2016 Olympic silver medalist Yulia Efimova wouldn’t say yet whether she’ll retire after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, but the Russian breaststroker did shed some light on her plans for the next year in an interview with Russia’s RSport.
Efimova says she’ll include the Mare Nostrum tour in her plans this summer, but that the Short Course European Championships in December were unlikely to be part of her schedule leading up to Tokyo.
“Most likely no,” Efimova said, in a rough translation of the original Russian. “That’s not my best – the short course. Instead, I plan to perform at competitions in the United States in the 50-meter pool and prepare for the Olympic Games.”
Efimova also said that she probably wouldn’t compete on the full World Cup series, either. She may swim a few stops of the tour, but didn’t want to risk injury with so much travel and competition less than a year out from Tokyo. On the other hand, she will swim two of the three stops on FINA’s newly-introduced Champions Series. She’s skipping the opening stop in Beijing, but will compete in both Budapest, Hungary and Indianapolis in the United States.
When asked about her plans after Tokyo, Efimova wouldn’t commit to either retiring or continuing competition.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Every Olympics, I’ve thought: this will be my last.”
Other tidbits from the interview: Efimova talks about her decision to drop the 200 IM from her Russian Championships lineup – she says her schedule is already busy with three breaststroke distances, and earning a Worlds medal in the IM isn’t likely. She also shares the story of doping control officers showing up at her door for a test on her birthday, a surprise she jokingly calls “just the best gift.”
I read the article scroll down and not one comment is on the article itself 😂
Their 4free relay might be competitive!
Not only King Kyle, but also Grinev to create excitement for 100 free. Grinev swam 47.43 in the semifinal at Russian Champs
47.74 in prelim and 47.43 in semifinal. That’s pretty serious.
When people are talking about the battle between King Kyle and Dressel in 100 free, another threat emerges here. Now they have another swimmer to dislike. And considering he is Russian, they will be able to find many good excuses to disguise the true reason, which is they don’t like Dressel to be challenged.😀
And what is wrong with that? Any mother believes in the success of her child regardless any reality of the life. She takes very painfully every obstructions presented by real life and ignores them blindly sometimes like they don’t exist. The love of the real Fan is even more blind than the love of parents.
Well there could be something wrong if you happen to be the mother/fan of the other child who is disliked just for being good.😉
Didn’t Russia get banned from the Olympics for doping?
Team Russia was banned entirely from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games: https://staging2.swimswam.com/ioc-suspends-russia-2018-winter-olympics/ .
Also, the documentary “Icarus” chronicles a Russian state-wide doping scheme across sports: https://staging2.swimswam.com/doping-expose-icarus-wins-academy-award-for-best-documentary/ .
But I’m sure everything is totally fine now…😳
Not big fans of meldonium, either
Interested to see how Duncan Scott reacts at British Nationals next week.
I am keeping an eye on Spajari and Breno Correa here.. also next week
The 200 free is on the last day of the programme. A draft has been done which suggests he will also compete in 100 free, 100/200 fly and 200 IM