Career
First, he outlasted Hungary"s László Cseh in a close race to set a junior European record of 4:19.81 in the 400 m individual medley. Second, he stroked to a personal best of 2:03.65 to claim a title over his teammate Alexei Zatsepine by a 1.27-second margin in the 200 m individual medley. He also helped out his Russian team to break a championship record of 7:28.25 in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.
Two years later, Berezutskiy qualified for the men"s 400 m individual medley at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by breaking a Russian record and clearing a FINA A-standard entry time of 4:18.13 from the Russian Championships in Moscow.
He challenged seven other swimmers on the final heat of five, including top medal favorite Michael Phelps of the United States. He edged out his teammate and Olympic veteran Alexey Kovrigin to take a seventh spot by 0.57 of a second in 4:23.20.
Berezutskiy failed to advance into the final, as he placed twentieth overall on the first day of preliminaries. Four months after the Olympics, Berezutskiy earned a bronze medal in the same program at the 2004 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Vienna, Austria.
In 2007, Berezutskiy announced his retirement from swimming for personal, health, and psychological reasons.