French long-distance swimmers Anastasia Kirpichnikova She qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 400m freestyle earlier today, becoming the first French national to qualify for the Olympics.
The 23-year-old Russian will represent Russia at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she placed 7th in the 1500m freestyle, 8th in the 800m freestyle and 14th in the 400m freestyle. She also competed in the women's 10km open water event, finishing 15th.
Kirpichnikova continues to train with her coach in France. Philip Lucas Since 2019, he has requested the All-Russian Swimming Federation to change his sports nationality at the beginning of 2023.
She will officially receive French citizenship on April 21, 2023, and will represent France at the World Championships this summer. At the Japan Games, Kirpichnikova finished as high as sixth in the 1,500m freestyle, setting a new French national record in the event with a time of 15:48.53.
The International Olympic Committee requires that Olympic athletes must be nationals of the country they represent, which means that unless Kirpichnikova changes her nationality, she will not be allowed to represent her new home country, despite having lived and trained in France for a long time.
Kirpichnikova is not the first athlete to change nationality and represent another country at the Olympics: It is not uncommon for individuals to change nationality, and just three days ago the IOC approved 11 nationality changes for competitions at the Paris Olympics.
In recent years, there have been multiple notable attempts in swimming to change competitive nationalities.
Two-time Olympic medalist Kayla Sanchez The 23-year-old has applied to change her sports nationality to the Philippines after competing for Canada at the 2021 Olympics and multiple world championships, and will compete for the Philippines starting in July 2023.
Originally an American swimmer, he grew up in an American club and competed in national championships, Santo Condorelli Condorelli has represented both Canada and Italy on the Olympic stage for the past 10 years. He again sought to change his nationality to compete for the United States in Paris this summer, but was disqualified by USA Swimming and was unable to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
