“The opinion on the World Aquatics criteria has not changed. This is not normal.” Interview with Kolesnikov

Swimming world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov Before the Russian Short Course Championship, he spoke in an interview with about his motivation for next year, his attitude to prize money and the criteria of the international federation, which he still considers unacceptable .

— Clément, hasn’t the short course lost its importance for you, knowing that you already held world records there?

– No, there are always specific tasks for each competition, and there has never been such a thing that I can afford to be free at the Russian Championship – neither in the Olympic pool, nor in short course.

— Athletes don’t like to answer questions about the possibility of a record. Are you superstitious in this regard?

“I just don’t like talking about it.” And in general, I don’t like to make assumptions. I start more from sensations. You can feel confident and come to the competition and swim in completely different seconds than expected.

— We have already spoken after World Aquatics published the criteria for admission to international competitions. A few months have passed, have you already understood this whole story?

“My attitude towards this has not changed. This is all abnormal.

— Didn’t you want to send an application and see the response?

– No. Even if you get all of this, what will it be? Comfort you? So what’s next?

— Participate in the World Championships in Doha.

– If only you consider yourself a person and you are ready to turn away from everyone, you are ready for everyone to turn away from you, then yes. But that’s not my story.

— In other sports, they start in a neutral position and return normally. Or do you have some sort of team-wide decision: I’m not going into a neutral status?

“We haven’t met with the guys to discuss it. But in the team, I think everyone is of the same opinion.

— Was there any feedback from the guys from other teams after the criteria were published? No one asked you if you applied, would you come to the World Championships?

– That didn’t happen. But we write off from time to time – how are you, how, what?

—Are you waiting for your world record to be ratified?

“I think another two or three months should pass for that.”

— This year, you swam all the stages of the Russian Cup. The next one is a route from Kaliningrad to the Far East. However, this time everything was new, will it be interesting next year too?

– Departures are necessary. Plus, it’s an opportunity to earn extra money. Why not? In any case, when planning, we start from the beginning. If these steps don’t bother you, why not go for it? If a step does not fit into the preparation plan, we will skip it.

— News about the World Friendship Games is now actively published. How do you perceive this story?

— The format of the competition is not yet very clear. I am talking about both the BRICS Games and the Friendship Games. So it’s difficult to say anything about it, because there is too little information.

– But there is information about the prize money – 40 thousand dollars, plus a real gold medal.

– It’s good. A serious incentive to improve results.

— You can win the same prize money with a mediocre result.

– Well yes. But with a good result, it is more pleasant to get gold.

— Pasha Kulizhnikov said here that a million rubles for a world record is not enough. Is this enough for you?

— It is clear that everyone always evaluates all this in their own way. But what is it, that is, we go from there.

— By the way, about the World Friendship Games and the BRICS Games. We don’t know the exact program yet, but your opinion: would you like there to be non-Olympic “fifty dollars”?

– It would be nice if they were. I don’t see anything complicated in putting them in the program. It won’t happen, it won’t happen – we can swim other distances too.

– You have a world record of fifty dollars, you will have a chance to try to beat it again.

– There will be no “fifty dollars” – this means we will try to break the record for “one hundred”.

“Now everyone has started to invent new competition formats. Do you have any thoughts on this?

“I can’t imagine how swimming can be diversified with other relay races or anything else.” Unfortunately, ours is as boring as it gets, no matter what anyone says. You need cool results – it grabs attention.

— Yulia Efimova said that if there was no attention from the inflated media and social networks, there would be no attention and no sponsors. Accept?

– I do not agree. And without social networks, based on results alone, you can have sponsors even outside Russia. Even now.

Watch live broadcasts of the evening session of the Russian Swimming Championship on the channels of the Match holding company.