Background
Dityatin was born in Leningrad (Street St. Petersburg) on August 7, 1957.
Dityatin was born in Leningrad (Street St. Petersburg) on August 7, 1957.
The American swimmer Michael Phelps has now twice equalled this record, at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Tying Mark Spitz"s record, Dityatin also held the all-time Olympic record for most individual medals at a single Games, at seven, until Michael Phelps broke it at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Dityatin competed for the Leningrad Dinamo sports society.
At the age of 15 he was given special dispensation to take part in the senior Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics championships.
Shortly after the 1980 Olympics, Dityatin was seriously injured while training, which ended his career. He was the most successful athlete at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
Dityatin graduated from Leningrad Lesgaft Institute of Physical Education. Between 1980 and 1995 Dityatin was the head coach of a sports team from Leningrad (Leningrad OKPP).
Since 1995 he works as the chief inspector of the Pulkovo Airport checkpoint (Pulkovo-2 OKPP).
He is a Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Border Service. In 2004 Dityatin was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. The annual Alexander Dityatin Cup competition is held in his honor in Russia.