Russian swimmer Kirpichnikova will compete for France at the World Championships

Why the titled athlete changed her citizenship

World Championship medalist and European champion in swimming, Russia’s best stayer Anastasia Kirpichnikova has announced that she will play for the French team at the next World Championships. The change of sports citizenship took place.

At the Russian Swimming Championships held in Kazan in April, WFTU President Vladimir Salnikov said that Anastasia Kirpichnikova and Mark Nikolaev intended to change sports citizenship. The President said that this decision did not come as a surprise: Kirpichnikova has long lived in France, and Nikolaev in Australia. And he clarified that there are no complaints against the athletes, “we do not consider this a betrayal.”

Vladimir Salnikov is sure that there can be no association with the escape of athletes from the country: “it’s just a life situation, they will live in another country and play for another team.”

On Sunday, April 30, Anastasia Kirpichnikova wrote that her change of citizenship had taken place. She thanked France, where she has been living for more than four years. And she expressed her gratitude to the All-Russian Swimming Federation “for believing in me for eight years.”

Anastasia Kirpichnikova is 22 years old. In 2021, she became a three-time European short course champion in Kazan, winning the 400, 800, 1500 meters freestyle. In the same season, she won three medals in the 50-meter pool: silver in the 800 and 1500 meters freestyle, bronze in the mixed relay 4 × 200 meters freestyle. And at the 2021 World Championships in short course, she became the second at a distance of 800 m freestyle.

For the last two years, the athlete has not played for the Russian national team. The head coach of the Russian national team, Sergei Chepik, said that Kirpichnikova did not come to the Russian championships and training camps. Given that she was training in France, she was offered to come with a personal trainer and even with her French trainer’s group. But “people are free to do as they please.”

Anastasia herself told Match TV that after the ban for our athletes to compete in international competitions, she was preparing for the Spartakiad, but at the French Championship, speaking at a distance of 10 km, she was injured. I had to miss the Spartakiad, and then, due to a loss of motivation, it was decided that “something needs to be changed.” The personal trainer “saw my tears, saw how hard it was for me, could not help me in any way, except in changing citizenship.”

Under the new rules of World Aquatics, quarantine for changing sports citizenship lasts three years. But the case with Kirpichnikova was still considered according to the old standards – two years. Now Anastasia will be able to represent France at the summer World Cup.

The athlete combines swimming in the pool and open water, became the first Russian woman in history to compete at the Olympic Games in both pool swimming and open water swimming. At the 2023 World Championships, she will perform at distances of 5 and 10 km.