2022 Russian Spartakiad
- August 21 – 26, 2022
- Nevskaya Volna Water Sports Center
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- LCM (50 meters)
- Live Results
The multi-sports Spartakiad of Summer Sports was revived this year in response to the ban of Russian and Belarusian athletes from most international sporting competitions, including swimming. In March, FINA banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from FINA-sanctioned competitions for 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war. FINA also pulled the 2022 Short Course World Championships from Kazan and relocated them to Melbourne, Australia.
This is not the first time the Spartakiad has taken place. The event was originally organized by the Soviet Union as a propaganda event among its member states and the name is still used for internal sporting events from the local to national level.
This is not the only meet the Russian Swimming Federation has created for their athletes this year amid the ban. They’ve also hosted the swimming-specific Russian Championships and the Solidarity Games.
At the Spartakiad, athletes compete in teams based on their home-regions. The meet has attracted lots of Russian stars, including Stanford swimmer Andrei Minakov, who returned home to Russia after competing at U.S. Nationals and Evgeny Rylov, who separate from the ban on Russian athletes, is serving a nine-month suspension from FINA meets for appearing at a pro-war rally.
Among the regions participating is Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, though most of the world still recognizes the region as part of Ukraine.
The meet features a full slate of events, including both single-gender and mixed relays.
Day 5 Results Recap
The penultimate day of racing at the 2022 Spartakiad featured three semifinals and just three medal rounds: the women’s 1500 freestyle, men’s 400 IM, and women’s 4×100 medley relay.
After blasting a 4:08.05 IM at the Solidarity Games, a new Russian record and the fourth-fastest time in the world this year, Ilya Borodin followed up with a win in the event at the Spartakiad. He wasn’t as fast as his Russian record, but it didn’t matter as his 4:11.81 was almost two seconds faster than Maksim Stupin, who grabbed second in 4:13.60. With this swim, Borodin completes his sweep of the medleys.
It was a much closer race in the women’s 1500 freestyle, with Yana Kurtseva getting her hand on the wall first. She touched in 16:33.49, in front of Margerita Erishova. Erishova was over a second behind Kurtsev in 16:34.67, but there was less time seperating her from third place. Polina Kozyanka made a push over the final 100 meters, but ultimately fell short of catching Erishova, settling for third in 16:35.21.
It was Saint Petersburg once again taking a relay win, this time in the women’s 4×100 medley. Daria Ustinova, Daria Tatarinova, Vlada Eggi, and Yana Shakirova teamed to win in 3:43.60. Moscow made up some ground on the back-half of the race but it didn’t matter, as they touched in 3:45.64, over two seconds behind Saint Petersburg.
Slava Ukraine!