Andrei Minakov Among Russian Swimmers Recently Approved As Neutrals By World Aquatics

World Aquatics has released an updated list of athletes and support personnel from “nations in conflict” that have been approved to compete and attend sanctioned events as neutrals.

The global governing body recently approved new guidelines for athlete participation for nations in conflict, which currently includes Russia and Belarus.

There are currently six Russian swimmers, seven Belarusian swimmers, and one Belarusian artistic swimmer approved for both “high-risk” and “non-high-risk” World Aquatics competitions, while there is one additional swimmer, two more artistic swimmers and three divers only approved for the “non-high-risk” events.

• See the full list of athletes (and support personnel) approved here.

Athletes Approved For All Competitions

Athletes Approved For Only Non-High-Risk Competitions

The “high-risk” events are the biggest competitions on the schedule, including World Aquatics Championships, Short Course World Championships, and World Cup events. Both tiers of meets have a set of criteria athletes need to meet in order to be eligible, and for “high-risk” events, athletes need to have been subjected to at least four anti-doping tests and submitted whereabouts to World Aquatics in addition to the other set of criteria (see here).

In early July, Russian swimmer Evgenii Somov and Belarusians Alina Zmushka, Ilya Shymanovich and Anastasiya Shkurdai were approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete at the 2024 Paris Games, while a group of others, most notably Russia’s Yuliya Efimova, had been granted neutral status but failed to qualify.

Last month, there were four new Russian swimmers approved, headlined by Andrei Minakov, who won three medals at the 2019 World Championships—including an individual silver in the men’s 100 fly—and picked up six at the 2021 Short Course World Championships.

Currently in his senior year at Stanford, Minakov would’ve been a medal contender in the 100 fly in Paris had he been in the field, having clocked a time of 50.86 in April at the Russian Championships. At the Tokyo Olympics, he was 4th in the 100 fly.

Also recently gaining approval for all types of competitions were Russians Anna Egorova, Nika Godun and Ivan Kozhakin. Egorova represented the Russian Olympic Committee in Tokyo and has six European Championship medals to her name, and Godun has been among the top female breaststrokers in Russia over the past few years.

Kozhakin is also a breaststroke specialist, owning long course best times of 26.76 in the men’s 50 breast, 59.04 in the 100 breast and 2:12.40 in the 200 breast. That swim in the 50 breast, which he produced in July, was just a tenth off the Russian Record of 26.66 set by Andrey Nikolaev in 2022.

This could potentially open the door for the likes of Minakov and the rest of the approved neutrals to race at the Short Course World Championships next month, provided they’ve qualified.