Alexey Kuznetsov: ‘Minakov demonstrated stability in the champions’ relay race’

“We missed what our rivals were ready for, since we hadn't seen them in person for two years”

Alexey, what impressions of the World Championship did you have as Andrey Minakov's coach?

Partly, it turned out to be what we planned for individual events. We tried the 200m butterfly specifically in the short course where Andrey finished fourth. There, according to tactics, it turned out that Andrey swam a little differently in the final than in the preliminaries, not quite understanding how to swim for the second time. However, in the end, both times he showed the same, decent time. Just short of either third place or the Russian record.

In his signature distance, the 100m butterfly, he did his best. Here it should be clarified that three weeks before the World Championships Andrey fell ill, being in America at that time.

In the champions’ relay race, he demonstrated stability showing the same time both in the morning and in the victorious final. In general, it was clear that the lads swam “to the point of exhaustion,” if they had at least a day to rest, they could have moved the world record quite decently.

On the other hand, we should not sin because the Americans did not have a breaststroke swimmer in the second stage, they put Michael Andrew, and he specialises more in butterfly, freestyle and switches to the breaststroke when necessary for the national team. He is the same age as our Yegor Kuimov, so we have been following him for a long time, we noted instability, and, fortunately for us, it made itself felt in the relay finals when Kirill Prigoda achieved a decisive advantage in the competition.

In general, I would note that the national team gave everything they had before the championship. Same Pavel Samusenko who, in addition to individual events, constantly took part in relays, Alexander Zhigalov who returned to swimming are our youth.

If we look at the performances of our athletes, then, in addition to the podium and five gold medals of Miron Lifintsev, we have another four fourth places. And Andrey finished here twice, remaining fourth in the 200m butterfly and in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Both times, the Poles overtook us, first Krzysztof Chmielewski, then their relay quartet. We also lost to the Poles twice in another relay and in the individual swim when Samusenko was overtaken by Poland’s Kacper Stokowski.

Yes, I counted that we have more fourth place medals. I can explain this by the fact that we missed the point of understanding what our competitors were ready for, since we had not seen them in person for two years. Now we have seen what condition our competitors are in. Well, we should also remember that we only found out about the upcoming start a week before the World Championship, that is, we did not conduct targeted preparation for it. Earlier, during the Russian Short Course Championship in Saint Petersburg (20-27 November), such rumours were circulating, but I would characterise them as vague. As a result, we swam in Budapest with that preparation done for the national championship. This is how I explain, for example, the fact that our leader in women's swimming Yevgenia Chikunova did not show her best. As for Andrey, we did not initially plan his participation in the Russian Championship, since Minakov is now finishing his studies in America, he is in his last year. Moreover, Andrey had competitions as a neutral athlete, the status that World Aquatics granted him, and he had the opportunity to start, and he did not want to make transcontinental flights just for the sake of the championship. In total, there would have been three flights in a month and a half. Thanks to the management of the Russian Swimming Federation, which met us halfway and sent Minakov to the World Championship without participating in the domestic compeititon focusing on his result shown at the World Cup stage.

Now, in case of admission to the long course competition, we will prepare for the next starts. There is information that the Russian team will be admitted to the World Championship in Singapore with three teams: diving, synchronised swimming and ours. Then we will return to the usual plan for preparing for the season, through the qualification at the Russian Championship, which will be held in Kazan. If everything goes as planned, then there will also be selection at the National Cup, everything as usual.

“The Americans treated us without any negativity at all”

The stages of swimmers' preparation before 2021 were worked out for years. Peak form was reached in April before the national championship, which is also the qualifying stage for international competitions, a second peak in summer, at the Olympics, world or European championships, and, depending on the circumstances, a couple more peaks in short course, World Cups, depending on the athlete's choice. But from 2022, without international competitions, it was possible to change the peak. Have you used this?

The fact is that they did not always peak at the Russian long course competition trying to qualify relying on the previous experience. And this was a chance for those who did not make it into the national team, but could make it in Russia and qualify for international competitions (Editor’s note: we can recall the history of the 2021 Olympics when Maria Temnikova beat favourite Yulia Yefimova in the qualification and the federation insisted on her participation in the Olympics despite the internal resistance of part of the sports community; as a result, Temnikova, a student of the Volga Region University of Sports, took 11th place, but Yefimova also remained without medals in her signature 100-meter race). Now we were rebuilding training cycles reaching the peak of form already for the spring national championship, then for the competitions that replaced the missing international season. Another thing is that we could not always take part in these competitions, but this is a separate conversation. Finally, the final peak of form was supposed to come at the autumn Russian Short Course Championship. As for Andrey personally, his third peak was already at international competitions where he was admitted as a neutral athlete.

The World Championships were held in Budapest, which has become a “base” for major swimming competitions in recent years. The 2017 and 2022 World Championships, the 2020 European Championships and now the Short Course World Championships, and this is just over the past seven years. In addition, World Aquatics has firmly established itself in Asia where there were two Short Course World Championships and four in classical swimming, including the upcoming one in Singapore. In this regard, as I understand it, our swimmers were lucky that there was no negativity from the hosts.

Yes, as I heard from the guys, there was negativity from representatives of a couple of European countries, one of which you already mentioned. They were unhappy with the performance of the Russian team, but under a neutral flag. What can I say? We will survive this. I would like to point out that the Americans were not negative towards us at all, although some of their representatives had previously made attacks on the Russians. It is in the past now, it is enough to mention that Minakov lives in America, studies at Stanford and competes for its team. And I have not seen any, so to speak, sidelong glances in his direction. It should also be noted that the negativity from the Americans had to do with some stories related to doping, although this problem also affected them directly. But, I repeat, it is all in the past, now everything is fine.

And some were simply delighted with our return. Same Chad Le Clos who had previously competed with Minakov in the Club Swimming Championship shouted across the entire pool when he saw him at international competitions as a neutral athlete: “Russia, Russia has arrived.” We are forbidden to demonstrate an athlete's affiliation with his or her country. And nothing can be done in this regard with a South African.

“Sun Yang was literally hounded at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Korea”

Club competitions have become a thing of the past. At the start, they caused some concern among officials and organisers of the competitions of the same World Cup stages that were short of star participants.

Yes, this project has become a thing of the past with the beginning of the special military operation. Most likely, it was a coincidence, but I would assume that the change in the political situation towards these starts also had some influence. After all, the project was purely commercial, without the participation of government agencies, and when it began to bring nothing but losses, the organisers closed it.

Overall, another loss of international competitions for some of our swimmers, since they represented not the country but themselves in the club league, like the same tennis players, football players or hockey players from the NHL and other gamers.

Returning to moral support, we felt it from the Chinese.

Here, probably, a lot is connected with the personality of Sun Yang, who was disqualified for eight years.

Sun Yang was literally hounded at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Korea. By the way, I will note that even then the Americans did not participate in the hounding organised for Sun Yang, which I witnessed with my own eyes, since I was part of the Russian delegation. Rivals from Australia and England did not shake his hand, did not climb onto the same podium preferring to stand next to him. The tension was rising and subsided overnight when Australian Shayna Jack was caught doping, and immediately all the Anglo-Saxons disappeared from the media spotlight.

In 2019, Chinese fans who lived with our delegation in the same mini hotel tried to explain to us in broken English: how important Sun Yang was for their country, I have always sympathised with him as an athlete. He swims in the 1,500, just perfectly, every 50 metre with the same number of strokes, 27, and the same time on the side. You can watch his swimming from the start, how he started, entered the water without splashing, did 15 metres, swam out and began to print circles like a machine. This is developed over years of training. Now, this star trio may well have been joined by Pan Zhangle who won the 100-metre freestyle at the Olympics with an advantage of more than a second. I was convinced of his popularity when I talked to the Chinese who were at a training camp in Kyrgyzstan, they share the border. And Chinese tourists, not athletes, were just ready to discuss with us all their best swimmers, singling out Pan Zhangle from the total number. As a representative of swimming, I am very pleased our swimming brother is singled out in a country of one and a half billion people.

(To be continued)