The Week That Was: Yulia Efimova Prepared to Fight Against Ban For Tokyo Olympics

Yulia Efimova is prepared to fight any any attempt to bar her from the Tokyo Olympic Games. Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

Three-time Olympic medalist Yulia Efimova is prepared to prove her innocence so she can compete at the 2020 Olympic Games under a neutral flag after the World Anti-Doping Agency banned the Russian Federation from all international competitions for the next four years. Russians with no taint on doping will be allowed to compete in Tokyo but will not be allowed to represent the Russian flag or hear the anthem if they win gold.

The US Winter Junior Nationals also concluded this weekend in Atlanta and Seattle as the next swimming stars were on display in Georgia and Washington State.

Read below the five biggest stories in the Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

The Week That Was #5: Daichi Suzuki to be Inducted into Swimming Hall of Fame

Photo Courtesy: Swimming World Archive

By Meg Keller-Marvin

Daichi Suzuki stunned the world when he beat the USA’s David Berkoff at the 1988 Olympic Games in the 100-meter backstroke.

While Hall of Famer Berkoff is widely credited with “inventing” swimming backstroke underwater with a dolphin kick, the origin of the technique is far from clear. The first record of swimming in this manner in competition credits Hall of Famer Jesse Vassallo with being the first. Perhaps independently, Daichi Suzuki of Japan developed the skill and, as a 17-year-old, became the first to swim 25 meters underwater at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. At about the same time, David Berkoff started experimenting with what became known as “the Berkoff Blastoff” in the USA.

He will be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame on Saturday April 25, 2020.

#4: David Aubry Moves Up To Fourth All-Time in SCM 800 Free at French Nationals

David Aubry at the World Championships. Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

By Craig Lord, Swimming World Editor-in-Chief

David Aubry, the French pool and open water diatonic freestyle ace, rocketed up the rankings to all-time number 4 over 800m freestyle with a 7:31.60 victory at French Short-Course Championships in Angers on Friday.

Aubry’s effort added to celebrations on the Montpellier Metropole Natation squad a day after Marie Wattel took down the French 100m freestyle record in 51.45, third swiftest in the world so far this season.

All-Time Top Six:

7:23.42 Grant Hackett (AUS) 2009
7:29.17 Yannick Agnel (FRA) 2012
7:30.31 Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) 2018 World title
7:31.60 David Aubry (FRA) 2019
7:31.18 Federico Colbertaldo (ITA) 2009
7:31.92 Mykhailo Romanchuk (UKR) 2018 World silver

Aubry has had a fine year over 800m approaching the first Olympic Games at which the 800m freestyle joins the men’s program. At World Championships in Gwangju, he set a French long-course record of 7:42.08. That clobbered the record he’d set back in April at the French nationals, when he took down the 7:48.28 nationals standard that had stood to Sebastien Rouault since 2010.

The Week That Was #3: 41 National Records Fall at Irish Nationals

Shane Ryan celebrates double-record solo and relay action at nationals in Dublin – Photo Courtesy: Swim Ireland

By Craig Lord, Swimming World Editor-in-Chief

Into the second straight week of all-out assault on the Irish swimming record books, with 20 standards downed last week and 11 yesterday, day two of the Irish National Short Course Championships did not disappoint.

There were 10 more marks today for a count of 41 new high bars in 10 days at two events, with two days of racing remaining at nationals, as Irish swimmers continue to rewrite the script at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.

Members of the Irish team at the European Short-Course Championships in Glasgow last week, Danielle Hill, Shane Ryan, Eoin Corby and Paddy Johnston added to the record-breaking today alongside Ellen Walshe, Naomi Trait and three relays.

#2: Claire Curzan Wins Five Events at US Winter East Juniors

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By Andy Ross

15-year-old Claire Curzan of the TAC Titans in North Carolina was the female swimmer of the meet at the US Winter East Juniors Championships in Atlanta, winning five individual events and taking 15-16 NAG records in two events. Curzan won the 50 free with a 21.77, the 100 fly with a 50.87, the 100 back with a 51.55, the 100 free with a 47.85, and the 200 fly with a 1:54.36, setting NAG records in the 50 free and 100 fly.

Curzan is a rising star in the United States and would be sixth among all swimmers in Division I in the 50 free and 100 butterfly.

At just 15-years-old, Curzan is not far off the 17-18 NAG record of 21.3 set by Simone Manuel in 2015 for her first NCAA title. We know what Manuel has done since then: an Olympic gold medal in the 100 free, three individual World titles, plus six individual NCAA titles. And that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of Manuel’s influence on the sport of swimming, who became the first black woman to win a swimming gold medal and the first American woman to win the 100 free at the Olympics since 1984, which at the time was the longest gold medal drought for the Americans in any event.

It is still way too early to determine where Curzan’s future career will lead. She is still just a sophomore in high school for crying out loud. But she has a lot of talent, as we saw in Atlanta tonight. She won four medals at the FINA World Juniors this summer with a gold in the women’s 4×100 medley relay, a silver in the 100 back, and two bronzes in the 50 and 100 fly.

The Week That Was #1: Yulia Efimova Ready to Fight WADA Ruling

Yulia Efimova is prepared to prove she deserves to swim at the 2020 Olympic Games. Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

By Craig Lord, Swimming World Editor-in-Chief

Jack Robertson, the man who led the original investigation on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) into allegations that Russia had organised a state-sponsored doping program, has accused the global clean-sport watchdog of being a “Russian lapdog”.

His comment came in the wake of WADA’s decision to ban the Russian flag and anthem from international sport for four years but not Russian athletes who could “prove” innocence. It also coincided with a BBC report revealing the role of FINA Athlete Commission Chair Penny Heyns in watering down a blanket ban to allowing athletes who can “prove” their innocence into the Olympics, as was the case at Rio 2016.

Robertson’s view that the latest decision of WADA will not keep those towing a doping record out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games coincided with Russian media reports that lawyers for breaststroke specialist Yulia Efimova are braced to fight any attempt to bar her from the Games next year.

In a report at RT.com, Efimova, 27, is cited as saying: “I will behave in a similar way,” to 2016. She then repeated the driving-offence analogy that so angered her rivals at the 2015 World Championships and again at Rio 2016, alongside confirmation that she had expected the problems of 2016 to rumble on long after the Rio Games:

“I have already hired a lawyer. There is a rule that a person can’t be punished twice for the same offence. If you violate a driving code or instigated a brawl you will not be punished twice for that. I hope it will work, but I cannot be sure of [a positive outcome]. Right after my race at the Rio Games, I said that this doping controversy was not over, it was just the beginning, and we would have problems in the future. It was quite clear. And with every new year the situation is only getting worse and worse.”

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