Polyakov a Champion in Breaststroke, Classroom
10/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
By Scott Latta
UA Media Relations
This is the third of a six-part series of profiles on the University of Alabama’s 2006 ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. At the University of Alabama, the tradition of success extends far beyond the field of play. Success in the classroom has long been a Crimson Tide staple and perhaps nothing better demonstrates that better than the fact that six Alabama student-athletes earned ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American honors last season, a mark that led the Southeastern Conference and ranked in top five among all Division I schools. Those six, Guido Arroyo, Ashley Bentley, Beth Mallory, Vlad Polyakov, Emeel Salem and Joseph Sykora will be honored before this weekend’s Alabama-Ole Miss football game.
Senior swimmer Vlad Polyakov said that in order to succeed in both swimming and academics, he always tried to be the best at everything he did.
So far, so good.
A Petropavl, Kazakhstan native, Polyakov’s success in the pool is unmatched. In addition to winning the 2005 NCAA 200 Breaststroke crown, he won the 2006 FINA World Championship in the 200 breaststroke last spring and is considered one of the fastest breaststrokers in the world.
In the classroom, Polyakov’s efforts, including his 3.7 GPA, earned him SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors last season. After graduation, the Marketing-World Business major said he wants to train for he 2008 Olympics and then enter the work force.
“I’m very, very proud of it, considering the fact that when I first came to the US, my primary purpose was to go to school and not just to be a swimmer,” Polyakov said. “So being an Academic All-American kind of makes me stand out from everybody, and that’s what my dad always told me, that it’s easy to be mediocre, it’s hard to be out there.
“You try to be the best at what you do, and I always tried to be the best at everything I could.”
Along with former teammate Guido Arroyo, Polyakov is one of two swimmers to make the Academic All-American list??the second time the swimming and diving team has had a pair of academic standouts in as many years. Work toward those academic accomplishments, Head Coach Eric McIlquham said, starts early in his students’ academic careers.
“There’s no swimming pro league, so when they come in these guys know their ticket is a combination of athletics and academics,” he said. “We stress that they do it correctly, and they do a nice job. Our men’s team had the highest GPA of all the men’s teams on campus, and our women were second, so both teams are doing very well.”
