Vladislav Vitalyevich Polyakov (also Vlad Polyakov, Russian: Владислав Витальевич Поляков; born 30 November 1983 in Petropavlovsk) is a Kazakhstani swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He swam for his native Kazakhstan at three Olympic Games (2004, 2008, and 2012), and eventually finished fifth in both 100 and 200 m breaststroke at his official Olympic debut in Athens. In total, he has won eight medals in major international tournaments, including his first career gold from the 2006 FINA World Short Course Championships in Shanghai, China. While residing in the United States, Polyakov is a five-time SEC champion, a double NCAA titleholder, and a two-time gold medalist at the national championships. He also earned a total of twelve All-American titles while playing for the Alabama Crimson Tide from 2003 to 2007.

Polyakov was born in Petropavlovsk, Soviet Union, the son of Vitaliy Polyakov and Galina Polyakova. During his early childhood, his family moved to Moscow, Russia, where he started swimming at the CSKA Moscow, one of Russia's top sports clubs. He was put in a national program for elite swimmers, and was forced to undergo a rigorous training that left him fatigued and mentally ill. In June 1999, Polyakov came to the United States under the guidance of his mother Galina, concerned about her son's lifetime goals. Polyakov almost gave up his sporting career before he decided to leave Eastern Europe: "At the time I left Russia I was sick mentally, I didn't want to go through another hard practice. I was so dead I was thinking about quitting swimming."

During his first trip to the United States, Polyakov met Michael Goldenberg, a former Russian water polo player working as a top-ranked official and coach. He resided in Florida with Goldenberg and family, who later became his legal guardians. He attended Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, graduating in 2002, and swam for the Coral Springs Swim Club under four-time Olympic coach Michael Lohberg.

In 2003, Polyakov accepted an athletic scholarship at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he swam for the Alabama Crimson Tide swimming and diving team under head coach Arthur Albeiro. While swimming for the Crimson Tide, Polyakov was a two-time NCAA champion, a five-time SEC champion, a double U.S. Open champion, and a twelve-time All-American titleholder. At the 2007 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, during his senior year, Polyakov claimed the 200 m breaststroke title in 1:52.71, the third fastest of all time in NCAA history, just missing out a 0.09-second record set by Brendan Hansen in 2003. Gathering a laundry list of accomplishments as a college swimmer, Polyakov was later inducted to the Alabama Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame.

Polyakov also accumulated numerous honors as a student during his four-year stay at the university. He was a school's dean lister from 2002 to 2007, and was named Academic All-SEC four times. In his senior season, Polyakov was among the top swimmers to be selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, in honor of the Men's ESPN The Magazine Academic At-Large All-Americans of the Year. In late spring of 2007, Polyakov graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor's degree in marketing major in international business.

Polyakov swam for his native country Kazakhstan in his official Olympic debut. He posted FINA A-standard entry times of 1:01.98 (100 m breaststroke) and 2:14.36 (200 m breaststroke) at the U.S. National Championships in Orlando, Florida. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Polyakov reached a historic milestone as the first swimmer from Kazakhstan to reach an Olympic final since the nation's independent debut in 1996. Even though he was not a top medal favorite, Polyakov powered home with a fifth-place finish each in the 100 m breaststroke (1:01.34), and in the 200 m breaststroke (2:11.76).

Later that year, Polyakov won two bronze medals at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana. In the 100 m breaststroke, he cleared a one-minute barrier to strike his first ever career medal, posting a short-course lifetime best of 59.07. In the 200 m breaststroke, Polyakov almost missed the podium by two-hundredths of a second in 2:08.36 until he added a second bronze to his hardware, when Australia's Jim Piper was disqualified for moving before the start.

At the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Polyakov finished eighth in the 200 m breaststroke with a time of 2:12.72. He also competed in the 100 m breaststroke, but finished his semifinal run with the second-slowest time of 1:01.70.