Agora é oficial: Arkady Vyatchanin está fora do Rio 2016

O nadador russo naturalizado sérvio Arkady Vyatchanin está oficialmente fora dos Jogos Olímpicos do Rio 2016. Sua tentativa de mudar de cidadania não foi reconhecida pela FINA por não ter cumprido as exigências das regras internacionais.

Vyatchanin foi olímpico pela Rússia em Atenas 2004, Beijing 2008 e Londres 2012. Seus melhores resultados foram nos Jogos de Beijing onde terminou em terceiro lugar nas provas de 100 e 200 metros nado costas. Os problemas de relacionamento do nadador com a Federação Russa começaram com a sua decisão de ir treinar nos Estados Unidos com Gregg Troy no Gators Swim Club.

Com os maus resultados alcançados em Londres, 9o nos 100 costas e 17o nos 200, a crise ficou ainda pior. Vyatchanin rompeu oficialmente em discussão com o Presidente da Federação Russa Vladimir Salnikov logo após o Campeonato Russo em abril de 2013.

Depois disso, foram dois anos em busca de uma nação interessada em poder receber Vyatchnin. Ele ficou de fora dos Mundiais de 2013 e 2015, mais o Mundial de Curta de 2014 e tem competido apenas nos Estados Unidos onde representa o New York Athletic Club, mas sempre treinando em Gainvesville com Gregg Troy.

Este foi o grande problema para a transferência de Vyatchnin. Acertou com a Sérvia no final de 2014 e recebeu o passaporte no início de 2015, mas jamais cumpriu uma das exigências da lei de transferência que detemrina que o atleta precisa residir um ano completo no novo país de representação antes da aprovação final. Vyatchanin não compete pela Rússia desde os Jogos Olímpicos de 2012, mas deixou de cumprir a exigência de residência determinada pela FINA.

Em carta aberta publicada em sua conta de Facebook, Vyatchanin declara que não pode residir na Sérvia pelo corte de verba que a Federação local recebeu. Mesmo com a apelação, a FINA seguiu o que a regra determina impedindo a transferência do atleta. O Brasil vivencia a mesma situação com o goleiro de polo aquático Slobodan Soro que tem cidadania brasileira há mais de um ano, mas ainda aguarda a liberação da sua transferência que foi retardada por disputar a temporada passada por um clube europeu.

Vyatchanin segue como recordista nacional russo nos 100 costas com 52.57 feitos ainda na era dos trajes. Era sua também a marca dos 200 costas, batida recentemente por Evgeny Rylov na seletiva olímpica deste ano.

Desde os Jogos Olímpicos de Londres estas tem sido as marcas e as posições no ranking mundial de Arkady Vyatchanin:

Veja aqui o teor da carta de Arkady Vyatchanin (em inglês):

An open letter to the swimming community.
I’ve decided to write this in the light of recent developments, with an intention of explaining my situation thoroughly, to avoid any wild guesses and speculation. According to the FINA rules, even people who were caught cheating with banned substances have a right to a fair hearing. This letter serves a purpose of my “fair hearing”.
As many of my fellow swimmers and other people in swimming world know, I was looking for a new nation to represent since 2013, after I parted ways with All-Russian Swimming Federation. In late 2014 I was invited to Serbia to discuss the possibility of joining their team. Everything was going in the right direction and I was excited to represent Serbia in the future. I got my passport through an expedited procedure several months later. But this story is not interesting without a good portion of drama, right?
Of course, I knew that according to FINA rules relating to change of sport nationality I would have to live in Serbia for one year and represent only my Serbian club – Proleter during that transition period. And I was living there for some time, hoping to fulfill that requirement.
But in early 2015 due to some clerical error that happened in the past in the Serbian Swimming Federation, the Ministry of Sport had suddenly decided to sanction SSF by taking away ALL funding for 2 years. SNAP!
The only funds that I could receive in Serbia were coming from Proleter club. Exactly 20,000 Serbian dinars a month, approximately $170. So I had to support myself and my family by training and attending the meets such as Grand Prix series here in the U.S. while representing New York Athletic Club. Thanks to NYAC and their agreement with TYR I am able to make my living this way.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter that SSF had sent to FINA in an attempt to explain my case: “Unfortunately, as we are all aware, financial reasons – lack of funds available for day to day life and support of the family did cause an uncomfortable and demanding schedule placed on this athlete. He is literally forced to provide for his needs by himself with limited possibilities of our contribution and therefore is obliged to use each and every chance for making an income.
Being devoted to his choice of sports nationality, Аrkady has carefully and wholeheartedly taken every possible chance to practice, compete and live in Serbia. He has even participated in promotional activities and was a serious and reliable support to our federation and swimming sport in Serbia and it would be of greatest importance that all his efforts to practice and perform in challenging financial circumstances get a fair and sportive recognition. We strongly believe that the issue of the sports nationality of this swimmer should be treated as a positive example of clear devotion to his sports nationality and an enormous contribution to development of swimming in our country and in whole region”.
We believed that FINA would sympathize with our situation, especially considering that I haven’t represented any country internationally since August of 2012 and the fact that according to the Olympic Charter, at least 3 years should have passed since the athlete last represented his/her former country. In my case it’s been almost 4 years already. I guess it’s worth mentioning that Olympic Charter doesn’t have any sort of rules that would make doping convicts to wait some time before going to Olympics after they have served their suspensions. So apparently changing a sport nationality is worse than taking PEDs. Gotta love the irony here.
So I’m in a bit of a pickle here, I have qualified for Rio Olympics, but not allowed to go there. Funny thing is that I had declined offers from at least 2 countries which suggested that they can deal with the FINA “1-year living rule” by making it look perfect on paper. 1 of those countries was making it in the past successfully not even once. I just wanted to be honest, but it seems like honesty is not good enough…
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t write this to get people’s pity, quite the opposite actually. I stand by my choices every day and still believe that leaving Russian team saved my swimming career.
Call me Ronin again