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Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Soviet Union
Gold	1960 Rome	10,000m

Pyotr Grigorevich Bolotnikov (Russian: Пётр Григорьевич Болотников) (born March 8, 1930) is a former Soviet athlete, one of the world's best stayers of the early 1960s^[1], winner of 10 000 m at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Born in Zinovkino, Krasnoslobodsky District, Mordovian ASSR (now Mordovia Republic), Pyotr Bolotnikov started athletics only at age 20, when he joined the Red Army. He trained at VSS Spartak^[2], coached by Grigory Nikiforov.^[1]

Bolotnikov won his first national championship title in 10 000 m in 1957, when he surprisingly beat the great Vladimir Kuts in a finishing straight by 0.2 seconds. He became the double Soviet champion in 5000 m and 10 000 m from 1958 to 1962. He also won the national 10 000 m title in 1964 and national cross country title in 1958. In 1959 he became the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR^[2]

Bolotnikov participated already at the 1956 Summer Olympics, but without any success. At the Rome Olympics in 1960, Bolotnikov controlled the 10 000 m race from the start to end, beating the main favourites Hans Grodotzki from East Germany and Murray Halberg from New Zealand by five seconds. On October 5 of that year, in Kiev, Bolotnikov lowered the 10 000 m world record almost by twelve seconds to 28:18.8.^[3]

Just two weeks before the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade, on August 11, 1962 in Moscow, Bolotnikov lowered his own 10 000 m world record by 0.6 seconds to 28:18.2^[3], thus becaming the main favourite at long distances at the Championships. He won easily the 10 000 m run, but was surprisingly beaten to third in 5000 m.

After the unsuccessful 1964 Summer Olympics, Bolotnikov decided to retire from athletics in 1965. He received the Order of Lenin in 1960.^[2]

1. ^ ^{a b} Great Russian Encyclopedia (2005), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 3, p. 731
2. ^ ^{a b c} Boris Khavin (1979). All about Olympic Games., 2nd ed. (in Russian), Moscow: Fizkultura i sport, p. 534. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Athletics - World Record progression. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.