In the summer of 2023, the most successful active swimmer in Russia Yulia Efimova announced the resumption of competitive practice. For almost two years after the Olympic season in Tokyo, she did not participate in tournaments.
Julia came back for a little swim. Full overload, selection in Astrakhan. At that time, the criteria for obtaining neutral status for World Aquatics were not yet known, but upon her return she immediately indicated that she was ready to attempt to obtain it and qualify for the fifth World Aquatics Games. his career.
“If you have a chance to perform, you should try”
Then there was the Russian Winter Championship with an appearance in the Spartak jersey and work back to long waters. At her first Russian long course championship in two years, Efimova started in April 2024. She did not manage to win at any distance, but at the same time she got on the podium at 50, 100 m and even at a distance of 200 m, although participation was doubtful – there was still enough work and competitive practice under 200 m was not swimming.
The goal of reaching the Olympic Games has not disappeared. She was preparing for possible condemnation from opponents of obtaining neutral status:
– “Homeless team, foreign agents”… I saw it, I read it. It was funny. How many years have we been competing under the Russian flag? But at present we have become “homeless,” Efimova said in an interview with .
The plans were to improve my results by the start of the summer, then achieve neutral status and meet the qualification standards at one of the European tournaments. But ultimately, even after gaining neutral status, she was unable to perform at Mare Nostrum; she was refused participation in the Seven Hills tournament in Rome, even when applying for another club.
“I understand that it’s my fault too.” We started doing all this too late. And I’ve only just started to recover from the illness. I’m still under load. I think I will qualify for the Olympics. A hundred, of course. In theory, I could have a great time in Paris. But it seems we will never know. I’ve had a crazy month. We have looked at all the options and have already set our sights on a visa. And I would have gone there calmly, but the Italians refused at the last moment. “It broke everything,” Efimova said in an interview with .
The President of the Moscow Swimming Federation, Evgeny Korotyshkin, volunteered to help Yulia:
— I will try to contact my Italian acquaintances who work at the European Federation office. Let’s try to find out if it is possible to participate and qualify for other competitions. The decision will of course depend on other people, but I can try to help,” he said.
“He was literally missing the last seven meters”
As a result, an option appeared with the Bahamas championship. Yulia urgently went to Nassau and after a 25-hour flight, the next day she swam 200 m beyond the norm. In fact, she wasn’t even counting on the 200m breaststroke. The goal was “one hundred.” Of course, the last day of Olympic qualifying.
contacted World Aquatics and they assured that they would take Efimova’s result into account generally.
On the day of the deadline, they predicted a storm and predicted the possible cancellation of the competition. Efimova won the qualification, although the organizers allowed her to participate in the final in such weather conditions and without selection. The time was 1 minute 09.51 seconds. It was already clear that standard A could hardly be counted on, unless, of course, the “superhero mode” worked.
“She can swim according to standard B and get on the waiting list,” Vladimir Salnikov, president of the All-Russian Swimming Federation, told .
But in the end, Efimova also did not meet the B standard – she had to swim no slower than 1:07.12, but the multiple world champion closed the final with a result of 1:07 .98.
— I also swam the final in the rain. And after my performance, the tents were blown over by gusts of wind and the competition was stopped. A kind of apocalypse has begun. I’m surprised this didn’t happen during my swim. It was all real. A few more days and I would be blurry. It would show 1.06 to a hundred. But it was possible to do 1.07.12 according to standard B, I am the only one in the country. There was also a chance to go to the Olympics. It’s a shame that I showed normal times in training before. These are funny results for me. But today there are no real muscles, that was normal.
In the final hundred, I exposed everything I had at the moment.
And in the last 15 meters I got stuck. My father told me: “Go all out.” Even if you’re not ready, it will work. So I went all in. I literally didn’t have enough for the last seven meters. I got up and at the last blow, it seemed to me, I gave up: I lowered my hands and waited until the side itself floated towards me. It is shameful! Everyone supported me: the whole pool, the whole Bahamas. It’s boring, but oh well. I did everything I could. But that did not work. That means bad luck. I’m philosophical about this. So it’s not necessary,” Efimova admitted in an interview with .
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Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
