The roster of Russian athletes competing as “Neutral Athletes B” at the upcoming World Aquatics Championships has been released. A total of 30 swimmers will represent this designation in Singapore.
These athletes are competing under the “Neutral Athletes B” banner due to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s ongoing sanctions against Russia and Belarus, imposed in response to the war in Ukraine. Under these sanctions, individual athletes are permitted to compete internationally—but not under their national flags—in an effort to penalize the Russian and Belarusian governments while still allowing eligible athletes to participate.
The athletes on this team qualified through performances at the Russian Championships, held April 13–18. The finalized roster consists of 18 men and 12 women.
Among the most notable names is Kliment Kolesnikov, who was approved to compete as a neutral athlete earlier this year, in May. His return marks a significant moment, as he had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the IOC’s conditions for Russian athletes. However, he has since committed to competing at both the 2025 World Championships and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The men’s roster also features breaststroke standout Kirill Prigoda, rising freestyle sprinter Egor Kornev, World Championship medalist Oleg Kostin, five-time short course world champion backstroker Miron Lifintsev, as well as butterfly specialist Andrei Minakov.
On the women’s side, the roster includes World Record holder, Evgeniia Chikunova, sprint freestyle and butterfly ace Darya Klepikova and Arina Surkova, who holds the Russian national record in the 50 butterfly—a time that would have earned her bronze at the 2022 World Championships.
Full Rosters:
Men (18):
- Mikhail Antipov– 100 butterfly
- Ilia Borodin– 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley
- Ivan Girev– 4×200 freestyle relay
- Vladislav Grinev– 4×100 freestyle relay
- Egor Iurchenko– 50 butterfly
- Kliment Kolesnikov– 50 freestyle, 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke
- Egor Kornev– 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle
- Oleg Kostin– 50 butterfly
- Ivan Kozhakin– 50 breaststroke
- Vasily Kukushkin– 4×100 freestyle relay
- Miron Lifintsev– 100 backstroke
- Andrei Minakov– 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly
- Kirill Prigoda– 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke
- Dmitrii Savenko– 200 backstroke
- Pavel Samusenko– 50 backstroke
- Danil Semianinov– 100 breaststroke
- Maxim Stupin– 400 individual medley
- Alexander Zhigalov– 200 breaststroke
Women (12):
- Evgeniia Chikunova– 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke
- Sofia Diakova– 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle
- Alina Gaifutdinova– 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke
- Daria Klepikova– 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly
- Alexandra Kuznetsova– 50 freestyle
- Kseniia Misharina– 800 freestyle, 1500 freestyle
- Mariia Osetrova– 50 butterfly
- Milana Stepanova– 200 backstroke
- Arina Surkova– 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly
- Daria Surushkina– 4×100 freestyle relay, 4×200 freestyle relay
- Daria Trofimova– 100 freestyle
- Daria Zarubenkova– 200 backstroke
After only having one swimmer compete at the Paris Olympics, Russia competed as “Neutral Athletes B” with a large roster at Short Course Worlds in December and won 10 medals, including six gold, to place 2nd on the medal table behind the United States.
The swimming portion of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships is scheduled to begin on July 27th and conclude on August 3rd.
What does the B stand for?
To differentiate from Belarus, which is A.
I don’t understand why they accept this year what they refused last year in Paris. This is the same thing. No flag, no anthem, no press interview. No russian swimmer accepted to come in Paris in the same circumstances last year bur this year no problem. Olympic Games are the most important competition for any swimmer or athlete.
Evgenii Somov was the lone Russian swimmer in Paris.
Your train of logic is not wrong, but ignores the humanity of it. Over time, peoples’ fortitude and moral stances can degrade. World Aquatics also softened their neutral athletes policy: https://swimswam.com/world-aquatics-proposes-policy-for-athlete-participation-during-periods-of-conflict/
Eugene, man… Every post is a comment war for you
Ivan Girev is in 4x200m freestyle relay, but there is no swimmer in individual 200m free.
Who is 3 other swimmer in that 4x200m free relay?
There is no Dovgalyuk, Akimov, and N. Kolesnikov on the team. How they can make 4x200m free relay team?
Why Israel didn’t compete under the name of NAC? Russia and Ukraine are just a formal war. Look at what Israel did, a massacre of civilians by the army. The so-called neutrality is just a hypocritical statement. The United States bombed so many countries, and I have never heard of American athletes being banned from participating in the competition because of this.
“Formal war”… Not sure if you’re russian or just mentally challenged, bruh
In the current situation, although Russia and Ukraine have not declared war on each other, they are indeed in a formal war, especially in Ukraine, where the entire land has become a battlefield.
I’m living here and you are trying to educate me about what’s going on? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the biggest country in the world with lots of resources and area brutally invading a smaller neighbour country for no damn reason. It’s very different from the complicated Middle east situation where millions of people of different culture and religion have to coexist on a small piece of land with limited resources (conflicts are unavoidable, like it or not). In Ukraine it’s very simple. Big guy in school beats up small guy and takes away his lunch. Not because he’s hungry. Just because he can.
no damn reason？I don’t think it’s without reason. I think Russia’s attack on Ukraine is due to Ukraine’s pursuit of joining NATO and the Russians’ insecurity. Over the past millennium, Russians have been seeking external expansion. They absolutely cannot tolerate NATO deploying troops at their doorstep, just like the Georgian War. History is repeating itself, so there is no need to make yourself sound so innocent. I believe that no major country will tolerate missiles being deployed at its doorstep. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis triggered the US sanctions against Cuba, which have not been lifted until now.
Yes, no damn reason. Shockingly, seeking territorial expansion is not a legitimate reason to invade a neighbouring country. It is adorable how Russians pretend to not realize that their constant aggression is the exactly why their neighbours are rushing to join NATO in the first place.
Invasion of Ukraine itself caused Finland and Sweden to join NATO a year or so ago. Russia tolerated it just fine for some reason.
The founding NATO countries are: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States. Those that joined after 1949 are: Greece, Turkey, West Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Finland, North Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Since the end of World War II, please tell me which of those NATO countries have invaded Russia? Aren’t all the above peace-loving countries, unless one has been on the receiving end of an unprovoked attack? Are you really saying that Russia, with 11 time zones, is afraid of Ukraine, which is the size of the state of Texas? Russia, with nuclear weapons; Ukraine without? And for the record, NATO has… Read more »
Peace-loving? What a hypocritical statement! This is the first time I heard that NATO countries love peace. Isn’t nuclear peace what NATO countries love? For decades, they have bombed other countries under the guise of maintaining so-called democracy and human rights. In 1999, they bombed Yugoslavia, launched the Afghanistan War in 2001, and launched the Iraq War in 2003, claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but they didn’t find them even after killing Saddam. NATO countries killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions of people to leave their homes. Ask the people of these countries if they think NATO countries love peace? You said that Russia should not react to the deployment of only a few… Read more »
Hmmm. Did you forget about 9/11 and the part Iraq played? Did you forget about Slobodan Milošević’s government in Belgrade, which implemented a plan to ethnically cleanse Albanians from Kosovo, using Serbian police and Yugoslav Army troops to commit war crimes such as forced displacement, looting, arson, and mass killings in ethnically Albanian villages?
Didn’t think so.
Should I continue?
In 2025, please tell me the exact location of NATO troops that are deployed on the border of Russia? Oh, in case you didn’t know, NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and not North Atlantic Terrorist Organization.
Although NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, isn’t what it does what you call North Atlantic terror? You cited the example of 9/11, which killed more than 2,000 people. What about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq launched by NATO? As I said before, hundreds of thousands of civilians died, and tens of millions of people lost their homes and left their homes. NATO, led by the United States, supports agents everywhere and seeks to overthrow the regimes of other countries, under the guise of democracy and human rights. Why are there so many refugees in Europe? Aren’t they caused by NATO’s wars? Bombing other people’s homes and forcing them to leave their homes. You are hypocritical, ignorant and… Read more »
Does Poland not share a border with Russia! Is Poland not a member of NATO?
Only with the Kaliningrad enclave, not with the mainland.
Just because the Russian Government is committing war crimes it shouldn’t affect individual Russian athletes from competing for the nation Russia. Collective punishment violates the geneva convention
🤡🫵🏻
Turning a blind eye often equates to complicity!
Meanwhile in Ukraine:
✅ Daily russian missile and drone attacks on civilians for the past 3.5 years
✅ Numerous sport facilities destroyed or damaged by russians in every city
✅ 24/7 air raid alerts constantly disrupting training process, night sleep and life in general
✅ Coaches and even athletes injured or killed by russians while defending the country
✅ Sports funding is being cut because russians are not giving up the idea to invade whole Ukraine and anything besides defence is not a priority
Bravo, world aquatics! 👏🏼 That’s true equality. And what a tremendous punishment for the aggressor! Having to wear “neutral” cap instead of russian, while being able to race all the events… Read more »
One of the criteria for Russians to be being able to compete is not supporting the war. Like any sane person, I’m hoping for a Ukrainian victory, but that doesn’t mean all Russians are pro-war, and I don’t see why they should be banned for something their idiot dictator decided.
Because it’s unfair. Imagine that you and me are about to have a boxing fight. And my country is constantly attacking your town. Your training facility is destroyed. Your coach was taken to the army and heavily injured. You sleep 4 hours per night because of air alerts. I keep silent about this situation (= don’t support war). Would you like to still fight?
That’s how we live in Ukraine. Only a handful of athletes are able to leave and train abroad. Fair?
Of course it isn’t fair, how could it be? Banning the non pro-war Russians is similarly unfair though. P*tin’s opposition sits in jail cells or under 6 feet of soil. Is that fair?
Solving this with more unfairness feels a little counterintuitive, especially when there are other countries with ongoing war crimes who can attend whatever sport event they want.
Very excited to see him swim, probably the most talented backstroker of his generation, hopefully he has a more regimented training routine now he can focus on the big meets that he’s not banned from