With the approval of the updated rules for athlete participation from “nations in conflict” earlier this week, Russia plans to send a “full roster” to the Short Course World Championships. That could include American-trained swimmer Andrei Minakov, who told SwimSwam that he plans to go to the meet in Budapest, Hungary if he is selected.
Minakov is not racing at this week’s Russian Championships, which begin Thursday in St. Petersburg, but could still be selected under World Championship selection criteria published by the newly-confederated Russian Water Sports Federation on Wednesday.
“The decision on the participation of our athletes was made in a short time frame and we were forced to work in an accelerated mode.
Based on the current conditions for participation, criteria were developed that will allow us to select our best athletes,” commented Vladimir Salnikov, First Vice President of the Russian Water Sports Federation.
The Russian selection criteria (here, in Russian) allows for up to 8 men and 8 women who have the best performance in the finals heats of the qualifying competition, which is this week’s Russian Swimming Championships.
There is a special carveout in the rules for Minakov saying that he will be selected on the basis of his performance at the World Cup earlier this year, where he participated at the request of the federation. In Incheon, his only stop on the circuit, he finished 3rd in the 100 fly in 49.71.
Only six Russian pool swimmers have been approved for “high risk” competitions like the World Short Course Swimming Championships, including Minakov. Others are Yuliya Efimova, Anna Egorova, Nika Godun, Ivan Kozhakin, and Evgenii Somov. Efimovoa, Minakov, Egorova, and Somov all currently train in California in the United States.
Russian coaches will also be able to attend if they are approved for neutral status.
The new rules does open the door for more Russians to become eligible for neutral status, with the publishing of official selection criteria seeming to imply a tacit acceptance of the new regulations in spite of Russia’s ongoing public spat with the Olympic movement over similar rules.
Minakov, 22, won six medals at the last Short Course World Championship meet he attended in 2021 in Abu Dhabi. That included gold medals as part of Russian relays and an individual bronze in the 100 fly. In 2019, as a junior, he won silver in the 100 fly at the long course World Championships in 50.83, which remains his best time.
Wow!!
Does this mean that he won’t suffer the new President elect ‘s policy of Mass deportation?!!
So how does that apply in these Russians being trained in the United States of America?!
Or any foreigner being trained over here?!!
Enlighten me if the rules are still on same as before?!!
We have international athletes training in our country, so what else is new?!!
That’s why I said what about our own athletes being beaten by foreigners being trained over here: I never sprouted of the, and I need will!!
That is why we don’t win ss s dominant force in swimming because foreigners are being trained with the Americans!!!
What are you talking about? He is here on a student visa, and even before that, he would spend his summers in America, living with relatives training here for 2 or 3 months.
I have not heard a policy promises to scale back on student visas, though that doesn’t feel like a huge leap from the general rhetoric. The policy promises that I’ve heard is on deporting individuals who have entered or stayed in the country illegally, which would not apply to Minakov.
I think he just wants to create drama.
relax mate…the reason why USA is not the dominant force is because we no longer have the juggernauts (Dressel and Phelps)…you have to understand in the last 8 years the world has caught up to the USA…they’re are no longer dominant in swimming (especially on the men’s side) because all the secrets are out, now its about work and talent so relax bro