Athletistic / Synchronized swimming. The President of the Russian Synchronized Swimming Federation (RSF) Olga Brusnikina said that in the near future she plans to contact the Asian Swimming Federation to discuss the issue of participation of Russian athletes in competitions under the auspices of this organization.

“Unfortunately, according to the criteria developed by World Aquatics, the Russian synchronized swimming team has practically no opportunity to participate in international competitions. We now have the opportunity to apply for neutral status only for solo performances. The rules we have to register for neutral status are discriminatory. And in duet and group programs in Russia, we did not have a chance to compete even in neutral status.

If we talk about a possible transition to Asian competitions, then this issue probably does not fall entirely within the competence of the FSPR. The decision to move to another continent is a more global issue and is decided at a completely different level. At the moment, such conversations are not taking place, but I think that from the beginning of the next season we will try to contact the Asian Swimming Federation. We would like to ask them to take us to their competition.

“As for the Asian selections for world competitions, this is a global problem that we are not facing at the moment,” Brusnikina was quoted as saying by TASS.

Russian synchronized swimmers have not competed in competitions under the auspices of the International Swimming Federation (World Aquatics) since the end of February 2022. These sanctions are in no way related to sport, but were introduced due to the conduct of a special military operation (SVO) by the Russian armed forces in Ukraine.

It is worth noting that before the sanctions were imposed, the Russian synchronized swimming team had not lost at the Olympics, neither in duet nor in group exercises, since the 2000 Games in Sydney. In the previous six Olympic Games, Russian women won all 12 gold medals.



Athletistic