Short Course World Championships: Russian Swimmers Set For Return to Global Stage
More than three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, Russian swimmers provided a signature moment for their country with a 1-2 finish in the men’s 100 backstroke, the first time that country or its predecessor, the Soviet Union, had swept the top-two podium spots at a non-boycotted Olympics. But shortly thereafter, Evgeni Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov would disappear from international competition, banned along with all swimmers from their country because of an internationally-condemned invasion of Poland.
A handful of Russian swimmers would return as neutral athletes at the Paris Games earlier this year, but the contingent representing the country will be far more substantial at this week’s Short Course World Championships in Budapest. Twenty-eight swimmers are entered under the moniker of “Neutral Athletes B,” many of whom won significant collections of medals prior to Russia’s banishment.
Yuliya Efimova is likely the most famous active Russian swimmer, having won three Olympic medals in 2012 and 2016 and six long course world titles between 2019 and 2019. Now 32, Efimova is scheduled to appear in all three breaststroke events, and she will meet a pair of longtime rivals: Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte, with whom Efimova shared numerous global podiums between 2013 and 2015, and American Lilly King, who battled Efimova in the pool as well as in a war of words in 2016 and 2017.
Also in the women’s breaststroke events will be Evgeniia Chikunova, who finished a narrow fourth in the 200 breast final as a 16-year-old in Tokyo. Efimova would then win her only senior-level global medal with a 200 breast silver at the 2021 Short Course Worlds, but when she was away from the big meets in the following years, she became the world-record holder in the long course version of the 200 breast, crashing through the 2:18 barrier with a time of 2:17.55. In Budapest, she will race against Olympic champion and short course world-record holder Kate Douglass for the first time.
On the men’s side, Russia brings three swimmers with international credentials from prior to 2022. Breaststroker Kirill Prigoda, 22, was the 100 breast bronze medalist at the 2017 World Championships at Duna Arena and the short course world champion over 200 meters a year-and-a-half later, and he should contend for medals again in his signature stroke. Andrei Minakov, a 22-year-old who has continued to succeed at Stanford University even as he has been prevented from representing his country, will contend in the 100 and 200 butterfly.
Ilia Borodin looked to be upon the world’s future IM stars in late 2021 when he won 400 IM silver at the Short Course World Championships, and now, he returns to international competition at age 21, with entries in the 200 and 400 IM this week. With French superstar Leon Marchand skipping the meet, Borodin and Italy’s Alberto Razzetti are the best bets alongside Japanese veteran Daiya Seto, the six-time defending champion in the 400 IM, in the medley events.
And of course, we cannot forget about Russian backstroke, although it will not be Rylov and Kolesnikov anymore. Instead, 18-year-old Miron Lifintsev and 23-year-old Pavel Samusenko leading the entries in the event. Earlier this year, Lifintsev clocked 52.34 in the long course 100 back, faster than Ryan Murphy’s bronze-medal-winning time in the Olympic final, and he holds the top seed in the 100 back and second seed over 50 meters entering the meet.
Samusenko, meanwhile, is seeded second in the 100 back, putting the two swimmers in position for a potential 1-2 finish. Competition will surely be tough, but only two of this year’s 100 back Olympic finalists, France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan, are entered in the event at the short course championship meet.
Given this collection of accomplished swimmers competing as neutrals, it is almost inevitable that Russians will earn spots on the medal stand this week, bringing the controversy over their country’s inclusion in international events back into the wider conversation. This meet will not hold the importance of the Olympics, where Evgenii Somov was the only Russian to compete, but their performances this week will foreshadow a future where Russia must again be considered among the elite swimming nations.
