Purdue’s Marat Amaltdinov Elects to Miss NCAAs, Focus on Olympic Trials

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold

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Marat Amaltdinov of Purdue men’s swimming and diving has qualified for the NCAA Championships again but will forgo the opportunity to instead compete at the Russian Olympic Trials later this spring.

Amaltdinov won the Big Ten title in the 200-yard breaststroke at the conference championship meet held at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center last month. His Purdue-record time of 1:52.67 from Big Tens ranks third nationally, earning the sophomore an individual invite to the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row. He’s also ranked 43rd nationally in the 100 breast with a career-best time of 53.18 and would have been eligible to compete in that event at NCAAs as well.

Purdue head coach Dan Ross said the plan going into the season was for Amaltdinov to return to his homeland for the Russian Olympic Trials. He is scheduled to fly to Russia April 8, compete in the 100-meter breaststroke April 16 to 17 and the 200 breast April 19 to 20. Prelims and semis are on the first day and finals the next.

“Marat and I met extensively after the World University Games, and again this fall when he returned to campus. The original plan was to redshirt him this season but that wasn’t an option due to his age (2/22/1994 date of birth),” Ross said. “So we decided to have him help the team in as many meets as possible this year. We skipped the Big Ten Triple Duals at the end of January to train and then rested about half as much as what he normally would have for Big Tens. Since the meet was at home we felt that advantage would help compensate for the difference in rest.

“We were very fortunate to have won the 200 breast; he was very happy to win it for Purdue and his teammates. But even though he is seeded third going into NCAAs, we are forgoing the meet to train and rest for the Russian Olympic Trials in April. I promised his Russian coaches we would do everything in our power to have him at peak performance in Moscow in April, thus this decision. After this season hopefully he has two more full years to represent Purdue at NCAAs and win a couple NCAA championships.”

Amaltdinov has been ranked as high as third in Russia in the 200-meter breaststroke. He previously competed at the Russian Olympic Trials in 2012, finishing just seven tenths of a second shy of an Olympic berth in the 200 breaststroke in 2012. He also raced in the 2013 and 2015 World University Games.

Despite the language and cultural differences, Amaltdinov has excelled both academically and athletically at Purdue. He has compiled a 3.86 grade-point average while majoring in economics and finance. He was a Scholar All-America honoree by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America a year ago and will be named Academic All-Big Ten later this month.

Last season he became the first freshman swimmer for the Purdue men to qualify for the NCAA Championships in an individual event since 2006. This season has eclipsed the pool record at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center in the 200-yard breaststroke twice and was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week three times.

With Amaltdinov opting to forgo his spot, Purdue will not be represented by a men’s swimmer at the 2016 NCAA Championships. However, divers Joe Cifelli and Max Showalter will look to earn bids to NCAAs this week at the Zone C Championships, hosted by the Boilermaker Aquatic Center this season.

Purdue Athletics contributed this report.

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