Yulia Efimova: “I was very happy with Chikunova’s world record. I prepared for these numbers.

Six-time world champion, three-time Olympic medalist Julia Efimova in an interview with , she told how she reacted to the world record set this year by an 18-year-old brass player Evgenia Chikunova .

Chikunova broke the world record in the 200m breaststroke in April this year at the Russian Championships in Kazan. In the final heat, she clocked 2:17.55 seconds, surpassing South Africa’s Tatjana Schoonmaker (2:18.95) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

– What about Evgenia Chikunova, 18, who set a new world record by swimming the 200m breaststroke in 2 minutes 17.55 seconds in long water. Surprised by this hour?

– No, I was not surprised. It made me happy. And it’s very disappointing that I was preparing this particular layout, exactly at 2’17, even when I started training with David Salo. He said right away at that moment that I was ready for such a result. And that’s what I’ve been training for all my life.

So I knew it was possible. But I did not succeed in any way, but Chikunova did, and she is very smart. Now I wait, it will be very interesting to compete.

– Foreign swimmers have asked you: “Wow, how did this Russian swim?” What was the reaction?

– To be honest, it is currently a very difficult time to communicate with foreign athletes. But there are Serbs…

– And what do they say?

– “Yes, well done, great.” To be honest, I’m amazed where such motivation comes from – to train like that if you don’t compete at international level… I had a difficult period of a year and a half to two years. It’s really difficult without international departures. And the fact that Chikunova did that is just great. It shows her character, – said Efimova for .

Yulia Efimova won two silver medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (in the distances of 100 and 200m breaststroke) and bronze at the 2012 Games in London (200m breaststroke).