As with many nations around the world, Russia is slowly peeling back some of its coronavirus-pandemic-related restrictions in the hopes of maintaining a flattening of the infection’s curve and helping life return to ‘normal.’
Against this backdrop, the All Russian Swimming Federation has published its racing calendar for the remainder of the 2020 season, with the dates having been approved at a federation board meeting on June 23rd. The dates are subject to the assumption that all swimmers will have been able to resume training as of August 1st.
Per the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia, as of June 24th, the Government of the Russian Federation has reported 606,881 cumulative cases of coronavirus and 8,513 attributed fatalities.
As of June 23rd, the city of Moscow allowed gyms, swimming pools and sports facilities to open. Of note, individual regions, however, set their own rules regarding self-isolation, the opening of business, and movement of people based on conditions in each region.
The Russian swimming calendar presents the first domestic swimming event as the Russian Open Water Swimming Cup on August 15th and 16th. There are two additional open water events in September, while the Russia Cup looks to be the first pool swimming competition. That meet is on the books for October 2nd-4th, by invitation only.
The following week of October 8th there are federal district championships, culminating in the Russian National Championships slated for October 25th-31st.
You can view the entire Russian schedule here: Russian Swimming Calendar 2020
As with most nations around the world, Russian athletes were under lockdown for a period of time due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving them to come up with creative solutions to keep fit at home.
For instance, breaststroking ace Yuliya Evimova concocted a ‘swim routine’ using her kitchen counter. With half her body on the counter and the remaining suspended by some wicked-strong abs, in her video that went viral Efimova performed several strokes of her signature discipline, along with free, fly and back, before moving onto the floor for additional moves.
Several swimmers partook in a training camp at Krugloye Lake earlier this month, but the affair was not without drama. As we reported, the coach of world record holder Anton Chupkov, Alexander Nemtryev, was kicked out of the camp for allegedly trespassing on blocked off areas of the training facility.