Russian media recently caught up with Andrey Shishin, the coach of 4x Olympic medalist Evgeny Rylov, and world record holder Evgenia Chupikova.
Shishin wasn’t impressed with the men’s backstroke results from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
MatchTV, a Russian sports channel, reported this quote from Shishin (translated from Russian):
“It’s quite sad that both results in backstroke swimming were slower than at the last Olympics. Without our guys, the backstroke looked quite modest.”
Rylov won both backstroke events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and fellow Russian Kliment Kolesnikov finished second behind Rylov in the 100 backstroke. World Aquatics banned Russian swimmers from competing in the Olympics due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some Russian athletes were able to compete under a neutral flag if they did not support the war among other criteria. However, only one swimmer ended up competing under the neutral flag. Rylov said he would not sign any political declaration to compete.
In Rylov’s absence, Olympic men’s backstroke podium times were slower across the board in Paris compared to Tokyo. Depth-wise, the final qualifying times got faster in Paris while the semifinal qualifying times remained slightly faster in Tokyo.
| Gold Medal | Silver Medal | Bronze Medal | Final QT | Semifinal QT | |
| 100 backstroke – Tokyo 2020 | Evgeny Rylov (RUS) – 51.98 | Kliment Koleskinov (RUS) – 52.00 | Ryan Murphy (USA) – 52.19 | 53.2 | 53.77 |
| 100 backstroke – Paris 2024 | Thomas Ceccon (ITA) – 52.00 | Xu Jiayu (CHI) – 52.18 | Ryan Murphy (USA) – 52.39 | 52.95 | 53.93 |
| 200 backstroke – Tokyo 2020 | Evgeny Rylov (RUS) – 1:53.27 | Ryan Murphy (USA) – 1:54.15 | Luke Greenbank (GBR) – 1:54.72 | 1:56.69 | 1:57.96* |
| 200 backstroke – Paris 2024 | Hubert Kos (HUN) – 1:54.26 | Apostolous Christou (GRC) – 1:54.82 | Roman Mityukov (SUI) – 1:54.85 | 1:56.52 | 1:57.98 |
*note: 1:57.96 was the semifinal qualifying time, but it represents 17th place as there was a scratch. The 16th place time was 1:57.86.
Rylov has not competed in an Olympic Games or World Championships since Tokyo. He intended to compete at the World Friendship Games, Russia’s substitute for the Olympic Games, this September. However, those were postponed to 2025. Shishin has coached Rylov on and off throughout the last quad according to Match TV.
Shishin was impressed by top male Olympic swimmers in non-backstroke events.
“In some disciplines there was really a celebration and bright results. I would like to note, of course, the Chinese in the 100-meter crawl, this is a big step forward,” Shishin said in reference to Pan Zhanle. “And of course (Léon) Marchand.”
Chikunova
Russian world record holder Evgenia Chikunova plans to continue competing only domestically, saying the path back to international competition is difficult.
In response to a question about competing under neutral status, the 19 year-old told Sport Express “… I talked about what path I need to take to try to return to international competitions. It is not easy, and this is putting it mildly.” (translated from Russian)
In order for Russian swimmers to return to international competition under a neutral flag, they must make an appeal and not show any support to Russia for its war in Ukraine. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, only one Russian competed under the neutral flag. Notably, former Russian swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova began competing under the French flag amid the ban and won a silver medal for France in the 1500. Chikunova says she was happy for Kirpichnikova’s success.
Chikunova says that she will eventually return to international competition, but she plans to begin the season competing only domestically. In the absence of international competitors, she’s planning to hone the skill of swimming her own race.
“I train with the idea that I need to fight only with myself. With my records.”
Chikunova made international headlines in April 2023 when she took 1.4 seconds off the 200 breaststroke world record, swimming a 2:17.55. Her 100 and 200 breaststroke times from the Russia Cup in July were faster than the Olympic winning times in Paris. She said the previous 200 world record holder, Tatjana Smith, reached out to her and hoped to see her in Paris.
