“The Paris Olympics are a turning point for us. » Interview with Salnikov

Next week, swimmers will begin the Russian championships in Kazan. Typically, in an Olympic year, he would qualify for the Games. Now there is no. There will be a start at the end of April in Banja Luka, but the federation does not perceive it as a qualification. We talked about this with the president of the All-Russian Swimming Federation Vladimir Salnikov.

“The Russian Championship promises to be interesting, all the main events of the season will take place in our country and no one will be able to take it away from us,” Salnikov told . — He will be qualified for participation in the BRICS Games for juniors and for the rest – in the Friendship Games. The motivation is good. The Federation has implemented a profit-sharing plan since last year, which will continue this year.

Of course, there is not enough international practice, the usual schedule when going to international competitions.

Regarding participation in the Olympic Games, nothing has changed for us. The existing conditions do not allow us to participate in the Games as they should have been. So it’s already a page turned. There are insurmountable things: a selection based on sporting principles. We used to send people to international competitions based on the results of selecting the best. This is excluded from these criteria. And also the lack of symbolism, as well as other factors that prevent our athletes from feeling equal to other participants.

The situation is different depending on the sport, but in some places certain changes have been made in terms of conditions. The Olympics remained outside our area of ​​interest. We continue to prepare for the competitions on our calendar.

— Don’t you think that one of the swimmers will not agree with this state of affairs and will try to go individually?

“It would be surprising to me if that happened.” The only swimmer who had this status removed it.

—Are you talking about Ivan Girev?

— Yes, he wrote a statement to World Aquatics, in which he indicated that he could not imagine playing without his team. I don’t know about others’ desire for neutral status.

— So what is the significance of Banja Luka’s departure?

“Participating in such a tournament is in itself a competitive practice. And before there were these departures, like Mare Nostrum, which did not lead us to participate in the World Championship. To our knowledge, many teams participated in the competition in Bosnia, we will see a little later which of the notable athletes will participate. Compliance with regulations is not a priority and will not affect anything. The result will be included in the world ranking. The records are recognized and we are now awaiting recognition of the European Aquatics records. An agreement was reached to recognize the records in the same way World Aquatics recognizes them. I believe that in this case everyone can evaluate themselves objectively.

Expecting after the competition in Banja Luka that we will all be invited under the same conditions is like being hit by a meteorite.

— Will there be a training camp or match meeting in Debrecen?

— Match meeting. We agreed with the president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation that this would take place. This was a proposal from the Hungarian side.

— Will the juniors perform there?

– Yes! The first train will not go to Debrecen.