Russian swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov has been named a recipient of a 2022 Silver Doe Award, which recognizes the best athletes, teams, and coaches in the country annually.
Voted on by the Russian Federation of Sports Journalists, the swimmer Kolesnikov was included among the top 10 athletes in Russia who receive individual honors.
Russia has been banned from many international sporting competitions since February when they invaded Ukraine and are alleged to have committed a number of human rights violations, including bombing of civilian targets like sporting facilities. At least one elite aquatic athlete has been killed in the fighting – former Ukraine men’s water polo national team captain Eugine Obendinskiy was killed by a Russian bomb in March.
That left swimmers like Kolesnikov competing primarily in domestic competition. He swam three home meets, the Russian long course championships, Russian short course championships, and the so-called “Solidarity Games.”
In spite of limited racing opportunities, but still managed to swim lifetime bests in three events in 2022. He swam 21.69 in the 50 free in long course, 20.88 in the 50 free in short course, and the crowning 22.11 in the 50 back in short course.
That 50 back swim from late November is a new World Record, breaking Florent Manaudou’s 22.22 from the 2014 Short Course World Championships.
This is the second time that Kolesnikov was honored. He also won an award in 2018 when he was still a teenager.
The Russian cross-country ski team was recognized as the best team of the year after Russian skiers won four golds, four silvers, and three bronze medals at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing – which came before the country invaded Ukraine and was subsequently suspended from most global competition.
The Russian female athlete of the year was figure skater Anna Shcherbakova, who won the women’s singles figure skating event at the Beijing Olympics, and the male athlete of the year was skiier Alexander Bolshunov, who won three gold, a silver, and a bronze medal in cross country events in Beijing.
Skiing cleaned up in the awards, with the national cross country ski team head coach Elevna Vyalbe winning the Coach of the Year honor.
Other Top 10 Athlete award winners include Dmitry Bivol (boxing), Vlad Lekomtsev (Paralympic sports – skiing, biathlon), Daniil Medvedev (tennis), Andrey Rublev (tennis), Nikita Nagorny (artistic gymnastics), Ian Nepomniachtchi (chess), and Sergey Ryabov (sambo).
Previous swimmers who have won the Silver DOE previously included Alexander Popov (2003), Anastasia Zueva (2011), Yuliya Efimova (2007, 2010, 2013, 2019), Vlad Morozov (2014), Evgeny Rylov (2017) and Kliment Kolesnikov (2018), and Evgeny Rylov (2021).
My rusky bro klement would have ripped murph a clean new one at Melbourne shorts
FREE Kliment!
Well deserved. Kliment is a beast. Another “Slim reaper”. I support all clean athletes no matter.
lol that’s funny, the banner image here got me extra ‘spicious. (Not to mention…prolly worth being more suspicious of Russian athletes vs others.)
I say let the Rooskies compete at 2023 Worlds.
World Aquatics (née FINA) didn’t disqualify the Americans at the 2003 Worlds in Barcelona even though the US had invaded Iraq earlier in 2003.
Let’s not be controversial now
This whole situation was always controversial.
I say let the Russians stay home.
Let’s see if World Aquatics have the guts to keep Russian athletes out of international swimming events.