Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov banned 9 months for being pro-Putin

• swimming

Evgeny Rylov, winner of two Olympic gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, was banned for nine months by FINA for being pro-Vladimir Putin. FINA disqualified Rylov for his participation in a demonstration at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow last March designed to celebrate the eight years of the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, which was attended by 95,000 people inside and 100,000 outside.

The swimmer would also participate in the event. FINA Said: "The direct stop of the athlete was decided precisely" following his participation and behavior at an event at the Luzhniki stadium on March 18th. "

Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov banned 9 months for being pro-Putin

President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdniako said about the disqualification: "Suspending an athlete for nine months because of his participation in a public event is not even shameful, it is simply ridiculous," discrimination based on nationality alone.

" Specialized in the backstroke, he won the bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics on the distance of 200 meters, where he became world champion at the 2017 Budapest World Championships in which, with the time he scored the final, he also obtained the new European record on distance.

Since 2019 he has been hired by the French Energy Standard team for the International Swimming League. He represented the ROC at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games in which he won the gold medal in the 100 and 200 meters backstroke, as well as the silver medal in the 4x200 meters freestyle relay.

In 2021 Rylov becamethe b Russia's first Olympic swimming champion in 25 years. The Russian also won a silver medal in 4×200 freestyle relay together with his finals relay teammates, splitting a 1:45.26. He also helped achieve a fourth-place finish in the 4×100 metre medley relay in 3:29.22.

About his life, Rylov's father Mikhail is a former soccer player. Rylov also tried to play soccer, but he chose swimming. Rylov is a staff police sergeant of the Moscow Oblast Police.