Aleksei Gennadyevich Grishin (; ; born 18 June 1979) is a Belarusian freestyle skier who competed at five consecutive Olympics from 1998 to 2014. He won Belarus' only medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, a bronze in aerials. In 2010, he won the first ever Winter Olympics gold medal for his country, again in the aerials. He finished fourth in 2006 and eighth in 1998. He was the Olympic flag bearer for Belarus at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Games.
Early career
Aleksei Grishin began his freestyle skiing career at the age of eight after his mother saw a newspaper advertisement recruiting skiers for the sport.
Grishin made his international competition debut at the European Cup at Raubichi, Belarus in December 1995, finishing 11th on the first day of competition and 21st on the second day. His first podium finish at an international competition, placing second, was at the International Youth Championship in Chatel, France in March 1996.
He made his debut at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in the following year, finishing fourth at the Piancavallo event in Italy in December 1997. This was followed by his Olympics debut at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He scored 217.84 points after two jumps, placing ninth in the competition, and qualified for the finals. In the finals, he moved up one spot and finished eighth behind fellow countryman Dmitry Dashchinsky, who won a bronze medal in this event. Grishin finished with a silver medal again in the World Cup circuit at Meiringen-Hasliberg in Switzerland in March 1998.
His first competition in the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships also took place at the Meiringen-Hasliberg ski resort; he finished 26th in the 1999 event.
Career
1999–2000 season
Grishin reached first place at the first stop of the 1999–2000 circuit in Mount Buller, Victoria on 11 September 1999. The next day he finished in first place again. In the remaining events of the circuit that year, he finished in second place and third place once each, achieving second in aerials competition and third overall.
2000–2001 season
In the 2000–2001 World Cup circuit, he finished with one first place and one third place in seven races. In between the World Cup competitions, he won gold at the 2001 World Ski Championships in Whistler-Blackcomb.
2001–2002 season
He began the 2001–2002 World Cup ski season with an eighth-place finish at Mount Buller. He placed fourth and second at Mont Tremblant, Canada, followed by first and third place at Lake Placid in January 2002. He finished second in the standings after six World Cup events.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he finished first with 251.76 points in the qualification round and advanced to the finals. He placed third overall in the finals, earning him a bronze medal. His bronze medal was the only medal won by Belarus at that Olympics. He was chosen to be the flag bearer for Belarus at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
2002–2003 season
Grishin began the 2002–2003 World Cup competition with a second-place finish on the first day of competition at Mount Buller, and tenth place on the second day. He finished no higher than ninth place in the four subsequent races in January 2003. He attempted to defend his World Ski Championships title at the 2003 event in Deer Valley, falling just under two points behind Dimitri Arkhipov of Russia. Returning to the World Cup competition, he finished with a second, tenth, and fourth place, respectively, in the remaining three races. He finished fifth in the aerials standings after nine races.
2003–2004 season
In the 2003–2004 World Cup, Grishin had a first-place finish at Mont Tremblant and second-place finish at Lake Placid in January 2004. He had one more podium finish, a first place in Harbin in February. After 12 races, he was third in the aerials standings.
2004–2005 season
In the 2004–2005 World Cup season, Grishin started four races, finishing no higher than eleventh place, including the fourth race where he finished at 28th place (out of 35 competitors) on the first day at Lake Placid in January. On the second day at Lake Placid, he improved and finished in sixth place. In the next four races, he had two third-place finishes. He finished in eighth place after 12 races. In other races, he won a gold medal at the European Cup in Arosa, Switzerland, in December 2004 and a bronze medal in the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships 2005 in March at Ruka, Finland.