Russian Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov has dropped out of the 2022 World Championships in light of the ongoing situation regarding the suspension of several Russian athletes from competing at various sporting events.
Rylov, who lost his sponsorship deal with swimwear brand Speedo earlier this week for his involvement in a pro-war rally in Moscow, made a lengthy Instagram post Wednesday morning indicating he was dropping out of Worlds in support of the Russian athletes who have been suspended from international competition.
Update: Shortly after Rylov’s withdrawal, FINA formally announced Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be permitted to compete at the 2022 World Championships.
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Rylov’s Statement, Translated from Russian:
“In connection with the current situation in the world, I would like to make a statement:
“In support of the Russian Paralympic athletes, in support of all Russian athletes who have been suspended from international competition, I refuse to go to the 2022 World Championships this summer. @fina1908
“I believe that losing competition, the development of sports is lost. No matter how sad it may sound, but the sport cannot move without worthy competitors.
“Conclusions should be made by the federations about the direction in which they want to develop sports and whether Pierre de Coubertin wanted to see when he initiated the organization of the Olympic Games, which were supposed to unite people.”
Before mentioning all Russian athletes, Rylov first referenced that he was dropping out of Worlds in support of Russian Paralympic athletes, who were banned from competing at the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing in early March.
Several other sporting organizations have banned Russian (and Belarusian) athletes from competing indefinitely, full stop, amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. This includes FIFA and UEFA suspending all Russian international and club teams from their competitions and World Athletics banning Russian athletes from competing.
FINA, on the other hand, has stopped short of placing a full ban on Russian athletes from competing in its events, instead declaring they can’t compete internationally under the flag or symbols of their country. FINA also committed to evaluating athletes’ and officials’ participation on a case-by-case basis.
Rylov’s appearance at the pro-war rally last week, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, not only led to him losing his Speedo sponsorship, but also fuelled the suspension of all Russian athletes from Energy Standard, the International Swimming League (ISL) club in which Rylov has represented since 2019.
In a statement, Energy Standard cited the “very public support for the invasion of Ukraine” high profile Russian athletes had shown recently and that the athletes “may not understand the magnitude of the true atrocities being committed by the Russian military.”
During the 2021 ISL season, Rylov was the club’s second-highest male scorer and ranked 13th in the entire league.
With the 25-year-old forgoing the World Championships, which will run June 18-July 3 in Budapest, Rylov will relinquish his crown as the world champion in the men’s 200 backstroke, having won two consecutive titles in 2017 and 2019. He is also the reigning Olympic gold medalist in both male backstroke events, having triumphed in Tokyo in the 100 and 200 back.
Overall, the Novotroitsk native owns four Olympic medals, having also won silver in Tokyo in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay and a bronze from the 2016 Games in Rio in the 200 back.
At the last edition of FINA’s Long Course World Championships in 2019, Rylov added a trio of silver medals (50 back, 100 back and 4×100 free relay) and a bronze medal (4×100 medley relay) to go along with his 200 back gold.
Rylov is racing Sun Yang … to the bottom.
Rylov’s post only has supportive comments on it, almost all in Russian. Whoever runs it is obviously deleting anything negative.
I just posted some blue and yellow hearts to see how long it takes me to get blocked.
Also just noticed that the majority of supportive comments come from private accounts, and most of them have posted 5-6 very similar supportive comments in a row. Seems like the Kremlin is deliberately trying to make it look like the post is getting a lot more support than it is.
Oh and I’m blocked already! Only 3 minutes. That was quick.
I don’t know how anyone can possible believe that side who are blocking all dissent of any form, even any mild criticism on social media, or even just mentioning the colours yellow and blue with no other context, can be on the right side of this.
I posted a polite message on his wall concerned over the disinformation of the Russian Media and asking why he wore the Z symbol at the pro war rally. I was blocked within 30 minutes. He has also blocked his once friend Ukrainian Andrii Govorov
Didn’t Russia ban Instagram? If he’s so pro Russia, he should follow Russia’s rules and get off Instagram.
FINA is obsolete and in the pocket of the powerful and rich. Who can step up and replace them?!
You cant pull out of a meet if you’re banned, Z dummy.
In Soviet Russia, athlete pulls out of you!
In the Olympic Village as well.
Well, double standards applied during war times and too much hypocrisy with the thing about Russian athletes.
No mater the nationality, we talk about professional athletes that swim fast and rylov won’t be there and that’s a shame for the sport.
He should be in Ukraine as Putin is running out of troops.. instead of world champs…
I’m sure you said the same to all us swimmers during wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen?
He withdrew before FINA banned him remember. So he chose not to go.
He withdrew before FINA announced the ban*. We don’t know when Russia was notified of the ban…
About time… FINA have banned Russian athletes.