimming)
Evgeny Rylov can be safely called one of the heroes of the swimming world championship, held in Gwangju. His main achievement was another victory at a company distance of 200 meters on the back - two years ago he already overtook everyone in this type of program.
But not only this managed to be noted by a native of Novotroitsk. Rylov was the first in history to win medals in all disciplines on one back at one world championship - he became the second at distances of 50 and 100 meters.
Rylov was also indispensable in relay races, and not only as a spinner, when he helped to win bronze in the “combination”. He also unexpectedly revealed himself as a rabbit, swimming faster than all partners in the final of the relay 4 × 100 m freestyle, which brought the team the first silver in four years.
5. Arthur Beterbiev (professional boxing)
Undoubtedly, the main star of Russian boxing in 2019 was Arthur Beterbiev. In May, he held the first defense of the world boxing title according to the International Boxing Federation and in the fifth round ended the fight with Bosnian Radivoe Kalajdzic, bringing his track record to 14 wins without defeats.
And five months later, Beterbiev got a chance for another championship belt belonging to the World Boxing Council. The Russian fought with the Ukrainian Alexander Gvozdik, who ten years earlier had knocked out in an amateur duel. Beterbiev was stronger throughout the fight, and after three knockdowns in the tenth round, he was declared the winner. He became the fifth Russian in boxing history, who managed to combine the two world titles.
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov (mixed martial arts)
One of the main events of the year in mixed martial arts was the fight for the UFC lightweight champion title between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Porrier. The Russian was originally a favorite in the third defense of his belt, but few expected his 28th career victory to be so convincing. Nurmagomedov won in the third round, confirming complete superiority in his weight category.
Eagle could have been ranked among the legends and symbols of the UFC before, but in 2019 all questions about this should have disappeared by themselves. It is Nurmagomedov who currently owns the lightweight belt for the longest time among men - by the time he meets with Tony Ferguson, he will be the champion for more than two years.
3. Nikita Nagorny (gymnastics)
For Nikita Nagorny, 2019 was the year of truly outstanding results. It all started with an incredible performance at the championship of Russia. The 22-year-old gymnast not only won the all-around, but also took five gold medals and one silver in separate exercises, while none of the strongest in the country missed the competition.
The next peak conquered by Nagorny was the European Championship. He returned to Russia gold in the men's all-around, which was last won by David Belyavsky in 2013. In the final, Nagorny did not score less than 14.3 points in any of the types - for gymnastics this is an incredible result. At the same time, a native of Rostov-on-Don won the exercises on the uneven bars, becoming the six-time European champion.
The World Cup brought Nagorny even more gold medals. He helped the team win the all-around for the first time since 1991, became the best in the absolute championship and at the same time won the vault. Nagorny was the first gymnast in four years to win three golds in one World Cup. In addition, no one has already won a quarter-century victory in the all-around at the gymnastics world and European championships in one year.
2. Anton Chupkov (swimming)
Another swimmer in the ranking of the best athletes in Russia was Anton Chupkov. He came to the World Cup for the second gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke and already in the semifinals he broke the competition record, which is quite rare at this stage. But in another race, unexpectedly fast, with a repetition of the world record, the Australian Matthew Wilson sailed, and the Russian victory was in question. Now for the sake of gold it was necessary to swim even faster.
Chupkov was ready for this. In the finals, he lost for some time to almost all his opponents, but that was exactly his plan. At the right moment, Chupkov accelerated so much that he improved his world record by as much as 0.55 s. In Gwangju, the Russian became just one of two swimmers who beat world achievements at personal distances. At the same time, he became a bronze medalist in the combined relay, taking part in the preliminary heats.
1. Daniil Medvedev (tennis)
The most beautiful sporting success story in 2019 was written by Daniil Medvedev. In just one season, from a good tennis player of the second ten of the ATP rating, he turned into a real star of his sport.
The main achievement of the 23-year-old athlete was the first time since Marat Safin to reach the US Open final, in which he had a stunning duel with Rafael Nadal - playing on equal footing in the fifth set after losing the first two literally drove the fans crazy. Medvedev after this tournament became the fourth racket of the world and the first of the Russians in ten years made his way to the Final tournament of the year.
The brilliant series of six finals in a row, which in addition to the US Open, included Masters in Montreal, Cincinnati and Shanghai, also became the season's decoration. Medvedev won the last two of them, and in all he won four titles over the season, having also won tournaments in Sofia and St. Petersburg. Over the course of the year, the Russian beat eight rivals from the top ten of the ATP rating eight times, including twice defeating Novak Djokovic in the first racket of the world.
The main result of the year for Medvedev was the fact that for the first time a great generation of tennis players Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic had a competitor capable of dropping him from the first three positions of the world ranking. It is the Russians who are predicted this in the new 2020.
Trainer of the Year - Dzambolat Tedeev (freestyle wrestling)
The Russian men's freestyle wrestling team led by Dzambolat Tedeev in 2019 was invincible and won the team classification in all the major tournaments in which she participated. In March, the wrestlers won the World Cup in Yakutsk - in 40 fights, the Russians suffered only four defeats. A month later, they won eight out of ten medals at the European Championships, of which two were gold.
At the European Games in Minsk, the concentration of gold in the freestyle wrestling team increased - now there were already four out of six of them. And a real triumph occurred at the world championship in Nur Sultan. Nine medals in ten weight categories, including five gold ones, are a historical record for the team after the collapse of the USSR.