2024 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
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UPDATE: While World Aquatics’ initial athlete list only included 9 Russians, a new list released Thursday afternoon includes 28 Russians. The article below has
35 neutral athletes have entered next week’s Short Course World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary. 33 of those athletes were accepted under World Aquatics’ new guidelines for athlete participation during periods of conflict, while the other two are from the suspended Mexican federation.
While in the past, neutral athletes have been grouped into a single designation, at this meet, they have been given different country codes depending on where they’re from: NAA are athletes from Belarus, NAB are athletes from Russia, and NAC are athletes from Mexico.
This was done because neutral athletes holding a passport from the same country can now participate in relays together. Previously, they were limited to only individual events.
While World Aquatics has still not released a full entries list for the meet, they have published a list of participating athletes and for some of those athletes, their profiles show their event lineups. Others don’t.
The large Russian lineup fulfills the country’s rumored plan to send a ‘full roster’ to the meet after years of being suspended from international competition. While Belarusian athletes have remained relatively-involved in World Championship and Olympic meets, Russian swimmers under neutral flags have been fairly-sparse, limited to mostly athletes trained abroad in the United States.
At the Paris Olympics, for example, there were three Belarusian swimmers: Ilya Shymanovich, Anastasiya Shkurdai, and Alina Zmushka, but only one Russian, Evgenii Somov.
All four of those athletes are also scheduled to participate in this meet.
While Russian and Belarusian federations are officially suspended because of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian sporting organizations, Mexico was expelled for internal reasons. Two weeks ago, World Aquatics expelled the Mexican Swimming Federation to “assist in the establishment of a new federation in Mexico.”
Mexican athletes were able to compete under the banner of Mexico at the 2024 World Aquatics Championship in February and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in July. They also competed under the banner of Mexico at the most recent AQUA event – the 2024 World Junior Diving Championships that ended less than a week ago in Brazil.
Neutral Athletes Competing at the 2024 World Short Course Swimming Championships (Updated)
| Swimmer | Country | Entries |
| Anastasiya Kuliashova | Belarus | 50 fly, 100 fly, 100 IM |
| Grigori Pekarski | Belarus | 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 back |
| Anastasiya Shkurdai | Belarus | 50 back, 100 back, 200 back |
| Ilya Shymanovich | Belarus | 50 breast, 100 breast |
| Alina Zmushka | Belarus | 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Elizaveta Agapitova | Russia | 50 back, 100 back |
| Roman Akimov | Russia | 200 free, 400 free |
| Viktoria Blinova | Russia | 200 IM, 400 IM |
| Ilia Borodin | Russia | 200 IM, 400 IM |
| Evgenia Chikunova | Russia | 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Sofia Diakova | Russia | 400 free, 800 free |
| Yuliya Efimova | Russia | 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Alina Gaifutdinova | Russia | Relay Only |
| Daria Klepikova | Russia | 100 free, 200 free, 100 fly |
| Egor Kornev | Russia | 50 free, 100 free |
| Oleg Kostin | Russia | 50 breast, 50 fly |
| Miron Lifintsev | Russia | 50 back, 100 back |
| Andrei Minakov | Russia | 100 fly, 200 fly |
| Kseniia Misharina | Russia | 800 free, 1500 free |
| Kiril Prigoda | Russia | 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Pavel Samusenko | Russia | 50 back, 100 back |
| Dmitrii Savenko | Russia | 200 back, 100 IM |
| Alexander Shchegolev | Russia | 200 free |
| Roman Shevliakov | Russia | 50 fly, 100 fly |
| Milana Stepanova | Russia | 100 back, 200 back |
| Aleksei Sudarev | Russia | 200 IM |
| Arina Surkova | Russia | 50 free, 50 fly, 100 fly |
| Aleksei Tkachev | Russia | 200 back |
| Daria Trofimova | Russia | 50 free, 100 free, 200 free |
| Dmitrii Zhavoronkov | Russia | 100 free |
| Aleksandr Zhigalov | Russia | 100 breast, 200 breast |
| Miranda Grana Perez | Mexico | 50 back, 100 back |
| Maria Jose Mata Cocco | Mexico | 100 fly, 200 fly |
Neutral Athletes – my foot! How many of them would stand up and criticise the war in Ukraine? Shame on World Aquatics.
Agree!
Got the impression they anticipate a possible ceasfire or armistice after Trump inauguration in January.
They lay the foundation for russian return to competition in 2025 or 2026.
U wanna talk,talk about Israel being allowed to participate under their flag before u criticize Russians and Belarusian
I know I’ve been sayin that the US men have nothing to worry about in the relays but I don’t think anyone was expecting such a big team from Russia. They can field a strong team in the 4×1 medley.
Lifintsev Prigoda Minakov Kornev
That is probably an objectively stronger team than what the US will have.
Chikunova going should be a bigger headline.
Douglass could be losing her 200 wr already
Have a look at the updated entries on Omega Timing – almost the entire Russian team is present. Including multiple swimmers with doping violations to their name. https://www.omegatiming.com/File/0001180008FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF20.pdf
I don’t really understand banning countries but still allowing them to assemble relay teams.
“ Ilia Borodin” Am I reading this correctly? How is this not an headline?
Agreed. He might be the favourite in the 400IM now.
after the seto rib news he is for sure
Are there any articles on the establishing of a new federation for Mexico?
I want kolesnikov though