By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to don their national colors again in World Aquatics events.
The global governing body announced Monday that its “Guidelines for Athlete Participation in Aquatics Events During a Period of Political Conflict” will no longer apply to senior Russian and Belarusian athletes following a decision by the World Aquatics Bureau.
In February, World Aquatics removed the neutrality restrictions on junior athletes from the two nations, allowing them to wear their national symbols and flags in competition and have their national anthem played.
Now, those rules will apply to all aquatic athletes from Russia and Belarus, ending a four-year saga that started in March 2022 when Russians and Belarusians were barred from international competition following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In September 2023, World Aquatics opened the door for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as individual neutrals. Three Belarusian swimmers and one Russian compete at the 2024 Olympics as neutral athletes. At the 2024 Short Course World Championships, Belarusians and Russians were permitted to compete in team events for the first time, fielding relays while competing under Neutral Athletes A (Belarus) and Neutral Athletes B (Russia).
The NAB Russian team won three relay gold medals at the 2024 SC Worlds, and followed up by claiming two long course world titles last summer in Singapore.
The NAB men’s 4×100 medley relay squad of Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev broke the European and Championship Records en route to victory in Singapore in a time of 3:26.93, and the mixed 4×100 medley relay quartet of Lifintsev, Prigoda, Daria Klepikova and Daria Trofimova dominated their way to gold by over two seconds, also breaking the Championship Record.
Additionally, Russian native Kliment Kolesnikov won the world title in the men’s 50 back while representing NAB.
“Over the last three years, World Aquatics and the AQIU have successfully helped ensure that conflict can be kept outside the sporting competition venues,” World Aquatics President Husain Al Musallam said. “We are determined to ensure that pools and open water remain places where athletes from all nations can come together in peaceful competition.”
At the 2025 European Short Course Championships last December, Russian and Belarusian swimmers did not end up competing due to a decision made by the host nation, Poland, though European Aquatics had eased its restrictions on Russians and Belarusians one month earlier.
With European Aquatics following World Aquatics’ guidelines last year, Russian and Belarusian swimmers are expected to be eligible to compete at the 2026 European Aquatics Championships in Paris.
World Aquatics said that Russian and Belarusian athletes will need to pass at least four successive anti-doping tests and have background checks completed by the Integrity Unit (AQIU) before being cleared to compete.
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