By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Mark Nikolaev, 29, will make his Australian debut at the 2026 World Short Course Swimming Championships in December five years after he began the process of changing his sporting citizenship.
He earned that spot with a 49.79 win in the 100 backstroke on day 1 of the meet. While that’s not a best time for him (49.25 in 2021), it is better than the 50.03 Australian standard.
Nikolaev was born in Seltso, Russia in the far western part of the country near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. He left the country in 2015 to join the varsity team at Grand Canyon University in Arizona in the United States.
After a successful collegiate career in America, he eventually emigrated to Australia, and in 2021 began corresponding with Swimming Australia about changing his sporting citizenship at a time when there was a logjam in the Russian backstroking group and a need in the Australian one.
His last Russian international meet was the 2019 World University Games. He finished 6th in the 50 back and 100 back at that meet in long course. He won a silver medal as a prelims swimmer on the men’s 400 medley relay.
He was not able to gain eligibility in time to be eligible to race for Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympics, competing as a Visitor at the 2024 Olympic Trials and winning the B Final of the 100 back in 54.51.
But he is now cleared to represent Australia and locked up his spot for the Beijing World Championships by winning the 100 back last week in Sydney.
The win happened quietly – it wasn’t mentioned in Swimming Australia’s day 1 recap of the selection meet – but Australian National Team coach Rohan Taylor mentioned it in the team announcement press release.
…”Credit to Mark Nikolaev, it’s a credit to his consistency and perseverance that he has earned his Dolphin number tonight,” Taylor said.
Nikolaev officially represented Somerset Swim Club on Gold Coast at the meet, but he is actually training in Bicheno, a small town on the east coast of Tasmania with a population of under 1,000.
He is training with American coach Milt Nelms, another transplant to Australia, and American swimmer Linnea Mack.
Nelms previously coached in America, including as a volunteer assistant at Stanford, and was a famous clinician who, with Richard Quick, created a best-selling Championship Video Series and a member of the USA Swimming Board of Directors.
Nikolaev mostly trains in the ocean and only gets in the pool once or twice a week – joining a cadre of Australians using non-traditional training methods.
Nikolaev is one of six swimmers who will make their Dolphins debut later this year. He’s not the only swimmer in the back-half of his 20s to be making their debut at this meet: 25-year-old Alex Quach is also on his first senior National Team roster after moving to Queensland to train under Shaun Crow at Nudgee. He qualified in the 200 fly, winning in 1:51.65.
Other Australian debutants in Beijing will include Amelie Smith (18), Marcus Da Silva (19), Emily Jones (23), and Cameron Bladen (25).
The 2026 World Short Course Swimming Championships will be December 1-6 in Beijing, China.
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