Evgeny Rylov announced his retirement from competitive swimming on Friday, closing a career of more than a decade that produced four Olympic medals and established him, from 2016 through 2021, as the finest backstroker in Europe. The Russian Swimming Federation posted the announcement jointly with Rylov on Instagram, calling the career a journey of “grueling training, overcoming challenges, and navigating the highs and lows.”
World Aquatics lifted its participation restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes in April 2026, reopening international competition to Rylov for the first time since 2021. He retired instead, his most recent racing having come at the 2025 Russian Nationals.
A Career Built in Backstroke
Rylov registered on the international radar at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, winning three golds and a silver and breaking two world junior records within a single afternoon. The 50 backstroke final came less than an hour before a medley relay gold. He was 18 years old.
His first senior World Championships medal arrived the following year in Kazan, on Russian soil: bronze in the 200 backstroke in 1:54.60, a national record at the time. At Rio in 2016, he placed third in the 200 back in 1:53.97, a European record, and sixth in the 100 back in 52.74. Ryan Murphy of the United States won gold in both backstroke events that week.
The 2017 World Championships in Budapest produced his first individual world title. Rylov won the 200 back in 1:53.61, a new European record, with Murphy finishing off the podium. In Gwangju two years later, he defended the title. He entered Tokyo as a back-to-back 200 backstroke world champion with no peer in Europe across either distance.
- 2014 Youth Olympics, Nanjing: three golds, two world junior records
- 2016 Rio: 1:53.97, European record, 200m backstroke bronze
- 2017 World Championships, Budapest: 1:53.61, European record, world gold
- 2019 World Championships, Gwangju: defended 200m backstroke title, back-to-back champion
Tokyo’s Backstroke Double Was His Peak
Rylov swam 1:53.23 at the 2021 Russian Nationals, a lifetime best and a new European record that qualified him for the Olympic team. At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, he and his teammates competed under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) banner because of a pre-existing WADA ban on Russian sport, the result of an established state-sponsored doping program. His times were his own.
In the 200 backstroke final, he touched in 1:53.27, an Olympic record. Four days later, in the 100 backstroke, he went 51.98, a European record. He won both events in a single Games, an achievement the backstroke had not seen in nearly four decades. He also won a silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay, splitting 1:45.26 on the third leg.
Murphy, who took silver in the 200 backstroke, told reporters afterward the race was “probably not clean,” then said he meant swimming in general and not Rylov in particular. Murphy’s qualification did not fully disperse the remark. Back in Russia, Putin awarded Rylov the Order of Russia. A national poll named him the best Russian athlete of the Games.
In November 2021, Rylov traveled to Kazan for the European Short Course Championships. He finished fourth in the 100 backstroke prelims, third among the Russian swimmers in the field, and did not advance to the semifinals under the meet’s two-per-country selection rule. In the 200 backstroke, he reached the semifinals and placed fourth before withdrawing ahead of the final. It was his last international race.
After the Luzhniki Rally
On March 18, 2022, three weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Rylov appeared on stage at a rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. He was one of eight Russian athletes at the event, which was hosted by Putin and built around a speech marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Rylov wore a jacket bearing the letter “Z,” the symbol associated with Russian military operations in Ukraine, and stood on stage wearing his Olympic medals. He is a staff sergeant of the Moscow Oblast Police in Lobnya, and multiple reports noted that, as a serving officer, he may have had limited ability to decline the invitation.
Three consequences arrived in the days that followed:
- Speedo terminated its sponsorship deal with Rylov with immediate effect and announced the remaining balance of his contract fee would be donated to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency
- Energy Standard, his International Swimming League (ISL) club, suspended him alongside all Russian athletes and support staff on its roster
- FINA, the international swimming body that rebranded as World Aquatics later that year, opened a disciplinary investigation and issued a nine-month suspension on April 20, 2022, barring him from all internationally sanctioned competition
The nine-month ban became academic within weeks, when FINA extended a blanket restriction covering all Russian and Belarusian swimmers and absorbing his personal suspension.
I don’t understand what I did, but in the end they filed a complaint against me for that offended the feelings of other athletes. You see, I offended them by simply supporting my country, my president. I don’t know how to argue with that.
Rylov gave those comments to Russian sports outlet Sport-Express after Speedo dropped him. He had already announced he would not compete at the 2022 World Championships “as a sign of support” for Russian Paralympic athletes banned from that winter’s Games. FINA announced the comprehensive restriction on all Russian and Belarusian swimmers the same day.
The Restrictions That Outlasted His Ban
The broader restrictions on Russian swimmers changed shape several times over four years but never reopened international competition to Rylov specifically. His personal nine-month suspension ended in January 2023. The framework that replaced it came with conditions he had already said he would refuse.
The Neutral Athlete Framework
In September 2023, World Aquatics allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at international events as individual neutrals, subject to background checks and a declaration confirming they had not publicly supported the war. Rylov had told reporters he would not sign any such declaration. He did not race internationally under the neutral framework.
The program expanded in December 2024, when Russian relay teams competed at the Short Course World Championships in Budapest as Neutral Athletes B (NAB), winning three relay golds. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, Russia’s neutral relay squad won two long-course titles.
| Period | Russian Athlete Status | Rylov |
|---|---|---|
| March 2022 | Full ban from FINA events | Personal 9-month ban absorbed into blanket ban |
| Sept. 2023 | Individual neutral (AIN) status permitted | Ineligible; refused to sign anti-war declaration |
| Dec. 2024 | Neutral relay teams (NAB) permitted; 3 golds at SC Worlds | Racing in Russia only |
| April 2026 | Full participation; national flag and anthem restored | Eligible to apply; announced retirement |
The April 2026 Restoration
On April 13, 2026, the World Aquatics Bureau ended the political conflict guidelines for senior Russian and Belarusian athletes, restoring competition rights under national flags, anthems, and uniforms for the first time since 2022. Athletes still needed to pass four successive anti-doping tests and clear background checks with the Aquatics Integrity Unit (AQIU) before competing. “We are determined to ensure that pools and open water remain places where athletes from all nations can come together in peaceful competition,” said the governing body’s president, Husain Al Musallam. European Aquatics asked for a delay in applying the rule within its own competitions until September 1, 2026, to protect the Paris European Championships from immediate effects. The Norwegian Swimming Federation went further, stating it would not host international events if Russian or Belarusian athletes competed under national symbols.
Records He Once Held
While Rylov raced exclusively within Russia, two benchmarks he had set in Tokyo passed to other swimmers permanently.
The 2022 World Championships in Budapest produced a world record of 51.60 from Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon in the 100 backstroke – the same meet Russian swimmers were banned from attending. Ceccon’s swim erased Rylov’s European record of 51.98 from eleven months earlier and moved Rylov from European record holder to third on the all-time list. The world record still stands.
The 200 backstroke took longer to change. Rylov’s lifetime best of 1:53.23, set at the 2021 Russian Nationals to qualify for the Olympics, held the European record through four years of his absence. Hubert Kos, Hungary’s Olympic champion in the event at the 2024 Paris Games, swam 1:53.19 at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, four hundredths faster than Rylov had ever gone. The European record Rylov had lowered six times across his career is now Kos’s.
The Open Door in April 2026
At the 2025 Russian Nationals, Rylov finished 13th in the 50 backstroke, 14th in the 100 backstroke, and 4th in the 200 backstroke.
Under the April 2026 World Aquatics ruling, he could have applied this summer to race under the Russian flag in international competition for the first time since 2021. The anti-war declaration that had previously blocked his neutral-athlete eligibility was no longer required under the full restoration. Anti-doping clearance and an AQIU background check remained as conditions, but the political threshold was gone. His 2025 Nationals results were a separate matter the retirement answers by omission.
The Russian Swimming Federation’s tribute praised his “champion’s spirit” and wished him well in his “new chapter of life.” His final career record: four Olympic medals (two gold, one silver, one bronze), eight long-course World Championship medals (two gold, three silver, three bronze), and seven short-course World Championship medals (three gold, two silver, two bronze).
World Aquatics opened the door in April. He walked away in June.
