Swiss Aquatics won’t compete at World Championships if Russia and Belarus take part

Swiss Aquatics is not taking a neutral stance when it comes to athletes from Russia and Belarus competing at the upcoming FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The Swiss federation is the first to proclaim it will not send a team to the prestigious event, scheduled for June 18-July 3, 2022, if those countries take part due to their roles in the invasion of Ukraine.

While the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international governing body, is currently allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under neutral flags, Swiss Aquatics said it holds a differing position.

“After consultation with the coaches and some top athletes in the sports of diving and swimming, and after a detailed discussion with the Central Board, Swiss Aquatics came to the conclusion that it is currently not appropriate to attend the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest if athletes from Russia or Belarus (competing) under their nationality or under a neutral flag receive a start permit from FINA and take part.”

The federation added, “Swiss Aquatics is unreservedly committed to safe, fair and doping-free sport. Under the current circumstances, from Swiss Aquatics’ point of view, neither the safety nor the fairness for the athletes taking part in the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest can be guaranteed if athletes from Russia or Belarus take part.”

Although Switzerland is not an aquatics powerhouse, the country won two bronze medals in swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - Jeremy Desplanches in the men’s 200-meter individual medley and Noe Ponti in the men’s 100-meter butterfly. Ponti tweeted “Make Peace Not War!” and “Violence is not a solution” on February 28.

Desplanches won a silver medal in the men’s 200-meter IM at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. The country entered 11 artistic swimmers, seven divers and 12 swimmers at that event.

The Budapest Worlds, which feature swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo, fills a gap in the schedule after the pandemic forced the postponement of the 2021 event in Fukuoka, Japan, to 2023.

FINA said last week that while it was “denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the FINA Bureau “remained opposed to a blanket ban of all athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus and maintained its position” that “they should only participate in FINA events in a neutral capacity. This decision was backed by an overwhelming majority of the FINA Athletes Committee.”

However, the FINA Bureau recognized that “concerns about the safety of athletes and the viability of events might warrant the exclusion of athletes or teams in some circumstances.”

FINA has pulled the 2022 World Junior Swimming Championships from Kazan, Russia, but the 2022 World Short Course Championships in December and the 2024 European Championships are still scheduled for Kazan.

The World Short Course Championships is the largest event on the international calendar that has not been moved from Russia.

Six days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian Swimming federation released a statement calling on FINA to ban athletes, teams and officials from Russia and Belarus.

The statement, signed by Andrii Vlaskov, said participation “even in a neutral status” enables those athletes to “receive financial support and prize money from their governments and FINA, which in fact discriminates” against Ukrainian athletes who are “deprived of possibility and conditions to prepare themselves” for Worlds.

Some athletes from Ukraine are now training in other nations, such as Italy and Hungary.

Earlier this month, Aiyna Morozova, the Ukrainian national swimming team coach, survived a missile attack in Kharkiv. She was buried underneath rubble in a basement for two hours before being rescued by a volunteer who heard her crying.

“I am alive, partly safe and very upset,” she wrote in an email to the Ukrainian swimming federation.

Morozova, who said she had planned to become Minister of Youth and Sports, was working as a volunteer in a buffet for soldiers. After the missile hit, she said she could not move and “cried, thinking that I would die buried alive, and I almost never cry.”

She said she had no serious injuries except to her “psyche.”

Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Switzerland are among the nations who have said they will not send a team to the world short course championships if they are held in Russia.

Vladmir Salnikov, Russian Swimming President and a four-time Olympic gold medalist, has called the decision to allow athletes to compete under neutral flags “balanced and the main thing is that it leaves our athletes the right to take part in international competitions.”