2x Olympic medalist Ilya Kharun announced earlier this week that he would be switching his sporting citizenship from Canada to the USA. Kharun, born in Montreal but having spent most of his life living in the USA, officially became a US citizen a few years back, but didn’t want to miss the chance to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games of 2025 World Championships. This being an off year for both of those competitions, Kharun felt this was a good time to make the change.
The NCAA champion for the Arizona State Sun Devils also said this would help in furthering his professional career. He explained that since he didn’t live in Canada (and didn’t have long-term plans to in the future), he had found it hard to partner with brands in Canada. By switching to represent the US, where he currently lives and plans to continue to live, he hopes to find domestic brands to partner with.
You can watch Ilya’s explanation from his YouTube channel as well here.
One mistake, injury, illness and he doesn’t make the US team. It’s cut throat. Unlike Canada
How many times over the last 2 years has a US flyer beat him?
Well just last month
As a Canadian, I think you are being silly to push back here. It is very reasonable to assert that #2 in the USA is almost faster than #2 in Canada.
Last year’s Canadian 100 fly rankings were 50.07 (Kharum), 50.07 (50.09), 52.24 (Hussey). 10th was a 54.
Limited depth.
(“almost *always* faster”)
I wonder if anyone recognized it, but after listening to this interview and others previous pods from him, I find it interesting that he still has trouble in putting full sentences when speaking while making a couple grammatical errors.
Is English his mother tongue or is it Ukrainian ?
Kinda surprising, knowing that he lived for more than 20 years in the states and also went to school there.
On the other hand, other homeschooled swimmers with immigration background like Bella Sims and Michael Andrew speak fluent English like native speakers.
bruh MA was born in Minnesota lol and everybody I met in SA was fluent in English anyway
Before you criticize someone else’s command of the English language, you should probably read over what you wrote and see if you can correct it to make sense.
Yeah, I noticed this too. When did he move to America? If he lived in Quebec, maybe his preschool or elementary school was primarily in French?
It’s ironic that you couldn’t make this critical post yourself without a glaring grammatical error:
“On the other hand, other homeschooled swimmers with immigration background…”
(You mean “backgrounds.”)
Anyway, he sounds find to me, especially for a guy who was born in Montreal with Ukrainian parents. No worse than the average North American athlete.
It’s good that he’s admitting it, better than the “I always felt American“ nonsense talk. It was always about the money.
But him thinking that living in the US is what stopped sponsors from coming for him is completely wrong. It has nothing to do with your location, rather than your achievements in the pool.
McIntosh can go live and train in Denmark for example if she wants and sponsors ( Canadian and international) will be coming after her.
Similar to him, Luke Greenbank from GB won an Olympic bronze in the 200 back in 2021 and he never even got a suit deal.
If he was winning his butterfly events at LC Worlds/OGs, he wouldn’t be having… Read more »
Some people got very mad at any suggestion that Kharun was moving for any reason other than “he feels American”. Turns out he explicitly says it was the money now lol
There is more money in American companies, garuntee summer is not making as much as Phelps, being the face of the US swim team is a bigger deal than face of the Canada team
Summer is the face of all Canadian Sports and definitely the face of Canadian Olympic Sports.
Winning multiple Olympic Gold in Canada is a one of kind. In the USA it is just this year’s person.
And there is only one Michael Phelps. Unless Canada can start winning gold in women’s relays.
In Karun’s case maybe the USA can help him win Gold on a relay. Besides he is American not born but bread. He doesn’t live hasn’t lived in and doesn’t intend to live in Canada. He should swim for the USA.
He needs an agent and to spend time learning to answer questions. Maybe prepare for an interview. He will learn.
he wont be the face of the American team. On the male side there are others such a Jack Alexy that will have more profile.
As an American I’m really happy about this. It’s pretty clear that Kharun always wanted to swim for Team USA but couldn’t until now due to a technicality.
He chose to swim for Canada, he wasn’t obligated as a dual citizen.
He wasn’t a dual citizen – that was the whole issue when he was planning to swim for Team USA at Jr. Pan Pacs (and couldn’t). He didn’t have his USA citizenship until recently.
He didn’t have dual citizenship when he began to represent Canada.
Maybe check your facts John?
he has stated that he did it for the money, more than because he always felt American.
It’s still disappointing but it’s his life, of course.
He’s doing it for the sponsors! Doesn’t get more ‘MURICAN than that! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
I like this post.
I like it a lot.
It’s the reality of modern sports and happens everywhere, not just in the US.
How attractive is it for sponsors with an athlete switching just for a chance at more money? Genuinely wondering
Not that I have any experience with this, but by the time LA comes around brands probably won’t remember or know I’m guessing
If the athlete has lived in America for the majority of their life and could potentially become a major face for US swimming while also having YouTube channel where they get thousands of views per post? Probably pretty attractive.
I think brands will see Ilya and see the work he’s willing to put in to promote his partners. That is a very attractive skill to brands looking for athletes to sponsor.
True, valid input
How on earth is this username still allowed.
Randy
Huge pick up for Team USA. We’ve got our butterfyer for the men’s relay.
They already had a butterflier.
We now have an upgrade. Go 🇺🇸