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