at the 2000 summer olympics in sydney, kalmikovs decided to drop half of his medley double, and experiment instead with 100 m breaststroke. he achieved fina b-standards of 1:04.89 (100 m breaststroke), 2:16.30 (200 m breaststroke), and 2:04.83 (200 m individual medley) from the european championships in helsinki. on the first day of the games, kalmikovs placed thirty-fourth in the 100 m breaststroke. swimming in heat four, he enjoyed a sprint finish with puerto rico's arsenio lópez, as they both hit the wall first in a matching time of 1:04.02. three days later, in the 200 m breaststroke, kalmikovs established a new latvian record of 2:16.21 to pull off a nineteenth-place effort from the heats, but missed the semifinal cut by more than half a second (0.50). in his final event, 200 m individual medley, kalmikovs placed twenty-fourth on the morning prelims. swimming again in heat four, he came up short in second place by 0.11 of a second behind new zealand's dean kent in a lifetime best of 2:04.18.