SWIMMING NEWS - Last month, Russia’s men dominated the European Short Course Championships, bagging nine gold medals. The team won at least one gold medal in all four strokes plus both men’s relays, and the star was 17-year-old Kliment Kolesnikov, who won gold in both the 100 and 200 back.
Kolesnikov had narrowly missed the 100 back world record in Copenhagen, so he swam the race again at the Salnikov Cup in St. Petersburg one week later and ended up recording the fastest time in history. He finished in an amazing time of 48.90, two hundredths quicker than Matt Grevers’previous world record.
All in all, a banner month for Russia in swimming, and that effort came with the country’s two World Champions from this year, Yulia Efimova and Evgeny Rylov, sitting out the European championships.
But that’s just in swimming. Elsewhere in Russian sports, all was not so fine and dandy. On Dec. 5, one week before the European championships, the International Olympic Committee announced restrictions on Russia’s participation at the upcoming Winter Olympics, scheduled for February in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The IOC announced that it had finally accumulated enough evidence to sanction the country and its Olympic Committee for supporting a centralized doping program in the years leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Select Russian athletes would still be allowed in the Games, but they could not wear the Russian flag and would compete under the banner of “Olympic Athlete from Russia.”
Read more on www.swimmingworldmagazine.com
