Vladimir Kazantsev (athlete)


Vladimir Dmitriyevich Kazantsev was a Russian long-distance runner who won a silver medal in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 1952 Olympics. He set world's best times in this event in 1951 and 1952 and won the Soviet title in 1950–53. In the Olympic final he had a 20 m lead with 700 m remaining, but injured a tendon in a bad landing after a water jump, and was overtaken by Horace Ashenfelter.
Ashenfelter was an FBI agent, while Kazantsev was a KGB officer who retired in the rank of lieutenant colonel. He fought as a private in the German-Soviet War at the Kalinin Front, was wounded in action in 1942, and awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War. Besides his KGB service Kazantsev taught physical education at the Soviet Police Academy and worked as an athletics coach, preparing the Soviet team to the 1964 Olympics.