Russian world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov shared his thoughts on the sport of swimming and the debate over Russia and Belarus’ return to international competition during a recent interview with the Russian news agency, TASS.
From a fan’s perspective, the 22-year-old backstroke specialist said he thinks the lack of interaction among teammates and opponents in swimming makes it difficult to attract the same audiences as other major sports. Even individual sports such as tennis and chess, Kolesnikov said, involve more improvisation than swimming. The two-time Olympic medalist and six-time champion at Short Course Worlds went so far as to say swimming is “more monotonous than skiing or cycling.”
“I’ll tell you straight out: If I wasn’t a swimmer, I wouldn’t watch swimming,” Kolesnikov said. “For me, it’s not as spectacular as any team sport. Whatever you do, a team sport will be more interesting, because there is an element of improvisation there, it’s interesting to watch. There is improvisation in such individual sports as tennis or even chess, while ours is a monotonous, cyclical kind, and even more monotonous than skiing or cycling, where overtaking and contact are possible. We don’t have that.
“Therefore, the issue of attracting an audience is difficult,” he continued. “There are well-established sports, such as football, hockey, and basketball, which are interesting to people, but I think it is still possible to increase interest in swimming. We need a good promotion that would do all this, because you can’t lure people with posters alone.
He pointed to MMA’s rising popularity in America as an example of savvy sports marketing.
Asked if he felt insulted at all by the lack of spectator interest in swimming, Kolesnikov replied that he’s accustomed to the sport’s popularity by now, although the 6-foot-5, 190-pounder admits a switch to basketball is tempting.
“After so many years in swimming, I no longer think about how much others earn, but rather the thought that it might be cool to go not to swimming, but to basketball,” he said. “No matter how many times I thought about it, I caught myself thinking that in general I have good coordination, I could play well. But since everything is going so well in swimming, I decided that I would still be a swimmer. Thoughts about money, arguments that someone can just sit down, do nothing really, and get €1.5 million are already going in the background.”
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) recently denied Russia the chance to compete at Olympic pre-qualifying tournaments, effectively banning its basketball team from Paris 2024.
Kolesnikov: Athletes Deserve Vote in Debate Over Paris 2024 Participation
Russian and Belarusian athletes have been restricted from international competition since their invasion of Ukraine last year. They are set to miss this summer’s World Championships after World Aquatics extended their ban into 2023.
Kolesnikov believes that “the current situation does not take into account what an athlete wants” and that the best solution would be to allow athletes to decide the issue by a popular vote.
“Athletes from Russia and Belarus could have already returned to the global arena if the decision was up to foreign athletes instead of politicians or sports officials,” he said. “If a meeting [with foreign athletes] took place, it would have been much easier — everything would have been decided directly by popular vote of the athletes. This is how it was during the Swimming League round table discussions when athletes participated in the discussion of various issues. It’s cool when the athletes themselves can bring up topics they care about and discuss them.”
Kolesnikov thinks Russia can host its own versions of various global competitions, but ultimately there’s no replacing the Olympics.
“I believe it is almost impossible to think of an alternative to them [the Olympic Games] and I don’t see how it can be organized,” Kolesnikov said. “I came to this conclusion having been there once, having seen it all and felt what it was all about. I have no clue at all how such global competitions can be replaced with something else. It is a different issue that the current situation is being overdramatized in regard to the Olympic Games. For me personally, they [the Olympics] are still number one for fulfilling athletic ambitions.”
The latest International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendations suggest that Russian and Belarusian athletes can to international competition as neutrals, but only if they are not “actively supporting” the war in Ukraine. For now, they still have an avenue to qualify for Paris 2024 via the 2023 Asian Games.
Fellow Russian backstroke star Evgeny Rylov served a nine-month suspension until February of this year for appearing on stage during a Vladimir Putin-hosted pro-war rally in Moscow last March. The reigning Olympic champion in the 100 back and 200 back told TASS that he has already mentally prepared himself for the possibility of missing Paris 2024.
“According to the latest information, I cannot get there even if I officially resign from all law enforcement agencies,” said Rylov, who is a staff sergeant in the Moscow Oblast Police in Lobnya. “I think the restriction will be a little tougher on me.
“However, things are changing every day, Rylov added. “A couple of months ago, they were saying that we are allowed everything is fine, [IOC president] Thomas Bach seemed to be on our side, but then — bang — they went back to talking about precautionary measures, and it seems that we are not going anywhere. But, the situation may change and they may decide that everyone can go.”
You can read the full interview with Kolesnikov here as well as a condensed version here. Rylov’s interview is available to view here.
