Aleksei Grishin

Aleksei Gennadyevich Grishin (; ; born 18 June 1979) is a Belarusian freestyle skier who competed at five consecutive Olympics from 1998 to 2014. He won Belarus' only medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, a bronze in aerials. In 2010, he won the first ever Winter Olympics gold medal for his country, again in the aerials. He finished fourth in 2006 and eighth in 1998. He was the Olympic flag bearer for Belarus at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Games. Early career Aleksei Grishin began his freestyle skiing career at the age of eight after his mother saw a newspaper advertisement recruiting skiers for the sport. Grishin made his international competition debut at the European Cup at Raubichi, Belarus in December 1995, finishing 11th on the first day of competition and 21st on the second day. His first podium finish at an international competition, placing second, was at the International Youth Championship in Chatel, France in March 1996. He made his debut at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in the following year, finishing fourth at the Piancavallo event in Italy in December 1997. This was followed by his Olympics debut at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He scored 217.84 points after two jumps, placing ninth in the competition, and qualified for the finals. In the finals, he moved up one spot and finished eighth behind fellow countryman Dmitry Dashchinsky, who won a bronze medal in this event. Grishin finished with a silver medal again in the World Cup circuit at Meiringen-Hasliberg in Switzerland in March 1998.