In the past day the news was released that Arkady Vyatchanin plans to represent Serbia in international competition and is currently going through the process of obtaining citizenship. Vyatchanin made the decision to no longer represent Russia after a dispute with the Russian Swimming Federation in 2013.
One of the first athletes to react to Vyatchanin’s decision was Serbian Milorad “Mike” Cavic who urged the him to reconsider his choice.
Now Vyatchanin’s former Russian teammate Evgeny Korotyshkin has expressed his feelings about the situation. Korotyshkin, the captain of the Russian team told Swimbiz.it he feels that Vyatchanin did not feel supported by the Russian Swimming Federation, “I think he decided to swim no more for Russia because he didn’t’ feel total support form Russian Swimming Federation.”
He also said in the same interview that he hopes that this case is an exception and not the rule, “I think it could work only as exception. I don’t think we should use this kind of progress in modern sport as buying and selling best swimmers among national teams”
Korotyshkin and Vyatchanin were teammates at the last three Olympics Games representing Russia in 2004, 2008 and 2012.
In 2008 Vyatchanin won the bronze in both the 100 and 200 backstroke while Korotyshkin tied Chad le Clos for the silver in the 100 butterfly in London.
The two men were also teammates on the 4 x 100 medley relay at the 2009 World Championships setting a national record of 3:30.60.