The Novotroitsk native won gold in the 100m to blow his sixth-place finish at Rio 2016 out of the water.

He claimed bronze in the 200m backstroke at Rio 2016 but improved on that result this time around with a new Olympic record time of 1:53.27 to clinch his second gold in the Japanese capital.

"I swam at the maximum speeds for myself," said Rylov after the 100m gold. "The last metres were hard, my muscles were already cramping. 

"Klim was catching up, but I decided to turn on the maximum from the start. 

"I went all-in - and I was right! 

"It's very cool that we have gold and silver. 

"The Americans have never lost a back, and here we take the first two places from them. 

"The next challenge is to break Murphy's world record."

Rylov exploded onto the world scene at the 2014 Nanjing Summer Youth Olympics in China, where he achieved a total of four medals, three golds and one silver, and broke two junior world swimming records.

As well as his Olympic success, Rylov is a five-time world champion in the long and short course competitions.

The 24-year-old has also won four gold medals at the European Championships.

In 2019, he was a member of the inaugural International Swimming League, racing for the Energy Standard International Swim Club, who won the team title in Las Vegas in December.

His father, Mikhail, is a former footballer, playing for Russian second division side FK Orenburg.

As a child, Evgeny wanted to emulate his father by becoming a professional footballer but instead chose swimming.

Rylov is also a police sergeant of the Moscow Oblast Police in the town district of Lobnya.