Olympic ecstasy is not enough for him: Roman Mityukov is back to work, in the pools and at university

Published on November 18, 2024 at 3:41 p.m. / Modified on November 18, 2024 at 6:32 p.m.

“I was far from being a talent, no one ever believed in me, no one.” Bronze medalist in the 200m backstroke last summer at the Paris Olympic Games, swimmer Roman Mityukov grabs his audience, before sharing the memory of the mockery he was the target of around and in the pools of his childhood. “Every time we stopped at the wall between two pitches, I heard laughter because, for the others, I was simply not made for this sport.”

We are in the cozy room of the Théâtre du Léman, where the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva met on Saturday, November 16 to celebrate the graduation ceremony. The athlete was chosen to deliver the speech for the 2023-2024 class, after the official words of Dean Luc Thévenoz and the President of the Council of State Nathalie Fontanet. “Excited” but also “stressed” by the exercise, the 24-year-old Genevan sets out, bachelor’s degree in hand, fully measuring, at that moment, the path traveled as well as, to his greatest happiness, that which remains to be swallowed .

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