Career
Polyakov qualified for the men"s 400 m individual medley at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by clearing a FINA B-cut of 4:33.02 from the Russian Championships in Moscow. He participated in the first heat against three other swimmers Saša Imprić of Croatia, Andrew Mackay of the Cayman Islands, and Lin Yu-an of the Chinese Taipei. He rounded out a small field to last place and thirty-sixth overall by a 37.64-second margin behind Impric with a slowest time of 5:09.66.