Maxim Opalev (born 4 April 1979 in Volgograd) is an athlete from Russia, who competes in flatwater canoeing. Opalev participated in two Summer Olympics (2000 and 2004), and came home with a medal each time. He is a current (2006) World and European champion. Opalev's potential was evident when he won two gold medals as a sixteen-year-old at the 1995 World Junior Championships in Yamanashi, Japan. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Maxim Opalev. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Opalev