World Aquatics Reduces Sporting Citizenship Swaps to 1 Year Waiting; Softens Rules for Juniors

World Aquatics has quietly rolled out an update to its sporting citizenship rules that dramatically reduce the hurdles to changing sporting citizenship.

The shift comes after a 2023 update that increased the waiting period from an athlete’s last international representation from 1 years to 3 years. That timeline has now been reduced back to 1 year. Regulations were further softened for junior-aged athletes.

In World Aquatics’ latest Competition Regulations manual, which took effect on January 1 and were updated on March 1, Section 3 relating to sporting citizenships received a significant update.

• See the competition regulations here.

3 Years to 1 Year

Athletes will now only have to wait 1 year to change their sporting citizenship/nationality after representing another country in international competition (regardless of whether or not such competition is a World Aquatics event).

3.2.3 Once an Athlete has represented a country in any international competition (regardless of whether or not such competition is a World Aquatics event), this shall be the Sport Nationality of the Athlete unless a change of Sport Nationality is approved by World Aquatics. For the avoidance of doubt, an international competition is not limited to a World Aquatics competition, and instead refers to any international competition in which an Athlete represents his/her country.

Athletes now also no longer have to live in the country they change to for 3 years, with that period being reduced back down to 1 year as it was previously.

the Athlete shall have uninterrupted residence in the country or Sport Country of the New World Aquatics Member for at least twelve (12) months prior to his/her first International Competitions or shall be able to demonstrate by the end of the waiting period at the latest, that he/she has a genuine, close and established link to the country or Sport Country he/she will represent

There continues to be an exception to the change of citizenship rules for an athlete who has a “genuine, close, and established link to the country or Sport Country he/she will represent.”

Junior Swaps Get Easier

The other portion of relief is that it is now easier for junior-aged swimmers to swap sporting nationality – so long as they don’t represent their country at one of five major World Aquatics Championships.

Sporting Citizenship is now established when an athlete competes in the Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, World Aquatics Championships, World Aquatics Swimming Championships (aka Short Course Worlds), or World Aquatics Junior Championships, OR when an athlete first represents their country in an international competition after reaching the age of 18.

This means that an under-18 swimmer who represents a country at meets like the European Junior Championships, Junior Pan Pacific Championships, Mediterranean Games, Asian Games, or other regional championships, often the first touchpoint for junior aged athletes for international competition, does not automatically establish their international sporting citizenship.

3.2.4 When an athlete competes in the Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, World Aquatics Championships, World Aquatics Swimming Championships, or World Aquatics Junior Championships, sport nationality is established, irrespective of age. For all other competitions, sport nationality is established after the first competition in an International Event, as defined in Part One, Section 2.1 and 2.2, after reaching the age of eighteen.

This means that a junior-aged athlete could, in theory, represent one country at the European Championships, another in the Asian Games, and third at the Pan American Games in the same summer, for example, if they held passports for all three countries.

Swimming has a long history of high profile sporting citizenship changes. Among the most recent are Anastasia Kirpichnikova, who won a silver medal in the 1500 free for France after previously representing Russia; and Henriette Fangli, who was granted a change of sporting citizenship from Romania to Hungary earlier this year that ultimately triggered a three-month suspension of her Hungarian coach Ivan Petrov over violations of the World Aquatics Integrity Code.