{"id":610761,"date":"2025-04-25T06:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=610761"},"modified":"2025-04-25T06:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:56:16","slug":"year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 18-year-old Ukrainian knew a busy summer beckoned, one he\u2019d positioned himself for long before bursting onto the global scene in the fall of 2023 with two gold medals and a silver at the World Junior Championships. Representing Ukraine at the Paris Olympics was the main objective in the middle of the summer. Before came an oddly placed European Championships in Belgrade. After came the decision of relocating to the United States to further his career.<\/p>\n

\"Oleksandr

Oleksandr Zheltiakov: Photo Courtesy: Istvan Derencsenyi\/LEN<\/p><\/div>\n

In between would be few opportunities to reflect and recalibrate, a slowness that Russia\u2019s two-year assault on his homeland has already reduced to near nothing.<\/p>\n

So by the time Zheltiakov reached the NCAA Championships last month, his first as a member of NC State, the 19-year-old expressed an understandable degree of weariness.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was incredible, with Europeans and Olympics,\u201d he said. \u201cNot everything went like we we’re planning with my coach from Ukraine, but it’s just experience for me. And we are moving only up. So I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

His time in Raleigh has provided a reset. Away from his hometown of Dnipro, however difficult the distance, has allowed him to try new things and focus on his swimming anew. It\u2019s brought a new beginning, with the Paris Games as an end point for a busy 2024 season.<\/p>\n

Zheltiakov built on last year\u2019s World Juniors performance in Israe<\/a>l by swimming at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha. The spring brought him to Belgrade, where he became the European champion in the 200 backstroke<\/a>, at the same facility where he\u2019d won two gold and one silver in his third European Junior Championship a summer earlier. He set the national record in the 200 back at 1:55.39 in Belgrade, and threatened his 50 and 100 back national mark set in Natanya.<\/p>\n

Belgrade was part of a summer of travel, the Ukrainians leaving the country to train in May in France and then in Spain ahead of the Paris Games. His first Olympics didn\u2019t quite go as he\u2019d hoped, finishing 24th in the 100 back and 20th in the 200, the latter more than three seconds shy of his best time.<\/p>\n

That was part of the reason why Zheltiakov took \u201cmonths off, totally off\u201d from swimming once he returned home. A chance to swim in college would be the motivator he needed to restart his career after the Olympics high. By August, he knew that would be at NC State, though it took the ensuing semester for him to prepare logistics and paperwork before arriving in January.<\/p>\n

The transition to NCAA swimming has brought many of the common challenges to Zheltiakov as any European \u2013 the frequent racing, the short-course yard, the organizational blending of academics and athletics. But he\u2019s taken to it pretty well.<\/p>\n

\"oleksandr-zheltiakov-\"

Oleksandr Zheltiakov; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cACCs, NCAAs and all short-course meets, it\u2019s something new,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you swim, you need to be really confident about everything what you do, because only one mistake and you really do something bad, you can swim bad. It\u2019s new experience, how to be more disciplined and get ready to do everything like now. When I come here, I have a meet every two weeks, because before I moved to the USA, I would have one or two meets in two months. It\u2019s a lot of what I\u2019ve already learned here, so I like these meets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zheltiakov\u2019s first NCAA postseason was up and down. He finished fourth at the ACC Championships in the men\u2019s 200 backstroke and 13th in the 100 back. He entered NCAAs with the ninth seed in the 200 back but didn\u2019t get a second swim, finishing 30th, more than two seconds slower than at ACCs. He was 37th in the 100 back and didn\u2019t get a relay swim at either meet, behind Quintin McCarty<\/strong> in the Wolfpack\u2019s sprint back ranks.<\/p>\n

Nothing about living in war is smooth, but Zheltiakov sounds matter of fact about the challenges he faced back home. Though the front of the war grinds closer to Dnipro, his training was relatively unimpacted. He lived and trained at the Meteor facility in his hometown<\/a>, and while air raid alerts became common, it was mostly spared in the destructive conflict save for the odd missile attack inflicting minor damage.<\/p>\n

Zheltiakov\u2019s nonchalance speaks volumes of the adaptation to a state of war. He wanted to stay as close to home as possible while he was in the country, a thought process many Ukrainian elite athletes followed.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s far away, his mind often drifts back to home, though the environment in Raleigh is a potent distraction to keep him focused on swimming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to think about it, but I always talk with my family every day, try to just be with them, mentally and help them with everything, with money or if they need anything,\u201d he said. \u201cMy family does the same for me. And it’s really hard, and it’s really annoying, because you really need to be concentrating every day, on how is the situation in Ukraine and my city, because my city is so close to the front now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":609040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6,122074,10],"tags":[103445,49364,43224,133030,489],"class_list":["post-610761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","category-europe","category-world","tag-2024-paris-olympics","tag-acc-swimming","tag-nc-state","tag-oleksandr-zheltiakov","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nYear of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdoctormd\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\"},\"headline\":\"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\"},\"wordCount\":930,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2024 Paris Olympics\",\"ACC Swimming\",\"NC State\",\"Oleksandr Zheltiakov\",\"Ukraine\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"College\",\"Europe\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\",\"name\":\"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\",\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\"},\"description\":\"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State","description":"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State","og_description":"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sportsdoctormd","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3"},"headline":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State","datePublished":"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/"},"wordCount":930,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","keywords":["2024 Paris Olympics","ACC Swimming","NC State","Oleksandr Zheltiakov","Ukraine"],"articleSection":["-Home Slider","College","Europe","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/","name":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-25T13:56:16+00:00","description":"Even without the specter of war hovering over his homeland, 2024 was going to be a year of change for Oleksandr Zheltiakov.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/year-of-change-has-ukraines-oleksandr-zheltiakov-remotivated-at-nc-state\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Year of Change has Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Zheltiakov Remotivated at NC State"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3","name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer"},"description":"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com","https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/oleksandr-zheltiakov-2025-Mens-NCAA-SD-2281.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-2ySZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610762,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610761\/revisions\/610762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}