Yuri Kudinov (born February 27, 1979 in Volgograd

Volgograd

Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...

) is a long distance swimmer from Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

In 2007 he narrowly missed the world record for the fastest swim across the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 when he was beaten by Petar Stoychev

Petar Stoychev

Petar Stoychev is a Bulgarian swimmer who is the most successful long distance marathon swimmer of the last decade. He is one of the greatest marathon swimmers of all time and an honor swimmer in the...

. His time of 7 h 06 min remains one of the fastest swims ever recorded, but was not enough to beat Petar's 6 h 57 min set on the same day (24 August 2007).

Earlier in the year (25 March 2007), Yuri beat Petar in the 25 km at the Open Water World Championships, a race which he won in a time of 5 h 16 min 45 s, with Petar coming in 6th with a time of 5 h 22 min 55 s.