FINA Excludes Russian And Belarussian Athletes And Officials From 2022 World Championships

Lane Lines and stumbling blocks - Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

FINA has barred athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus from the World Championships in Budapest following the invasion of Ukraine.

The governing body has also withdrawn the World Short-Course Championships which were due to be held in Kazan in December 2022.

FINA has also launched a standard disciplinary procedure against double Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov – who was pictured at a pro-war rally in Moscow – after he was charged with disrepute.

FINA’s announcement comes weeks after European body LEN said Russian and Belarussian would not be allowed to compete at their events “until further notice” meaning they will miss out on this year’s European Championships in Rome.

A statement read:

“Further to the FINA Bureau’s decision on 8 March 2022 and the new measures at its disposal to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from FINA competitions, and following the review of an independent risk assessment, the FINA Bureau met today and confirmed that athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus will not take part in the upcoming 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022.

“Following these decisions, FINA was informed by the Russian Swimming Federation of the withdrawal of all Russian aquatics athletes from all FINA events for the rest of this year.

“FINA also previously removed a number of aquatics events scheduled for Russia. Today, the FINA Bureau also decided to remove the hosting of the FINA Swimming World Championships (25M) 2022 from Kazan (RUS).

“The scheduled dates of 17-22 December 2022 will be maintained, and FINA is currently in discussions with potential hosts to take over the event.

“Separately, the FINA Executive confirmed that the FINA Disciplinary Panel has opened a procedure against Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov for a potential violation of the FINA rules following his alleged participation in a pro-war rally at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. The FINA Executive has requested that the Panel’s proceedings be expedited.

“FINA maintains its strongest condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. FINA also wishes to reiterate its commitment to supporting the Ukraine Swimming, Diving and Artistic Swimming Federation as they prepare for upcoming competitions.”

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Gary

2 years ago

FINA did the right thing and all sporting leagues in all international sports should be doing the same – banning Russians from competing that is. Anything less than everybody in on resistance to Putin and his country is not doing everything possible to limit death and destruction.

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Sportman

1 year ago

Reply to Gary

Disagree except the case with Rylov. What could Russian athletes do, is it their role to fight against war? Wars have been going in the world for a while unfortunately, so other athletes could be banned as well then.