By Maria Dobysheva, Swimming World Russian contributor
As Christmas and New Year’s celebrations came to a close, the new training season has officially started, and with it the usual swimming comebacks are on schedule as well. With the 2016 Rio Olympics around the corner, plenty of swimmers are going to be making comebacks this year.
Here are a few of the swimmers looking to either make comebacks or have bounceback years in 2015:
9. Grant Hackett
Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
One of the most successful swimmers in Australian history, 7-time Olympic medalist and the legend of long distance, Grant Hackett, has announced his comeback to competitive swimming. Hackett resigned with WADA in the fall of 2014 and will be allowed to swim at Nationals by April 2015. Coached by Denis Cotterell, well-known for his work with another long-distance phenom Sun Yang, Hackett spends six days a week in the pool. Even though he’s 34, and an unsuccessful comeback of his teammate Ian Thorpe made him a bit “reserved” about what he expects from his unretirement, Hackett insists that he has his passion for swimming back and is full of hope to make a relay team.
8. Darian Townsend
Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
It isn’t like Darian Townsend had a bad year, as he did compete for the U.S. on the 2014 World Short Course Championshipship roster, but the last few years have been tumultuous for Townsend. The South African gold medalist took the last year to change his citizenship to the U.S., and now the mid-distance swimmer will be able to truly focus on his U.S. future in 2015. Townsend has just a year-and-a-half to get everything tuned up to make a run at the U.S. Olympic squad. And, since he didn’t make the 2015 World Championship roster for Kazan, he’ll have a singular focus this year.
7. George Bovell
Photo Courtesy: David Farr
This 31-year old veteran representing Trinidad and Tobago has been consistently training throughout 2014, participated in World Cup series and even posted a World’s best time in 100 IM that took a world record in Doha to beat by the end of 2014. Bovell is known for his strong ability to compete with the best rivals and for his versatility. He won his first big individual medal at Athens Olympics in 2004 and his last one was a bronze in 50 free from World Championships 2013. In the summer of 2014, he swam at Commonwealth Games, finished fifth in 50 free and withdrew himself from 50 back final. After that, Bovell skipped some meets, short course Worlds included, in order to be ready for next year’s Worlds. Even in a “calm” year like this, Bovell was named Sports Personality of The Year by Trinidad and Tobago Olympic committee and the best is definitely yet to come in 2015 and 2016.
6. Anastasia Fesikova (Zueva)
Photo Courtesy: Gian Mattia D’Alberto
This Russian backstroker, former World and Olympic record holder is well-known under her maiden name of Zueva. She took an extended break from swimming to dedicate all her time to family as she married teammate Sergey Fesikov and became a mom. In previous pre-Olympic years, she won gold (50 back) and silver (100 back) at the Shanghai World Championships. In 2012, she added Olympic silver in 200 back to her big medal collection. She also finished fourth in 100 backstroke, lost bronze by only 0.13 to Japan’s Aya Terakawa.
In 2013, Fesikova performed at the Universiade and made the World’s top 10 in 50 and 100 backstroke. Now she is training and preparing for Russian World Trials in April 2015. As she said in interviews, she hopes to qualify for the first home Worlds ever in Kazan but her bigger goal is Rio Olympics. Let’s see what the future brings for this extremely talented 24-year-old swimmer. Her possible rivalry with 15-year-old backstroker Daria Ustinova, who already has won an individual medal at her first adult big meet (European Championships) is going to make her performance even more interesting.
5. Michael Phelps
Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
Long-awaited comeback of the most decorated Olympian that happened in April at Mesa Grand Prix, left no doubts that Phelps is very serious to continue his swimming career. Even though he lost 100 fly to his eternal rival Ryan Lochte, his first official time of 52.13 made world’s top 10 and was a big time before last summer’s National championships, the qualification meet for Pan Pacific Games and next year’s Worlds.
In heats, Phelps produced the world’s best 100 fly time 51.19. This result looked even more impressive as it was 0.02 ahead of his winning time in London. It was an outstanding result for someone who was out of the water for some time.
Along with that, he was the only American to post a World’s best in 2014. Phelps then surprisingly lost the final by 0.01 to Tom Shields, but won the Pan Pac title and finished the meet with three golds.
Unfortunately, his actions out of the pool ruined what appeared to be a very impressive comeback. Phelps was arrested for DUI and was suspended by USA Swimming for 6 months, while he agreed to withdraw from the 2015 World Championships team.
Even though he officially can’t compete until at least April, he still can train. The Michael Phelps Comeback 2.0 will likely happen in April 2015 at the Mesa Grand Prix again. He also could put in some time on the FINA World Cup circuit in 2015 as he refocuses on the 2016 Rio Olympics.
4. Ryan Lochte
Photo Courtesy: Azaria Basile
Lochte is another bit of a bounceback story. The 11-time Olympic medalist’s 2014 was full of out of the pool activities. In his interviews he confessed that swimming wasn’t his only priority after the 2012 London Olympics, he tried to do different things and even considered retirement.
Fortunately for him and his fans, Lochte found the way to deal with the sport and other interests in his life.
In the fall of 2013, he changed his location and coach as he moved from UF’s Gregg Troy to David Marsh of SwimMAC. Things seemed to finally settle down for Lochte’s swimming career when an accident left him with no proper training for the whole year. In October 2013, he was injured in encounter with aggressive fan, re-injured at the meet in April, had a surgery and barely recovered for the Nationals in August. Along with that, Marsh and Lochte were going to work on changes in Ryan’s strokes and make him more sprint-oriented.
It was clear that dealing with the injury and trying to fit into new training was a serious struggle for Lochte.
It’s hard to say what form he actually was at Pan Pacs and short course Worlds. He won 11 medals overall between the two meets, and posted some world’s top times but errors he made during his races and the fact that he didn’t win a gold individually for the first time in his career lead me to think he still was in bad shape. Let’s hope no more accidents for Lochte since he is always a threat when healthy and fully trained. He has to get back to his usual form in 2015.
3. Yuliya Efimova
Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch
Another star of Russian team, Yuliya Efimova, has been out of the pool for the whole 2014 too but for different reasons. In October 2013, she failed to pass a doping test and was banned for 16 months. Efimova was stripped of her medals and records set at short course European Championships in December 2013. Efimova’s ban ends in February and she’s going to participate in Russian Nationals in April. Before her suspension, she definitely was one of the best breaststrokers in the world, as she won gold and/or silver individually in three straight World Championships (Rome 2009, Shanghai 2011 and Barcelona 2013). Her comeback will definitely bring a lot of attention.
2. Yannick Agnel
Photo Courtesy: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports
The French superstar has had the shaky year. He’s been training and competing, though he decided that his results weren’t what he expected them to be.
In 2013, he broke up with his coach Fabrice Pellerin who brought him to Olympic champion title. Agnel moved to USA and joined one of the best training programs with Bob Bowman in NBAC. It appeared to be a good beginning when Agnel won 200 free at the following World Championships in Barcelona. His winning time 1.44.20 was 1.06 behind his time at Olympics where he won gold, yet it was an impressive and strong win. Agnel won another gold medal in the 4×100 free relay. France won but Agnel’s lead-off time 48.76 was the second worst split in the whole final.
Concerns about Agnel’s form rose again when he failed to qualify in 100 free at French Trials in 2014. At the European Championships in August, he was 11th in 400 free and only third in 200 free. There was a clear sign that something wrong with Agnel. So, he decided to sign with the famous French Mulhouse swim club before Nationals in April 2014. Therefore, his September decision to move back to France and switch the training programm was not surprising for his fans. Agnel withdrew from the rest of the meets in 2014, and made comments that he focused his preparations for Worlds and Olympics.
1. Arkady Vyatchanin
Photo Courtesy: Azaria Basile
This swimmer’s story makes him number one on my list. Russian born Arkady Vyatchanin won two bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics representing Russia.
After decades of traning with his parents, both National team coaches Arkady and Irina Vyatchanin, he moved to USA to join University of Florida program run by Gregg Troy. Backstroke was his main priority and teammating multiple Olympic Champion Ryan Lochte sure helped to improve his speed. Though the 2012 Olympics didn’t bring him success. After London, where he ended up 17th in 200 back and didn’t make 100 back finals, Vyatchanin was going to qualify for Worlds in Barcelona.
He couldn’t do it due to a conflict with the Russian Swimming Federation, details of which remain unclear. Unfortunately for both, the conflict turned out impossible to settle and Vyatchanin announced his resignation with the National team, started to seek a new country to represent.
Two years have gone by and Vyatchanin is still searching for a new team, while training with Troy in Gainesville. He participates in Arena Grand Prix series and keeps posting world’s best times but can’t swim at international meets under FINA and LEN (European Swimming League) authorities.
Vyatchanin, who is friendly and responsive to his fans in social media, is full of confidence that he will be swimming at Rio Olympics in 2016. If he’s going to do it, this year will be very important in order to build that base for his comeback.
What? How could I not make this list?! If the title was “amazingly fast comebacks” or “world-class comebacks” I would understand, but it specifically says “MOST INTERESTING” and I have to qualify after the KMSC pro-am. AmIright?!
Haha well it’s a list of swimmers I’m aware of. Sorry
Am I mistaken, or is The Screaming Viking! actually 1996 multiple-(3x?)Gold Medalist in Atlanta, Josh Davis, who had a fair bit of SW publicity for his performances at the Kerr-McGee pro-am and is trying out a new training approach which has had a fair level of success and controversy in recent years; if the identity is correct and he can in fact get anywhere near life bests, he might in fact be right at the edge of that “most interesting” and “world class” differentiation. He’d at the very least be really fun to watch!
I am actually the other 40 year old coach at the other pro-am who made the Breaststroke A finals and marched out dressed like a Viking. Oh yeah, and I did it eating almost the exact opposite of Josh Davis. I am like a spokesman for anti-vegetarianism. Haha.
Well I obviously missed my guess as to Josh and his return party at the American Energy meet. We’ll look forward to your “beefed up” comeback, Mr. Screaming!!!! I’m not sure how I could have missed the Klosterman/Viking connection!!! Good luck with the continuing comeback!
Wow good luck The Screaming Viking! Your comeback definitely deserve a honorable mention!
Re #5: .02 ahead of London, not 0.2. (2012 London :51.21; 2014 Irvine prelims: :51.19)
Sorry it’s just a typo! I’ll ask to correct it.