Dmitry was born on April 4, 1995 in Almaty. His parents were also involved in sports in their youth: father Balandin Igor Yuryevich – volleyball, mother Balandina Tatyana Petrovna – speed skating. Dmitriy began to practice sports swimming at the age of 8 with the first coach Marina Gilmutdinova. From 2005 to 2008, Dmitry trained with Andrey Gennadyevich Khokhlov, who currently works at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as a senior teacher and swimming coach at the Healthy Lifestyle Center. In 2008 Dmitriy was accepted to a boarding school for children gifted in sports in Almaty, where he trained until 2012 with the honored coach of the Kazakh SSR Ivan Golokhia. At the age of 14, Dmitry won his first prize - the Alexander Popov Cup among juniors in Yekaterinburg (Russia) and fulfilled the standard of a master of sports in swimming. In 2011, he became the silver medalist of the Asian Open Championship among Age groups in Jakarta (Indonesia).
From 2012 to 2016. Dmitriy trained under the guidance of coach Alexei Kazakov. In 2014, for three "gold medals" of the Asian Summer Games in Incheon (Republic of Korea), he received the title of Master of Sports of the international class of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and his coach Kazakov received the title of Honored Coach of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Dmitriy won a gold medal at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju (Republic of Korea) in the 100-meter breaststroke and a bronze medal in the 50-meter breaststroke.
For his outstanding victory at the 2016 Olympics, Dmitriy Balandin received the Order of Barys II degree from President N.A. Nazarbayev, the championship prize of 250,000 US dollars from the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a three–room apartment and a Toyota Land Cruiser 200 SUV from the mayor of Almaty Bauyrzhan Baibek, and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kalmukhanbet Kassymov awarded him, like all Olympic medalists, the departmental medal "For contribution to the development of international cooperation". On September 1, 2016, in honor of Dmitry Balandin, to the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University was inaugurated and a new pool was named after him. Speaking at the opening of the pool, Dmitry stressed that he dreamed of winning gold for Kazakhstan at the Olympics, but he could not have imagined that his alma mater would name a pool in his honor!
In the same year, Dmitry became the laureate of the state youth award of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Daryn” in the “Sport” category. At the charity auction “Charity tour de Burabay 2016” the lot of the Olympic champion – Dmitry’s T-shirt – was sold for 1 million 450 thousand tenge. In January 2017, Dmitry was recognized as the Athlete of the Year in Kazakhstan as part of the People's Favorite award. In January 2018, Balandin was among the top 24 athletes from Kazakhstan who were selected by the IOC to receive an “Olympic Scholarship” for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
In 2017 Dmitriy Balandin graduated from the Medical Faculty of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University with a degree in Physical Culture and Sports. During his studies, A.G. Khokhlov became his mentor at the University, who was awarded the title of Honored Coach of the Republic of Kazakhstan as one of the first coaches of the Olympic champion. Since September 2017 Dmitriy continues his studies at his alma mater, enrolling in the Faculty of Law for a second higher education.