Vasily Alexandrovich Kudinov (Russian: ÃÂðÃÂøûøù ÃÂûõúÃÂðýôÃÂþòøàÃÂÃÂôøýþò, 17 February 1969 â 11 February 2017) was a Russian handball player, born in Ilyinka, Astrakhan Oblast, Russian SFSR. He has won all three major international tournaments; European and World Championships and Olympic gold.
Kudinov died on 11 February 2017, six days prior to his 48th birthday, in Astrakhan.
Kudinov started his career at his hometown club Dinamo Astrakhan, where he won the 1990 Soviet Men's Handball Championship. In 1992 he joined French team US Ivry Handball, where he won the 1996 Coupe de France and the 1997 French Championship.
In 1997 he joined VfL Hameln in the German Bundesliga. In 2000 he signed for league rivals SC Magdeburg, where he won the German Championship and the EHF Cup in his only season at the club. He then joined Japanese team Honda Suzuki. Here he played until 2004, when he returned to Dynamo Astrakhan for his last season of his career.
In 1989 he won the U21 World Championship with the Soviet youth team. He made his debut for the senior team in 1990.
He participated in three Olympics, winning two gold medals and one bronze medal. At the 1992 Summer Olympics he won a gold medal with the Unified Team at the Olympics. He also played for the Russia men's national handball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where Russia won the gold medal.
At the 1993 World Men's Handball Championship he won gold medals. At the 1994 European Championship he won another gold medal, and was the tournament top scorer.
At the 1997 World Championship he won his second World Cup gold and was included in the tournament all-star team. At the 1999 World Championship he won only silver, but was once again included in the all-star team.
His son Sergey Kudinov is also a professional handball player.