At the Paris La Défense Arena swimming pool complex, the 30-year-old athlete set a universal mark in the four-stroke SM13 (visually impaired) category with a time of 2:02.03 minutes, ahead of France’s Alex Portal (2:06.66) and Russia’s Vladimir Sotnikov (2:10.56), who won silver and bronze, respectively. Boki, who competes under neutral flag like the other Russian athletes, climbed for the fifth time to the top of the podium in Paris, after winning the titles in 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 400m freestyle and 50m freestyle.

The native from Babruisk won his 21st gold medal at the Paralympics. The media has baptized him as the “Belarusian Phelps,” in reference to the U.S. swimmer who won the Olympic gold medal 23 times.

At London 2012, Boki won five titles and a runner-up finish; four years later, in Rio de Janeiro, he dominated six events and was third in another, and in Tokyo 2020 he conquered five gold medals.

Ied/omr/rgh/am